Chapter Ten
The hallways of Sweet Productions were bustling. Filming was underway - in a few places, it seemed, but try as he might, Jax couldn't get a good look at any of the action. Apparently, they had pretty damn strict rules about who could be in the room and who couldn't, and everything was closed off so that a random bystander, much like himself, couldn't just peek in for the money shot.
And here he'd thought this partnership would have more fringe benefits.
He glanced at his vice president, who'd fallen into step beside him, before looking over his shoulder to find Tig trying, and failing, to turn the knobs on one of the doors that led to a set. The sick bastard couldn't just peek like a normal person, could he? Had to stick his nose in just about anything and everything he could.
"Yo, Tig," Jax called out to him lightly.
Tig's focus snapped back at the sound of his president's voice, and his shoulders fell in disappointment. No way he would look guilty - Jax was pretty sure he didn't feel he had anything to be guilty about. If anything, Tig was just sorry he'd gotten caught.
"We got business to take care of first," Jax told him with a grin. "After that, you can perv in on the action all you want. Just don't get caught."
A slow, slightly depraved grin crawled across Tig's face even as Bobby pulled him away. Yeah, he had a feeling it was probably best to keep Tig on a tight leash when he wasn't on the job around here. When he was on security detail rotation, Jax trusted him just as much as the next brother to keep his eyes and his hands to himself and do the job. Technically, they were on the job right now - but they were headed to a stuffy conference room, not patrolling the halls for any sign of Georgie Caruso.
On cue, Jax nodded to Juice as they passed, and Juice sent him a stoic nod in return. Juice stood straight, a little bit stiff even, and then he went back to work, heading down the hallway in the opposite direction to continue his patrol.
"You know," Opie muttered to him. "Between me and you, I'm kinda glad Lyla's gonna get away from all this for a while. Maybe it'll stick, you know?"
Jax clapped him on the shoulder with a grin. If he was in Ope's size 13s, he imagined he'd probably feel the same way. Sometimes, Jax wasn't really sure how Opie was able to move past it. Now, it was one thing to mess around with a porn star. It was another thing to fall in love with one and marry her, not to mention knock her up. At least Lyla had moved to girl-on-girl films only when she and Ope got serious, but the evidence of everything that had come before was on film. No escaping that, as Allie had so aptly reminded him at family dinner.
Luckily enough, Allie had also been able to help Lyla slide into writing, instead of acting - apparently, the actors' contracts allowed for such a thing in case of these very circumstances. Lyla was happy and even seemed excited by the change that still allowed her a role at the studio, just a different one. Jax couldn't blame Opie for hoping Lyla would decide she preferred this new role over her former one.
They meandered down the hallway, headed for the conference room Allie had given him directions to earlier, only slowing their steps when the club's lawyer materialized in the hallway. She tucked some dark hair behind her ear with a huff, resting a fist on her hips when their eyes locked. Even in her high heels, she was more pocket-sized than anything. And, he noted with a slow smile, she looked pissed. Really pissed.
Just the way he liked her.
"You're late," Allie called out to them, irritation flickering across her beautiful face. She crossed her arms over her chest, and he half-expected her to start tapping one of her high heels impatiently.
He slipped his prepay from his cut, glancing at the time with a shrug. "It's 4:06."
"Yes," Allie replied tightly. "And I said to be here by 3:45."
"Sure," Jax drawled, casting a quick glance at Opie, who just grimaced a little. "But our meeting starts at…" he trailed off, biting down on his bottom lip to keep from grinning, "4:00."
Allie's lips curled into an annoyed smile, tight with tension and completely humorless. Even Bobby seemed to waver a little, shifting from side to side, as he waved apologetically to her. Tig just winked at her.
Seeing as though there was still some distance between them in this long hallway, Jax seized this opportunity to let his eyes linger on her legs, which were mostly hidden by a tan suede pencil skirt. She wasn't showing anywhere near enough skin, with her white and blue striped shirt that went all the way up to her neck, tucked into that skirt. Still, just the little flashes she did show, like delicate forearms, muscular calves, a slim neck...maybe that was enough too.
He figured she had good reason to cover up around here, and that was why he'd never seen her in skirts that fell above the knee or in shirts cut low enough to get even a hint of cleavage. Her role in this studio was drastically different than almost all the other women here. Even the female writers, directors, and producers the studio had on staff tended to dress more like they were auditioning for a role rather than in a professional workplace. Although, he figured professional was a relative term around here.
