Chapter 34

The rest of the holiday weekend, Jon spent more nights at Colleen’s little apartment, then he did at his huge house. He was going to ask her to move in with him, but wasn’t sure what kept him from asking her?  Was five months too short of time to broach the subject?  Could he take it if she said no? 

As Sunday approached, he felt her pulling back.  Something changed, was it his brothers, pulling that shit about watching them that night? They were sitting out on the beach, upon a sand dune, watching the harvest moon rise out of the water.

“Does this have to end,” Colleen pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees?

“It doesn’t have to end,” Jon said as he slipped his arm around her shoulders.

Colleen put her head on his shoulder and sighed.  She should tell him about what the meeting was about, the reason she had to drive out to the Hamptons, instead of flying in with him. The ultimatum the board gave her, about teachers and parents getting involved.  She couldn’t go back to teaching in the city, it was still unsafe.  They had to stop seeing each other, or it was over, she had no choice.

Jon could tell she was pulling away, but not why.

“What happened Monday at the meeting you had to attend,” Jon asked when she failed to tell him?

Colleen let her legs slide back on the blanket and lifted her head from his shoulder.  Turning to look at him, she reached for his hand and twined her fingers with his.

“I’m not going to like this am I,” Jon asked her softly?

“No, you’re not,” was all Colleen could say. “Because I don’t.

Taking a deep breath she looked down at their hands.

“It has come to the board’s attention,” Colleen started to repeat the president’s voice.  “When we hired you, Miss O’Sullivan, you were given expletive rules about fraternizing with parents.” her voiced lowered.

“You mean, they are going to let you go,” Jon asked her?

“No, that is if, you and I stop seeing each other,” She looked up then to judge his reaction.

“So, as long as I’m a parent of a student, at good old Polly Prep,” Jon’s voice showed his anger.  “We can’t see each other,” Jon couldn’t believe the archaic rules?

“The fact that Jake is my student and I bent the rules to keep him from being suspended,” Colleen wasn’t sure this was going the way she had thought in her mind. “I have to let them know Monday at a meeting,” Colleen let go of his hand.

“Colleen, I have two kids in that fucking school,” Jon was getting madder as his mind was trying to figure out what to do for Colleen.  “I’ll go to the school tomorrow and get them to change their mind. After all I’ve done for this fucking place, they want to screw with you,” Jon had to get up and pace to calm down.

“I hope it’s till I no longer teach Jake,” Colleen tried to calm him down.

“So, you think it’s just Jake,” Jon stopped pacing and looked down at her.

“Seven months, we’d have to not see each other,” Colleen rationalized.

“So we can see each other in the summer,” Jon asked?

“I guess so,” She stood up and took his hands.

“But what if they give you Ro,” Jon asked? “We have to break up again?”

“I guess so.”  Colleen felt like crying. ‘Hell I cried almost the whole way out of the city.”

“Oh babe, I’ll take care of this,” Jon dropped to his knees and pulled her into his arms.

“I just can’t go back to teaching in the city, and getting on out here, is harder than getting on at Polly,” Colleen let the tears flow that she had held in since yesterday, when she got the reminder of her meeting with the board on Monday.

Jon rocked her in his arms, this is the same woman that stood up to a thug.  Letting her cry it out, murmuring support, till her sobs because sniffles.

“I never cry,” Colleen sniffed.

“Sometimes tears clean your soul,” Jon told her.  It was something his grandmother used to tell him.  “I just wished you told me when you were driving up, I could’ve gotten my lawyers on it.”

“I was afraid,” Colleen admitted.  “We’ve only known each other for five short months.”

Hadn’t he’d been thinking the same thing?  Why he was holding off asking her to move in with him? That’s why they’re so compatible, they think a lot alike.

“I’ll be there for this meeting.”  He looked down into her tear strained eyes.

“Jon, this may turn them against me more, then they’ll try to find a reason to just fire me,” Colleen wasn’t sure if this might backfire on her.

“What time is your appointment,” Jon asked?

“Ten in the morning, before my first class,” Colleen told him.

“I want to be there for you,” Jon leaned down and kissed her tenderly.

“It’s getting late, and I have to be on the road in the morning to beat the beach traffic, back into the city,” Colleen told him.

They got up and shook the sand out of the blanket and folded it. Walking and in hand, Jon walked her to her car.  They both looked up at the front of the house and laughed.  Rising up on her tiptoes she gave Jon one last kiss.  Getting into the car, she gave a little wave and headed to the gate, punched the code and pulled out onto Lilly Pond Lane, and headed to the apartment.

Jon watched the bug as it pulled out onto the road.  Walking into the house, he found his youngest two in the kitchen.

“We need to talk,” Jon told the two.

Jake looked at Romeo when their father started out with the ‘we need to take’, it usually meant one or both of them was in deep shit.

“You two still want to go to Pennington,” Jon asked, pulling his cell from his pocket?