Happy Friday!

Chapter 11

Early the next morning Ellie was knocking on Gemma's door. Gemma had called the previous afternoon and asked her to come by after Clay left for TM. She invited her in, coffee already waiting for them at her dining room table. "You have a lot of parties?" Ellie asked, commenting on the size of the table.

"Like to have family dinners, have all the guys over. I'll tell Chibs to bring you next time."

"Thanks I'd like that. So I see you have some photographs out, do you have something in mind?"

"See that wall over there? I'd like to do something with it, one of him riding his bike."

"So a mural." Ellie said, going to the wall and taking in the blank canvas in front of her.

"You can do that right?"

"Yeah, I just need the measurements of the wall so I can get the scale right when I do the sketch. When's his birthday?"

"End of the month. That give you enough time?"

That gave her about three weeks. She'd have to work on it every day but it could be done. "Yeah, I'll have to be here every day almost so Clay will have to be gone."

"Not a problem honey, he's only home for sleep and sex."

"We'll have to cover it up with a tarp, he won't question that?"

"Clay don't question shit about what I do with the house. Hell, he probably won't even notice a difference."

"Alright, I'll get the supplies and do the sketch tonight. Should be able to start tomorrow."

She spent the entire following week at Gemma's, arriving early in the morning and staying until either Clay was on his way home or Chibs was free for the day. Gemma would sometimes stay and spend the day with her. They'd drink coffee in the morning and wine in the evening if the men were pulling a late night. At the end of the week, Ellie stood back and admired the painting. It was coming along nicely and she had all the background laid out. Although it just looked like blobs of color now, in her mind she could see the finished piece. She would spend the next two weeks filling in all the detail although it would probably only take her a week at the rate she was working. She had just started working the detail of a cactus in the distance when she heard the door open behind her "Hi Gemma" she called out, smiling when it wasn't Gemma's voice she heard return her greeting.

"Not Gemma love."

"Hey there handsome" she said, turning around to see Chibs standing in the doorway.

He motioned toward the painting. "Looks great Ellie" he said, coming closer to give her a hello kiss.

"It's not done yet."

"Aye I know but it looks good. Love watching you work with your hands" he said throatily and nuzzled her neck.

"Chibs stop! I'm going to get paint all over you." Ellie giggled as his hands wrapped around her white painter's overalls. He grabbed the hooks on the straps and released them at the same time, her overalls falling to the floor, leaving her in just her white tank top and white cotton underwear.

"There, no more paint ta worry about."

"Chibs! We can't do this here" she protested but still allowed him to pick her up in his arms.

"Sure we can. Nobody here but us."

"But it's Gemma's house."

"Aye, but I want to fuck ya right here on this table. That way every time I'm here, I can see ya splayed out before me like a gorgeous naked entree." He set her down at the head of the table, kicking the chair aside and pulling her to him, their mouths instantly attached. They feverishly attacked each other, hands greedily shedding them of each other's clothing. Chibs grabbed a condom from his pocket before letting his pants fall, while Ellie laid back on the table legs open and waiting for him. She gasped as she felt him move inside her, his mouth now devouring every inch of skin that was exposed to him. "Good girl" he moaned in between kisses. He kept thrusting into her until Gemma's table runner was bunched up under her and she could feel the cool wood of the table on her backside. She looked up at him, staring into his clear brown eyes, and held his gaze until she slammed her eyes shut as she came, crying out his name when she heard the telltale "Jaysus Christ!" come from his lips.

"Where are we sleeping tonight?" she asked, hooking her overalls back up as Chibs shrugged his kutte back on. They had been back and forth between her place and his the past week.

"I was thinking about that. Your lease is up soon yeah?"

"Yeah in two weeks."

"Why don't ya just bring your stuff over to my house? Stop with all this back and forth shite."

"Are you asking me to move in with you?"

"Aye, save ya some money too."

"Chibs I can't just move in with you and live off you."

"Pay me rent then love if it makes ya feel better! I want ya there, I like waking up next to ya."

She shook her head. "I don't know, don't you think it's a little too soon?"

"Love, we've spent every night together for the last month. It's silly for us to both have separate places."

"But you hardly know anything about me."

"And I told ya it was fine, ya tell me when you're ready. I don't care about your past or who ya were then, I care about the girl you are now. Please make an old man happy lass" he pleaded, arms wrapping around her and kissing her until she said the words he wanted to hear.