But it was the irritation flashing across her face that pulled him in the most. And he found himself feeling more than a little grateful that she made the fashion choices she did around here, for a lot of reasons.
"Just so we're clear, when I say please be here for the meeting by 3:45, what I really mean is please be here by 3:45 for the meeting, " Allie told him sourly as they ventured closer to where she stood in the hallway. "I wanted to go over a few things with you before the meeting started, before the sellers show up."
He cocked an eyebrow at her with a smirk. "They here yet?"
Allie's lips parted, and then she blew out an exasperated sigh. "No, but that's not the point."
Jax held up both hands in defense, chuckling as he stepped around her to head inside the empty conference room. "Duly noted, captain."
She just sighed again, gesturing for Opie to follow in after Jax and greeting Bobby and Tig with a much friendlier smile than she'd given him, but he figured he could let that slide. Opie put a warm hand on Allie's shoulder as he led her inside, murmuring something into her ear that made her lips crack apart in a laugh.
Jax chose to drop into a chair instead of lingering inside the room, taking quick inventory of the conference room's nondescript grey walls and the generic pictures on the wall. Allie had suggested that both sides meet at the studio, a more neutral setting, and Jimmy hadn't had a problem with the club using one of his conference rooms for non-studio business. And, he figured, if the sellers were okay with taking a meeting at a porn studio, they'd be more than okay with doing business with an MC too.
Opie dutifully took his place at Jax's side, and Bobby and Tig followed suit within a few moments. In the grand scheme of things, only Jax and Bobby really needed to be present for this. Jax's signature was needed to ink the final offer, and Bobby, as the club's treasurer, was technically wielding the club's checkbook, so to speak. Opie had really only tagged along as an excuse to check in on Lyla, and Tig...Tig came for the view.
Allie started to follow down the long table, her steps stalling as it became clearer and clearer to her that her seating options were either next to Jax at his left, or on the other side of the table with the opposing side. From the corner of his eye, he watched her warily as her shoulders straightened in resignation and she slid gingerly into the chair next to him.
Without even sparing him a glance, Allie slipped into work mode, setting her phone and a few folders down on the table in front of her. She also set a pen down in between them, careful not to make eye contact with him. Then she flipped one of the folders open and pushed a set of papers at him.
"Before we start, I just wanted to make sure that…"
Allie trailed off at a knock on the conference room door, and Jax glanced up to see a small group of people had congregated at the entrance - only one of them was in a monkey suit, the other guys looked more normal in their jeans and button-up shirts. Obviously, the sellers and their lawyer.
"See?" Allie muttered to him under her breath. "This is why you get here before they show up."
He knew she might as well have been scolding him like he was a little kid, but he just shrugged it off. She could reprimand him all she wanted as far as he was concerned. Jax shot a glance down the table to see Opie grimacing back at Allie in apology. Bobby shrugged nonchalantly. And Tig wagged his eyebrows suggestively at her - but the second Jax cocked an eyebrow at him in warning, Tig dropped the act and squared his shoulders.
Allie rose to her feet, quickly shaking hands with the guys who'd just entered the conference room.
"Hello, I'm Attorney Allie Levy," she greeted them warmly, gesturing to the open chairs across the table. "Please have a seat."
Then she turned to Jax, "And this is Mr. Tel-"
Jax leaned forward with his hand outstretched, swiftly cutting her off. "Jax Teller," he shook their hands, willfully ignoring the exasperation from his lawyer, and then tipped his chin at the rest of his club brothers sitting to his right. They went down the line, one by one, introducing themselves, and when everyone settled back into their seats, Allie didn't waste any time before sliding a stack of papers across the table to the sellers' attorney to finish this deal.
The speed that had brought this whole deal together still had Jax's head spinning. After family dinner at Gemma's house, he'd had Bobby send some info to Allie the next morning, just like she'd asked. Within the span of a few hours, Allie texted him with the recommendation to move forward as quickly as they could get the cash together.
It was straight-forward, she'd said, and would be an easy sale since the building had already been on the market for a few months with no other offers. Not to mention the fact that all the club would have to do was collect rent from the current tenant, a locally-owned gym that a few of the club members - Jax included - frequented from time to time anyway. They knew the gym's owner, knew he was a reliable guy who'd pay his rent and pay it on time. All in all, this was probably as low-risk an investment as they were ever going to find. So, they'd jumped in with an offer and Allie had delivered, all in about 48 hours. She'd even sent him a few late-night texts with updates on the status of the club's offer.
