Chapter 62

By the time the champagne flowed with the repeat proposal, all the well wishes to the newly engaged couple. Seeing his mother happy that he was marring Lexie sort of shocked Jon. He knew it had taken his mother years to get comfortable with Dorothea, he had himself to blame. It had been a spur of the moment thing, he learned from his mistakes. The talk of the night was about when and where. Lexie held her hands up and took control of the talk.

“Wait a second, whoa, Jon and I have just gotten engaged. I have a book that is at the publisher and that means promoting said book.” Lexie looked at Jon for support.

“The guys and I are working on an album and we have tour coming up. Let us be engaged for a while okay?” He asked.

“We aren't pushing you Jonny, we just want to be a part of it.” John Sr said.

“I promise you, we won't pop off the Vegas to get married.” Jon said in a joking manner.

“I hate Vegas and only go there when I absolutely have too for work.” Lexie held up her hands.

“Good,” Carol said giving Jon a dirty look.

A few weeks later it was late at night, they had headed back to the city, the kids were finally in bed. They were holed up in Jon's office and looking at their schedules.

“I have to be in Chicago and Cleveland for a book promo the first of November.” Lexie sat on his lap with her iPad. “I thought I would take Stephanie with me, since you and the boys will be a Pats game.”

Jon opened his calender for November. “I booked the cabin for Thanksgiving, but the band has to play in the Today show that week.”

“Why don't we move the cabin for Christmas and go to the river house for Thanksgiving?” She pulled up December schedule.

“We usually go to St Bart for Christmas, sun, sand and ocean.” He paged over to December. “We need to start classes with Father Bob, if we want to have that church wedding.” Jon rubbed her leg, looking deep in her eyes.

“You want a church wedding?” She asked, looking into his eyes. She could get lost in his eyes, the hand rubbing her leg and hip didn't hurt in the least.

“Isn't that what every woman dream, pouffe wedding dress, her girlfriends as bridesmaids, big church?” Jon smiled, in his minds eye he could see her all beautiful in a flowing white dress.

“Jon, were you married in a church? I haven't had anything to do with my family in years, not since my parents died, who would give the bride away? Most of my friends are on the computer in my chat group.” She explained. Just getting engaged, she hadn't even though about the when and the where.

“You know I didn't, we had a reception at the house on Somerset.” Jon got a little uncomfortable taking about his failed marriage. The hell he went through to get custody, she was getting a damaged family. But then again, she is the reason they are once again a happy family.

Thinking back to the week after he had gone to Philly to get Jesse out of Jail, Jakey hardly spoke, it took a special woman and a white ball of fur, to draw him out of his shell. Stephanie hadn't tried them as a couple since the family vacation at the cabin. He had a thought, he'd have to contact his lawyer to see what steps he had to go to make his thought a reality.

“You know, we haven't talked about.” She hated to broach the subject, she knew her lawyer and her editor would pitch a fit.

“Do you think we need one?” Jon hadn't thought about a per-nup After all the hell he went through with Dorothea should have been him that thought about it, not her.

“We can let our lawyers hash it out, if you want too.” She got off his lap. Putting her iPad on the desk she started to pace.

Jon got up and went and took her into his arms.

“We'll talk to our lawyers together,” He kissed her lightly on her forehead.

“Okay,” She looked up in his eyes. “Sort of killed the mood didn't it?”

“What made you think about it now? Was it the thoughts of classes with Father Bob?” Jon asked as her put his arms around her waist. He smiled when she put hers around his.

“It was something your mom said, I don't think she knew I was in hearing rang.” She told him with a sigh.

Jon had some inkling it had to be his mother.

“She was telling Kelly and Desi how Dorothea took you to the cleaners since there was no per-nup” she tried to step out of the circle of his arms. He held on, not letting her go. “Stephanie must have heard her too, she pulled me into the hall and told me I was no where near her mother, kinda took some of the sting out.”

“We don't need one right away, we haven't even set the date.” He put his chin on her shoulder and knew tomorrow he would have a talk with his mother. It would be hard, but knowing his mother, she would tell him she was only looking out for him.

“About that, you know, I don't need a big fancy wedding.” She slipped her hands in his back pockets of his jeans.

“Well, Vegas is out.” He laughed.

“But the back yard of the river house isn't.” She looks down, trying to hide her smile.

“You want to get married in the backyard?” He thought at first she was joking.

“Whats wrong with having an outdoor wedding?” She looked up at him. Was he teasing her?

“Outdoor, nothing wrong with outdoors, but the backyard?” He felt her pull away from him. “We could go and get married on the beach in St Bart, or Hawaii.”

“Never mind, we need to get back to the calenders.” She went over to the desk and picked up her iPad and tried not to let Jon know how bad he hurt her.

“Okay,” He was at a loss for words. The sudden change sort of threw him. Going and picking up his tablet.

“I'm going to be out on the road most of December on the west coast. I know Stephanie wants to come out with me on the weekends, but I think she needs to stay in class.” Her voice had gone all business on him.

“I agree, we'll ask the kids how they feel about going to the cabin for the holidays, is that okay?” He asked her.

“They're your kids Jon,” She clicked her calender over to January. “Now January I will be in Atlanta for a conference, if you aren't busy, I'd like you to come. That is if you want to?” She could kick the needy sound in her voice. Opening her heart again to get it stomped on.

Jon caught her voice and wasn't sure what was going on. “Of course I want to come, We'll make it a family affair.” He smiled an added the date to his schedule. Looking at the clock it was almost two, “It's late, I have to get the kids out to the bus, lets take this back up tomorrow night.”

“I think I'll go into my office for a while, check on my editor, see if I have a meeting that isn't on my calender. I'm not sleepy anyway.” She waited for Jon to leave the office, she follows him to their bedroom. She went into her closet and changed into her sleep shorts and tank. By the time she came out Jon was sitting up in bed reading. He looked so sexy in his readers, she almost gave in and got into bed. But it still hurt that he laughed at her idea to get married at the river house. Before she gave into the draw of him in bed, she turned to her office door. “Night,” she said as she closed the door.

Jon watched her leave, he couldn't put his finger on it, but somewhere in the past two hours he had hurt her. They had been all snuggled up in his office, then boom. He didn't see it at the time, but in hindsight, the fire went out of her. Was it the per-nup, no, they were cuddling so that wasn't it. He shifted in the bed and took off his readers and marked the book. Was it the cabin? He should have talked to her instead of charging on. This was the way it had been and because she was added to the mix her ideas were important. No it wasn't the cabin. He reached up and clicked off the light on his side of the bed. Laying there in the dark, looking at the light that was coming out from under her office door. Closing his eyes he sighed, then his mind whirled, suddenly the words backyard kept flashing in his mind. He turned away from the light and let sleep take him under. Sometime later he sat bolt upright in bed.

“Jon, you are such an asshole.” He mumbled and look at her side of the bed. She was sleeping on her side, her back to him. “You have to make it right.” He laid back down and moved to spoon her back. Kissing her shoulder he let sleep pull him back under.