"Okay, okay I will."

After Chibs left, Ellie started cleaning up - making sure to smooth out Gemma's table runner. She was just about done when Gemma came home to find her hanging up the canvas tarp that covered the wall she was working on. "Hey Gemma" she said, climbing down from the ladder.

"Why are you all smiles?" she asked, noticing the schoolgirl smile that was plastered on Ellie's face.

"Chibs asked me to move in with him." She sighed. "I'm happy but..."

"But you think it's too soon."

"Yeah I guess. Gemma I haven't told him everything about me."

"Like what, you kick puppies?"

"No, just about my past. The last relationship I was in ended badly."

"How badly?"

"Bad. I want to tell him but I don't want him to think he has to be my savior."

"Well he doesn't seem to mind not knowing, and you make him happy, so I say go for it. But if you hurt him, I'll sick Hap on you."

"Jesus don't do that! That guy scares the piss out of me."

"He does that to everyone. Listen, do what makes you happy. Life's too short not to."

"Is that what you did?"

"Yeah, when I met Jax's father John, I was young, stupid and head over heels in love with him. I jumped in head first but I did so because he made me happy."

"Did you still feel the same way when he passed?" Ellie paused after her rushed question. "Sorry you don't have to tell me that, Chibs mentioned him."

"No, I didn't feel the same way, but a lot went on between us before the end. We were different people, we lost a child, that broke us. We changed so much in that time, from when we started to when he passed, but I wouldn't have changed the time I had with him because I can still remember what it was like when we first met."

"Is that how it is with Clay?"

"I love Clay but in a different way. It's not the crazy type of love that I had with John. It's a simpler love an easy love."

"But you didn't jump into things with Clay?"

"No we knew each other forever. He served with John, met them both at the same time. My love for Clay grew over the years."

"So basically when you jumped into it head first it ended badly, and when you took it slow it ended well. Not really the advice I was looking for."

"Oh, Honey that's not what I'm saying at all. You're older than I was when I met John, and Chibs is older too. Your relationship doesn't have to end that way. It can start out crazy and then turn into the slow love later on. Besides, Clay and I aren't done yet so it still can end like shit. What I'm saying is, you don't know what's going to happen in the future. Everything could turn out happily ever after. The only thing I know is you make that man happier than I've ever seen him, you're good for him. Don't stress about every little decision in your life sweetheart, it'll give you wrinkles.

"Thanks Gemma" she said, unable to tell the woman she had to stress every decision of her life - that's what kept her alive this long. She had to make the right choice every time because if she didn't, she could be the one on the business end of a bullet. Question everything, she said. Every move she made, she had to predict the outcome of every situation; always stay two steps ahead while the rest of the world stayed one-step behind. When she left Gemma's, her mind drifted to the cellphone that was now safely stowed away under the driver's seat of her car along with her notes. With Chibs staying over more at her place and her at his, she didn't want to risk it all by those items being found and felt safer having them nearby. She should make a phone call but wasn't really interested in what the woman that would answer would have to say, and the phone really was for emergency purposes only - not for just idle chit chat; for her to try and stay connected to the life she had left behind.

As soon as she had given her okay to Chibs, he had come over to her house when she got home, packed her stuff in her car and had her moved out and moved in with him by nightfall. His sparse spare bedroom now contained her painting supplies, and his dresser drawer and closet her clothing. By bedtime she was safely wrapped in his arms. Her morose thoughts from the day were now just a distant memory. She would enjoy this time she had with the man sleeping next to her no matter how short-lived it would be.

By the middle of the following week they had settled into a domestic routine. They'd wake up together if Chibs hadn't gotten home too late the night before, sit and have breakfast. He'd leave for the garage and her for Gemma's. She'd call him on her way home seeing if he'd make it home in time for dinner.

It was early afternoon and Ellie had left Gemma's and made her customary call to Chibs. Getting his voice mail, she left him a message wondering if he'd be home for dinner because she was running to the store to get stuff for shepherd's pie, an Irish favorite of his, that she was going to attempt to make. Coming out of the store and opening her trunk, she had just started putting the groceries in when she heard a voice from behind her.

"Hello Miss Morgan."

Looking up, she stared in disbelief at the blonde woman standing next to her car. She was dressed in a beige suit and plain white top and stood out like a sore thumb in the Charming parking lot of the 'Bag and Go'.

Sorry cliff hanger! Thanks for reading and reviewing as always.