While he was continually impressed by her work ethic, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't a little disappointed those late-night texts had been strictly all about business.
So here they were, with only the loose ends of inspections to tie up, ready to hand over their earnest money in person to seal the deal. According to Allie, they'd officially close at a later date, but this meeting today was a show of good faith from both sides that all were in agreement and ready to move forward.
Kinda like how the partnership deal with Cara Cara and Sweet Productions should've gone down, had Luann not royally shit the bed.
So this was it. The next step in the right direction. They were one more deal closer to getting the cash flow they needed to survive and get the hell away from everything else once and for all. Jax couldn't help but feel a surge of pride that they were even sitting here in this conference room right now - the club had come a long way since Clay's death, and it had only been about three months.
"That's a copy of my clients' final offer," Allie was saying now, nodding her head to the set of papers sitting in front of the sellers' lawyer. "You'll see that everything's in order. And then we…"
She trailed off as her phone pinged on the table. Allie blinked, reaching blindly for her phone before turning her attention back to the other side of the table.
"I'm so sorry about that."
She sucked in a deep breath as her eyes skimmed whatever was so goddamn important that she had to interrupt this meeting for. This meeting, that, was completely legitimate with no discussion of anything illegal or under the table, no side deals or backdoor dealings. This meeting, that, for better or worse, signified the club's continued trajectory down the path toward becoming real civilians and side-stepping that 1% patch. This meeting, that, was clearly not as important to her as whoever had just texted her.
Allie promptly set her phone back down on the table, and got back to business. He threw her a side-eye, cocking an eyebrow her way, but since her focus was squarely on the matter at hand, she either chose to ignore or just didn't see it.
Her cheeks flushed pink, and he'd normally feel a little thrill by the sight, but her embarrassment made his fists clench underneath the table.
The rest of the meeting went off without any more unnecessary disruptions. Bobby handed over their earnest money check to the sellers' attorney for safe-keeping until closing, and Jax and the sellers both signed the final offer to officially sign on the dotted line. Then they all shook hands like the civilized members of the community they were.
With the meeting over, and the sellers and their lawyer on their way out the door, Jax turned his head to see Allie frowning down at her phone. Her shoulders were tense and her back stood stick straight in her chair.
"What the hell was that about, huh?" Jax muttered hotly to her, leaning in close enough so she could hear him. "Not very professional of you, Attorney Levy."
Allie's lips parted to respond, but the words stalled. Her chest heaved a little, and when her phone vibrated on the table, he couldn't stop himself from snatching the phone before she could grab it.
"What the hell, Jax!" she hissed, grabbing for the phone but only coming up with air as he swiveled out of the way in his chair.
But when his eyes dropped to the phone, he was able to scan it just long enough to see she'd gotten a text from her mom, and the bulk of the contents read, need $500.
He froze, giving her the opening she needed to swipe her phone out of his hands. Allie was staring back at him now with fire in her dark eyes.
"You're right. It was unprofessional," she told him lowly, her gaze darting beyond him to Opie, who was watching their exchange with a frown. "I'm sorry about that. It won't happen again."
And then her tone turned icy, "But this," she pointed to her phone, "is none of your business. It's officially. Not."
He rubbed a thumb across his bottom lip, momentarily disarmed by the fact that he'd actually heard her say the words, you're right and I'm sorry, in almost the sentence - to him. And it was right on the tip of his tongue to apologize back, but Allie had already shot out of her chair and was heading for the door.
"Congratulations, guys," Allie told them when her hand closed around the door. "I'm glad we got this one."
She waved goodbye, using the excuse that she needed to go back to work now, and disappeared down the hallway. Jax's eyes followed her until she was gone. His legs wanted to move, but he just couldn't get himself to stand. Bobby and Tig were already up and out of their chairs - Tig was practically chomping at the bit to get a glimpse of at least some of the action, and Bobby rubbed his eyes, following Tig out the door, probably to make sure he didn't get himself into toomuch trouble.
"Any particular reason you snapped at her like that?" Opie's gruff voice called out to him.
Jax sucked in a deep breath and scrubbed his face with a ringed hand. "Her phone -"
"That can happen to anyone, brother," Opie pointed out, leaning both elbows down on the conference table so he could level his president with a wary cocked eyebrow. "And if I know Allie, it will never happen again."
"I know, I know," Jax scrubbed his face again, glancing at the chair Allie had just left vacant. "That was her mom - asking for $500."
