Chapter 67

 Chapter 67

Colleen finished her day at good old Polly Prep, she really missed the boys.  They kept her laughing when they were home for a visit, and when she offered to teach them to slow dance. That was the funniest night of all, she even got Jon up there and taught him a little waltz. There would be no swaying dances anymore.

Wilson called that he was at the side entrance, and she gathered her bags and backpack and headed for the side doors.  Her phone buzzed with messages after she got out of the school and turned it back on.  If the kids weren’t allowed to have their phones, she wouldn’t use hers during the school hours.

Desi: running late, but I’ll be there. Open the wine and let it breathe.

Colleen: Yes mother ;)

Another one was from Jon, reminding her, he would be late.

Her mother called letting her know she was cleaning out the attic and was sending her two boxes of college boxes.  Colleen tried to remember what was in those boxes.  Books may be, Old CD’s and DVD’s, she knew she had tossed the old VHS tapes since her player broke. Or did she?

Wilson met her at the door and took her briefcase and her eco bag and took them to the car.

“Did you have a good day, Miss Colleen?” Wilson asked Colleen after they got into the car.

“It was okay, just miss the boys,” Colleen said as she grabbed a soda out of the cooler that Wilson kept in the car for the trip home.  “I need to stop at the cheese shop for a few minutes.”

“Ok, Miss Colleen,” Wilson pulled away from the school and headed toward Jersey. “Have they been calling for homework help?”

“Not much, I’m helping Ro with his SAT pretest.  Thank God they haven’t changed much over the years.  Math is still a bitch,” Colleen laughed.

Wilson laughed also.  They approached the Ferry, Wilson asked her if she was hungry, but he already knew the answer, Colleen always carried snacks in her eco bag.

“I got what I need, I have extra if you want a muffin?” Colleen asked him.

“Did you make them?” Wilson asked, knowing she baked a lot as sort of a therapy for being scared.

“Sure did, Jon loves them too,” She handed him a napkin wrapped muffin.  “But don’t tell him these were carrot muffins.  I sent the boys a care package each with muffins, cookies, and quarters.”

Soon they were headed to the cheese shop, she was only in there for an hour.  Once home they unloaded and Wilson headed to his apartment, and Colleen went to the kitchen to open the wine and make the cheeseboard.  Then she started making the soup out of containers out of the freeze and put it in the crockpot.

Colleen went into the family room, while they were gone the crew stripped the wallpaper and painted the room in a gray-blue with royal blue drapes on the windows.  It was so them, she had even found her parents coat of arms from Irland and one of Jon’s family's coat of arms from Italy, they looked great framed on the mantle. The room had been purposely rearranged and now felt cozier and the seating area around the fireplace with the coat of arms showing the joining of their two families.  She loved the family room, when the drapes were opened, the crew coated the windows so they could see out but no one could see in. She looked out at the water thinking about having her wedding in the yard and coming to Jon as they stood on the little bridge to say their vows.  The ones she had secretly been writing on her iPad.

Her phone let her know her soon to be sisters were on the way and at the side gate by the studio.  Walking to the front door she glanced out the peephole to see the park close to the front door.

Colleen opened the door to let them in.

“Is the wine breathing? I could really use some,” Desi said as she handed Colleen a bag of magazines.

“In the family room on the table by the hallway,” Colleen followed Desi and Nina back into the family room.

“Oh good we got cheese and nibbles,” Nine gasped at the spread Colleen had set out.

Gone was the seating area in front of the projector, which was the perfect place for the huge sectional sofa with the chases on each end to seat the whole family.  Colleen put the magazines on the low coffee table in front of the sectional sofa and went to get a plate.  She walked past the cozy love seat sitting close to the fireplace to the table with the snacks.  Gone from French Proventil to the cozy family room that the whole family loved to sit in.

“Was traffic bad?  When Wilson and I came down from 35 it wasn’t so bad” Colleen told then as she put her glass of wine on the coffee table and picked up a Modern Bride.

“Seems there is some road work about two blocks off 35, we had to turn around and come across the bridge,” Nina told them.

They got down to business and pick out four dresses to go find, Desi told her Jon would love the skin-tight dress, but Colleen said No, not just no but hell no.  After that was done they had Soup with Tank, better known as Albert.  Seems Wilson was picking up Jon, this wasn’t unusual so no red flags popped up. She always felt safe with either of her bodyguards.  She walked Nina and Desi out to their car.  It was starting to get dark, they promised to call when they got home. Colleen went back and put the pot on warm and headed to the family room with Alexa playing oldies music, while Colleen looked back at the pages she had pulled out of the magazines.  Putting them into her bride’s folder.  She loved the sweetheart neck, A-Line dress.  It sparkled without being gaudy, and it didn’t cost an arm and a leg, her mother’s veil would look beautiful with it.

Albert was in the kitchen when he got a buzz on his walkie-talkie, suspect at the front gate.  He went into the family room to check on Colleen, watching her tapping on her laptop, possibly with Romeo. She looked up at Albert in the doorway and then heard the sounds of the house going on lockdown.  “Stay in here Miss Colleen, Either me or Wilson or Mr. Jon will come and get you.” He put the house on lockdown from his cell and brought up the window covers on the ground floor pulling out his gun and went to the front door and set his scope on the front gate.