4

Twenty-One Days

CHAPTER 10

DAY 2: Great Time to Develop a Sense of Humor

Jax returned to the cabin and found Tara busy in the kitchen. For a second, he'd had a flashback to a simpler time when they lived together and planned a future. It was ten years later and never did his future look more uncertain or dangerous and that was before the shit with the STDs happened.

He decided to see if the beds could be repaired. He grabbed the bedding and folded and made a pile of the blankets before inspecting the popped beds. He was hoping there was a single small cut that could easily be fixed, but he discovered that the caretaker took on his task with more enthusiasm than needed. The airbeds were shredded. Clay had picked a great time to develop a sense of humor.

"Do you think you could fix the beds?" Tara asked.

"No, they're shredded. We'll just go get another bed tomorrow if the weather permits. I'm going to wash the bedding so we don't catch anything."

"Where are you going to wash them?"

"There's a laundry room closet in the bathroom. I'm going to throw the blankets in the dryer and use heat to kill anything that might be left alive in the blankets."

"Good idea. You have an unexpected domestic side."

"I didn't have a choice after you left."

"I'm sure Gemma would have gladly washed your clothes, cleaned your apartment and cooked your meals."

"You forgot wipe my ass."

Tara looked up quickly from where she was setting up the breading stations for the chicken fried steak to make sure Jax was joking.

"It was a joke," Jax added.

Tara laughed.

"I wasn't sure."

"And that's what's wrong with my relationship with Gemma. She just doesn't get boundaries. For the record, she hasn't wiped my ass since I was sixteen."

This time Tara knew Jax was just making another joke. It was great that he was talking to her. It wasn't as awkward and tense as she feared.

"How did she take it when she found out what happened at the market?"

"I don't know. I spent most of last night with the MC coming up with a plan to keep Charming protected. Clay told her. She wanted to come up here, but Clay made her stay home."

Tara laughed. She knew this wasn't a joke, but it was still funny. Gemma would go crazy thinking about what they could be doing. She wondered if Jax marrying her was still Gemma's greatest fear in life.

"I'm making mashed potatoes, gravy and Southern style green beans with bacon."

"Sounds great. I don't think I've ever had good chicken fried steak. It's always been soggy."

"There are two reasons for that. The oil isn't hot enough or the chicken fried steak didn't develop a crust. That's why I'm putting it in the fridge."

"I always liked the domestic side to you."

"Because you didn't have to do those chores."

"Yeah, I'm a little more enlightened now, but I'm not going to lie and say I don't enjoy having dinner prepared for me."

Tara began peeling the potatoes. She decided to make extra to mix with cheese for dinner tomorrow.

"I got really into cooking when I was looking for another job. This hospital in Texas near Dallas sent me this great big box because things are always bigger in Texas. It was welcoming me before I had even decided to take the job."

Surgeons were big business for a hospital. A decent surgeon can add a couple of million dollars to a hospital's bottom line and neonatal surgeons were prized by hospitals. Usually they were courted with bonuses, but some hospitals had upped their game by becoming more welcoming and personal while still handing out bonuses.

"What was in the box?"

"T-shirts for sports teams, cookbooks for Texas including one that the hospital puts together that has staff recipes, stuffed armadillo—not a real stuffed animal—a toy, spices and all kinds of different foods including a lot of different hot sauces. It was really impressive. Oh and there was a little booklet of why Texas is so great. You would love it. They have open carry there."

"Alcohol?"

"Guns. It's great. You have to take a class and pass a test and then you can open carry a gun strapped to your hip old West style."

"I have a concealed carry permit. When we expanded into security, Unser pushed the paperwork through for us."

"That was a genius idea to expand into security."

"It was mine."

"It was still genius," Tara said with a smile.

Jax finished washing and drying the sheets. Tara helped him make the bed. It felt again like old times. They used to always make the bed together. It was a little ritual that he had always enjoyed and hadn't realized he missed until this moment.

Tara's dinner was great. The chicken fried steak was tender and crisp, the gravy was the perfect accompaniment to the steak and potatoes and the green beans were delicious with the onions and bacon.

"That dinner was delicious. I've been spoiled for life with your chicken fried steak. Your cooking was always good, but now it's great."

"You're just saying that because you want me to make you dinner tomorrow."

This wasn't good. It was too easy to get back into talking to Tara again. Memories of the good times kept returning and it wasn't good. He couldn't afford to let Tara distract him. There was too much at stake and lives depended on him staying focused.

He looked at Tara and wondered what she'd say if he told her that he was going to bring down SAMCRO and the SOA in the next couple of weeks if he could manage to stay alive.