"Shit," Opie exhaled and dropped his forehead into one of his hands.
He knew he needed to tread lightly, that there was only so much information Opie might be willing to give him at this point, in light of the way he'd just treated his former step-sister. But it was worth a shot.
"How much do you know about all that? About her mom?"
Opie's eyes dropped to the table in front of them, his shoulders hunched down, and then he glanced at the open door to the hallway, as if to make sure Allie wasn't on her way back in.
"This stays between us?"
Jax nodded immediately. "Of course, brother."
"I know only what I've heard from Jimmy over the years," Opie sighed. "Allie has never said much, but I guess I wouldn't really expect her to. I'm not quite sure when her mom started asking for money, but it was definitely after she was outta law school."
That made sense. It wasn't a shock that an addict knew well enough to wait to ask for the handout until the money was readily available. He'd seen the car Allie drove, the clothes and the shoes she wore...Allie wasn't hurting for cash by any stretch, especially now that she had the extra income from the club.
"She comes around when she needs something, and Allie gives it to her. I'm pretty sure she's been an addict since she first hooked up with Jimmy in the 80s - apparently, they used to throw wild parties, probably on par with the clubhouse if not worse, and coke and booze were always on the buffet, if you know what I mean."
"Yeah," Jax sighed heavily. "I know what you mean."
He really did.
"They partied their way through all those knockoff movies. I'm pretty sure they stopped for a little while when Anna got pregnant with Allie, but at some point, the work dried up. I think it had more to do with the fact that Jimmy and Anna were either too hungover or strung out to do the work, but I don't think Jimmy would ever admit he couldn't get up if you held a gun to his head."
Jax huffed out a laugh, but still, it was hard to see the humor in this situation.
"I don't know how many times Anna's been to rehab, but it's...it's been a lot. Sometimes Jimmy hands out the money to pay for it so Allie doesn't have to, but most of the time -"
"She pays," Jax finished for him.
Opie nodded tightly. "Anna was just at her house...maybe two weeks ago? And now she's asking for more cash. That's at least twice in one month. And as far as I know, Anna's never showed up at the house with a guy before now."
"And they always meet at her house?" While Jax could understand the logic of wanting that privacy, it just wasn't fucking safe. And definitely not anymore.
"I'm pretty sure," Opie confirmed grimly. "Jimmy told me once that he'd banned Anna from the studio. I guess she used to show up there, asking him for money, and then when he finally got sick of paying for her blow and kicked her out of the studio for the last time, she moved in on Allie."
Jax blew out yet another heavy sigh and rubbed a tired hand over his face. "So, basically what you're tellin' me is I better go apologize, huh?"
His vice president nodded tightly before clapping him on the shoulder. "Pretty much. And listen, you keep this shit up, and she just might quit on us. That would be pretty counterproductive, don't ya think?"
Jax swallowed hard. It was one thing to tease her, to ruffle her feathers and rile her up just to see her skin flush with pink. Invading her privacy was something else, and something he shouldn't have done. He wasn't going to linger on the real reason why that little phone interruption during the meeting had him seeing red. And while he was firmly in the camp that it would take a hell of a lot more to get Allie to throw in the towel with the club, he also didn't want to do anything that might tip the scales. He already one strike against him - shit, he really, really shouldn't have grabbed her like that in the clubhouse - and he didn't want this to be strike two.
He was pretty damn sure anything else was fair game, as long as it made her blush.
So he nodded to his vice president as he rose from his chair and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Alright, Ope. Alright."
Allie stared at the mountain of paperwork on her desk for a beat, and then let her eyes casually drift back to Piper, who had taken over her chair when she left for the meeting with the club. She was grateful for the distraction, grateful someone else was in this office so she didn't come back here and scream.
"So," Allie told her with an easy grin, gesturing to the ever-expanding clutter. "How much per hour are you willing to take to help me sort through all this?"
Piper's eyes widened a little. This was only her second day at the studio, but it was going well, as far as Allie could tell. Piper was even talking to her, sort of. And God knew she needed the help, and maybe even the company too.
"What do you mean?" Piper asked in a small, hesitant voice.
Allie smiled warmly. "I mean...would you like to help me out? I'd think any legal experience you can get before law school would look pretty good on your applications. What do you think?"
Piper leaned forward, her blonde curtain of hair pillowing out in front of her like a shield, and her eyes dropped shyly to the mess on Allie's desk. Those movements were awfully familiar...painfully familiar, and Allie smiled sadly at the girl she'd used to be, the girl she'd had to set aside to confront the very adult and difficult world in front of her.
