CHAPTER SEVEN

Parking her car in the market car park Donna looks at me and opens her mouth, then closes it again, before opening it "Do you really think Tara did that on purpose?"

I look at her, opening my door to get out, "I think she did it on purpose the second she could get Jax hard and in her pussy. He would have told her I'm back and she will be trying to get me to leave again. She's done this before."

Donna comes round the car after locking the doors and says "When?"

"She pulled this a few times before I left. I would randomly get phone calls from Jax in the middle of the night, which wasn't actually uncommon. It was the only time that he could talk to me without her badgering him. I didn't think much of it the first time, I just hung up and told Jax to be careful pocket dialling the next time I saw him."

"The second time it happened was my birthday dinner; we'd decided to have it early cause of Uncle Jacob. Jax was meant to be coming over to have dinner with us. You and Opie were already there, and I'd held dinner for an hour before my phone rang. I left the room, cause I intended on yelling at him about being so late. But all I heard was Tara, laughing and giggling before Jax groaned and said something about liking her on her knees."

Donna follows me into the market, steering me to the herbs and mutters "I remember that, you were so pissed off when you came back out that you almost massacred the chicken. But you wouldn't tell either Opie or I where Jax was. You just said he was sorry but he got busy and wouldn't make it."

Rummaging through the various boxes of dried herbs I shake my head and wander to the produce hoping that they have some fresh ones that are at least usable. Donna comes up beside me and asks "Was that it, just the 2 times?"

I laugh, but even to me the sound is obnoxiously loud and negative sounding. "No, god I wish. It happened another 3 times before my dinner with Uncle Jacob, when I turned my phone off. But when I turned it on there was a message of them. She asked him if it was better than what he had planned. I didn't wait for the answer, I just deleted it."

Donna is starting to look even more pissed off then I felt that night, while I calmly select a Parsley, Basil and Rosemary plants before moving to the garlic. "Then there was once on New Year's morning, and once more the day I started applying to the out of state schools. So all up I must have had 7 calls like that. Then the last message she left me was just after Jax had fallen asleep the night she'd told me she was pregnant. She rang me again off his phone, but she actually spoke to me that time. She told me that they'd had an amazing night, that I hadn't been mentioned once and that they were planning on leaving the following day and they'd picked names for their baby. Then she said she hoped I had a nice life, and that I could get over her being better than me."

My phone rings again just as we're leaving the store and I wait till I'm safely in Donna's car before answering it. Not surprised at all when I hear Tara's voice "I'm still better than you, and he'll never be yours. Just do everyone a favour and leave town. But don't come back this time."

The call disconnects and I am sorely tempted to throw the phone into the path of oncoming traffic, but then I realise that it's the only number that Cam and Al know to contact me on so I slowly close the phone and bury it under everything in my bag.

Looking over to Donna I'm surprised to see her knuckles are white and she looks like she could breathe steam.

Tapping her on the shoulder I say "Hey, don't worry about her. I am so over Jax, I just hope that my friend can be happy."

Donna snorts, "Bullshit, you're still so in love with him that little hearts float around your head when you think of him."

Blushing under the knowledge that even after 4 years apart my best friend still knows me almost as well as I know myself I shrug, "Ok, so I still love him. I always will, but I've learnt that not everything you love is good for you."

Turning into the driveway of the Winston's house a few minutes later Donna turns to me, with a very serious look on her face and tells me, "We are going to get that tramp out of Charming for good. But I'm just not sure how. She has to leave knowing that Jax hates her. We just need to get him to really look at Abel's notes, I'm sure that's the key to it all."

I nod at her, not wanting to voice the thoughts that Tara would have covered her bases with Jax if someone else's name is on Abel's notes, that after everything she's done that would just be a stupid mistake. But then, she's made stupid mistakes before. Leaving without Jax was one of them, but it was also a mistake I made. But I wasn't leaving again, and I was sure that Tara would have to go back to Chicago at some point.

Climbing out of the car with the bag of mediocre herbs the market had I'm struck with a thought. Gasping out loud I turn to Donna, "What if she shows up tonight?"

Donna just grins and says, "Have you forgotten who I'm married to? Ope never made a secret of his dislike of Tara back then it didn't get any better when she came back. Jax knows not to bring her here. Ope told him, when she showed up again, that she better stay out of my eyesight cause of how she treated both you and I back then. Jax didn't understand what he meant till Opie told him that the only reason Tara walked out of Charming back when she was a teenager was that I was pregnant and couldn't kick her ass to the bus myself."

I can't help the mental image of Donna, hugely pregnant chasing Tara down the road with steel capped boots on threatening to 'kick her over state lines.'

Still chuckling I go straight into the Winston's kitchen and spend the next 45 minutes immersed in my chosen trade, relaxing my mind and letting the routine behaviour of peeling, chopping, grating and stirring lull me into the most relaxed I'd been since driving out of New York a week earlier.

The occasional mutter from me to the lounge about Donna's shitty knives and useless oven causes her and Mary to both come into the kitchen after putting the twins down for an afternoon nap. Wearing identical quizzical expressions it looks like one is going to ask something but then, they note the mess I have made over most of the cooking surface in the tiny kitchen.

Plonking herself at the table Mary looks at me and says "Didn't they teach you to clean up after yourself?"

Glancing around the bench I smile at her and cheekily reply "This is cleaner then when I started."

I feel a smack on the shoulder as Donna walks past me and starts clearing some of the dirty dishes to the dishwasher.

Glaring at her I pull my keys from my bag and head out to my car. Coming back in seconds later holding what appears to be a camping roll Donna looks slightly interested in what I'm doing, putting a last cup in and turning the dishwasher on as I snap open the clips on my case and flick it along the length of the table Mary looks down and says "Gee, do you want a few more knives with your assassins kit?"

Poking my tongue out at her I pull one of the 12 perfectly sharpened knives from its protective pocket and tuck the plastic back in before closing my knife roll and clicking its clips closed again. "It's one of the tools of my trade." I grin, turning back to the kitchen where Donna's dish clearing has done a remarkable change to the bench space available.

Blowing her an air kiss I wink at Mary, "Donna, you'll make someone an awesome wife...when you learn to cook."

Donna attempts to growl at me which just makes me laugh more before going back to the herbs I was trying to chop without bruising. Feeling the smooth motions of my own knives, and seeing the clean cuts being left behind makes me sigh and Donna looks at me like she's going to call the men in white coats. Still giggling slightly I look over at her, "Sharp knives make clean cuts, dull knives...like most of yours, leave the herbs bruised which does make a difference, trust me."

Donna just nods like I'm insane, which I possibly am, and the pair of them leaves the kitchen again, but not before Mary throws over her shoulder, "We'll come back in an hour to clean up again."