Chapter 71

As soon as they stepped into the house, Stephanie grabbed Jesse's arm and tugged him towards the stairs. "Need to talk to you."

"What's going on?" Jesse asked as he followed her.

"I'll tell you upstairs!" Stephanie replied.

Jon watched them go, a frown creasing his brow. But Romeo distracted him before he could follow them.

Stephanie closed the door to her room. "We need to do something and fast."

"What are you talking about?" Jesse frowned at his sister.

"Dad and Brianna. Getting them together."

"What about it? I thought that day at the beach went well."

"It did."

"So what's the problem?"

"You know Mrs. Marinelli?"

Jesse frowned, thinking. "Dark hair, big ta-tas, face that doesn't move?"

"That's her."

"What about her?"

"She was hanging all over Dad when I came out of school today. She was practically drooling and shoving her chest in his face - and he let her!"

"Miss Fuller, my science teacher, was doing the same thing yesterday." He looked at his sister. "What are we going to do? I mean, Miss Fuller's nice enough, but.....she asks a lot of questions about our house and places I've travelled to and stuff."

"Gold digger." Stephanie nodded. "Have you heard anything mentioned about what Dad's been doing when he goes into the office in the city and doesn't come home until after we've gone to bed?

Jesse shook his head. "Nope. Neither Grandma or Uncle Matt ever ask him." He frowned. "Do you think he's seeing someone?"

Stephanie shrugged. "Not sure, but I think so."

"But...who? And why hasn't he told us?"

"I don't know. Maybe he wants to make sure he really likes her before telling us. Or maybe he doesn't think we're ready to see him with another woman."

Jesse toyed with a loose thread in his jeans.  "Are we?"

She sighed. "I think it's going to happen whether we are or not." The memory of Brad referring to her as Brianna's daughter popped into her mind. Neither of them had corrected him. It had been a jolt to Stephanie at first, but it also felt.....comfortable...somehow. And the fact that Brianna hadn't said anything made Stephanie feel.....content. So she thought maybe she was ready to move on as well. "You read Mom's letter. If he's ready to date we need to make sure he picks the right woman. The only one that meets all the requirements is Brianna. We just have to make Dad see that."

"How are we going to do that?"

"I don't know, but we need to think of something."

"Everything okay with you two?" Jon directed his question to his oldest two children. They were seated around the dining room table devouring the cook's roast chicken.

Stephanie and Jesse exchanged a look. "Yeah." Steph answered. "Everything's fine."

Jon wasn't convinced. "You know you can tell me if there's something bothering you...right?"

"Sure Dad. We know." Jesse assured him.

Still not convinced, Jon had no choice but to let it go. It was times like this when he felt Dot's absence was most keenly. She could always get them to talk. He didn't know how. He sighed. The little ones were easy. Give them food, a few toys, and some of his time and they were happy. The older ones were much more complicated. I wish Bri was here. She'd know how to get them to talk!

"When's Bri coming again?"

Jon's gaze jerked to his daughter's face and he wondered if he'd voiced his thought out loud. "I'm not sure. Why?"

Stephanie shrugged. "We haven't seen her for a couple weeks. I miss her."

"Me too!" Jake piped up.

Jon smiled. He missed her too even though he'd seen her - and more of her - than the kids had. He'd made excuses to go into the office several times over the past two weeks and stayed to spend time with Brianna. But he hadn't stayed all night - he didn't want to try to explain his absence to the kids.

He missed that. He missed having someone to hold all night and wake up with. He missed that closeness. He needed to figure out how he could make that happen. She refused to sleep with him with the kids in the house and he couldn't stay all night at her place very often.

"We should have a party." Jesse suggested.

"Yeah? You think so?" Jon asked. "Why?"

Jesse shrugged. "We haven't had one in a long time. We should let our friends know we're doing okay."

"And thank them for all their support." Stephanie added. "Not a big bash or anything. Just close friends."

"And when should we have this little shindig?" Jon was amused, but decided it wasn't a bad idea.

"As soon as possible." Was Stephanie's opinion. "Before the weather gets cold so we can still barbecue."

Brianna opened her email to find several message. The first was from Jon:

Hosting party on Saturday. Can you pick up hamburg buns, hotdogs, salads....and whatever else you think would be good? I'll get the meat - we'll have steak and chicken for the adults - and look after the bar. About 30-40 people. Nothing fancy.

Thanks.

Plan on spending the night.

Oh, dress casual.

The next message was from Stephanie:

Can you get something gooey and chocolate for dessert? Oh, Jake would like cookies. Maybe some fruit to make Grandma happy. She worries we don't eat right.

The third one was from Desiree:

I'll bring a couple veggie trays and Carol's got the potato salad and a pasta salad under control.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do.

See you Saturday.

Brianna felt like she'd walked into the middle of a conversation and was trying to play catch up. It was a very......unsettling feeling. She hated coming into the middle of a project. But she was a professional. She could deal with this. It wasn't the first time. She picked up the phone.

Jon answered on the second ring. "Hey. Did you get my email?"

"Mmhmmm. Yours and a couple others. You've been busy. A party huh? What's the occasion?"

"It was the kids' idea. A way to thank our friends for their support over the last year or so and let them know we're doing okay."

"Nice. Are you sure you don't want me to call some caterers?"

"I suggested that and got shot down. Apparently that would be cheating. According to Steph, it isn't from the heart if we don't do the work ourselves."

She snorted "So you passed it off to your assistant."

"No, I shared the fun with my girlfriend."

That made her smile. "Oh, okay. So, I'm making a grocery list. Do you have enough condiments?"

"I think so." He paused. "Maybe you should come out Friday to make sure we're not missing anything."

"That's probably a good idea."

"Okay, so we're having a party, now what?" Jesse asked his sister.

"The party was your idea. What's your plan?"

Jesse shrugged. "Don't have one. I just wanted to have some fun around here. Like we used to."

Stephanie sighed in exasperation. "Okay. Well.....I guess we let everyone know how much we like her and watch out for women hitting on Dad and push them together as much as possible."

"What about men hitting on Brianna?"

Thinking back to that day at the beach and Brianna's reaction to Brad - and her dad's - she shook her head. "I don't think we have to worry about that. Brianna will handle it. Or Dad will." And if they didn’t she would..