Sometimes, she'd give anything to go back to that time - when she was just a 15-year-old, like Piper, whose only problems in the world were parents who were porn stars, a step-brother prospecting for an MC, and a hopeless crush on a guy who looked right through her. Everything was so much simpler then, before she'd left for college, before her world flipped on its axis. But the scars she carried with her had built the tough exterior, the drive, the work ethic, the career, the success...it was the best kind of victory. She just wished she could say it made her happy too.
"I, um," Piper started, and then she chewed on her bottom lip in thought. "I think that would be okay."
"Great," Allie grinned. "Now, let's talk about your hourly pay. How much do you want to make?"
Allie had to bite back a grin at the way Piper's eyes widened in surprise. If Piper really wanted to be an attorney, she was going to have to learn to negotiate sometime. Not to mention shed the shy exterior when it was time to talk business.
"How about…" she trailed off in thought, tapping her chin as she considered her options. "$20 an hour?"
Oh yeah, this was definitely a lawyer in the making. Better to start high, and then find that sweet spot somewhere in the middle.
"Well," Allie smiled proudly. "That's a little high. How does $10 sound?"
There was no way Allie was actually going to pay that to her kind of, sort of niece, especially not when she'd never asked Jimmy for help before, and especially not when her need for the help was very serious and very real. She was willing to pay Piper for a job well done, but Piper also needed to learn how to advocate for herself.
Piper considered the offer, and Allie could see the wheels in her head turning. "What about $17?"
This time, Allie had to rub a hand over her lips to hide her grin. She was just about to throw out a counteroffer when a knock echoed through the door.
"Hold that thought," Allie told Piper, and then turned her head to the door. "Yeah?"
The door cracked open, and Jax stuck his head in. His expression was a little too cautious, a little hesitant like he wasn't sure if he was interrupting, like he didn't want to interrupt her at work. Given this sudden about-face into actual considerate behavior, Allie lifted a wary eyebrow at him.
"Can I help you?"
Jax's lips spread apart in a cocky smirk, and he didn't wait for an invitation. He just sauntered inside her office like he owned the place, tipping his chin to Piper in a way that was definitely too flirty of a greeting toward someone who was underage. He just couldn't help himself, could he?
"'Sup, Piper," he smirked at her.
Piper practically melted in her chair, not like Allie could really blame her. She knew all too well what it was like to be a stupid, horny teenager underneath the perpetually sexy blue eyes of Jackson Teller. She'd also learned the hard way that bad boys were just that - bad.
Seeing as how Jax's attention had rendered Piper all but speechless, Allie swooped in to answer for her, "We were just negotiating Piper's hourly pay here at the studio."
Jax's eyebrows lifted in surprise, and he shot Piper an even wider grin than before. "Is that so?"
And once again, Piper withered into a puddle at Jax's feet.
"Where did we leave off, Piper?" Allie pressed on, shaking her head with a smile. "$17?"
Jax's gaze drifted expectantly to Piper, who was still tongue-tied in his presence, and that cocksure grin on his face only deepened.
"How about…" Allie threw out. "$13? That sound okay to you?"
Now, Piper shifted back into negotiation mode, her focus finally away from the blonde wolf standing in the middle of the office. Her head tilted to the side a little in thought, mulling over whether that was a number she could live with, and then she finally spoke.
"How about $14?"
Allie huffed out a laugh while Jax practically beamed back at Piper in a show of solidarity.
"You know," Allie laughed as she held out a hand to Piper, "I would've settled for $15, but $14 sounds good to me."
Piper's eyes widened as they shook hands, and Allie made a mental note to make sure Piper got that pay - had an annoying MC president not hijacked their negotiations and knocked Piper off her game, Allie was sure they would've made it to that $15 compromise.
"Glad you ladies got that settled," Jax grinned, and then he tipped his chin to Piper again. "Hey, Pipes, you mind if I had a second with Allie?"
He practically pinned poor Piper to her chair with that smirk - a panty-dropping one, for sure - and Piper stuttered a little before nodding slowly, and prying herself out of her chair. Allie watched Piper shut the door behind her, and then shifted her gaze to Jax, shooting him an exasperated look.
"What?" he smiled innocently.
Allie shook her head as she stepped around her desk to drop into the chair Piper had left vacant. "Don't what me. You know what."
Jax just lifted a shoulder and shoved both hands in his front pockets, rocking back on his heels a little. "What'd I do now?"
"Oh, come on," she rolled her eyes. "It's not very nice of you to flirt with her like that."
His hands flew up in defense, but his lips were still curled. "What do you mean flirt with her?"
"She's 15, Jax," she reminded him, pointing a finger at him before he could respond. "And if you say that's never stopped you before, I'm gonna reach across this desk and smack you."
He held her gaze for a beat too long, like he was actually considering saying those words out loud now that he knew the consequence. She waited, half-expecting him to tease her for being jealous. It wasn't true, of course - like she'd actually be jealous of a 15-year-old, and someone needed to save Piper from herself. But he stayed silent, his lips pulling into a knowing lop-sided grin.
"So," Allie tried again. "What can I help you with?"
Something shifted in his eyes, and he swallowed tightly before glancing down at his hands folded in his lap. When he lifted his gaze again, his blue eyes were more somber now and more serious than they'd been before.
"I, uh…" he trailed off and then blew out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry, Allie. I shouldn't have…"
His voice faded again, like he was groping for words that just wouldn't come. She supposed he was lucky she already had a pretty good idea what he was apologizing about, but the fact that he was apologizing at all had to be difficult for him. The only other time she'd heard those words out of his cocky mouth had been when he'd manhandled her in the clubhouse. At least he was starting to realize he was acting like an overgrown baby.
But because he deserved it, she wasn't going to let him off the hook just yet.
"What, exactly, are you sorry for?" she asked, and crossed her arms across her chest just for good measure.
He cleared his throat roughly, shifting uncomfortably in his chair, but he kept his hands folded firmly in front of him. "I shouldn't have invaded your privacy like that. You're right - that's your business. It's not mine. And I'm sure you're gonna triple-check to make sure your phone's on silent from here on out, so we won't have that problem again."
"Right," she nodded tightly.
"And the last thing I wanna do is give you a reason to quit on me," he frowned at that last part, and corrected himself in a rush, "on the club. It took us long enough to get you on our side, and I don't wanna fuck that up, okay?"
She inhaled slowly, letting herself lock eyes with him for just a moment. "Okay."
Jax paused there, biting down on his bottom lip in thought before glancing up at her again. "So, I know we've established this is none of my business, and you can smack me if you want, but...when is your mom coming over?"
Allie froze, momentarily debilitated by the unexpected question. This really was none of his business, and he had no right to -
"Ope might've told me a few things," Jax offered sheepishly, scratching the side of his head with a grin that looked more like a grimace than anything.
"Of course he did," Allie grumbled. Of course he willingly gave away personal information to the one person she didn't want to give anything personal to.
"Hey," Jax shrugged. "Ope's a good VP. I asked him a question, and he answered."
Opie was just a good person in general, but Allie didn't want to give Jax the satisfaction of agreeing with him. And she didn't want to linger for too long on the fact that he was fishing for personal information about her from his vice president and her former step-brother.
Jax glanced down at his hands again before he spoke. "So, when's she comin' over?"
Allie's lips parted to deny, deny, deny, but he cut her off before she could even begin.
"Don't lie to me, Allie."
One glance at Jax, at the deadly serious expression written on his handsome face, and she knew she was sunk. Jesus, she thought, I'm no better than Piper at this point. That was a pretty uncomfortable comparison, at least where Jax was concerned, and it certainly didn't help that he wasn't going to be very happy about the truth. Unfortunately, judging by the hard look in his eyes, he also wasn't going to let up until she gave it to him. Might as well get it over with.
"In about an hour."
His eyebrows lifted in surprise, but he schooled his expression just as quickly, leaning forward a little in his chair. "Alright. Will your roommate be home?"
Allie started to respond that, yes, Dan would absolutely be home and they could end this conversation right now, but then she remembered he was in the middle of a shoot today. It ended...when it ended, and there was really no set time that he'd be back in the house. By the time everything wrapped up and he was actually standing in the house, it was less and less likely that it would actually be in an hour, before her mom showed up.
Jax nodded to himself, taking her non-response as her response. "Alright. So, I'll follow you to your -"
"No, you're not."
He blew out an exasperated sigh and narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. "Ope's busy with Lyla right now, and Piper's gotta get home somehow, right?" he spread his arms out with a defiant grin, "I'm free right now. And we both know Ope would lose his shit if he found out you were home by yourself when she stopped over. I'm good with standin' outside the whole time if you don't wanna let me in your house. It's a pretty nice day out - I wouldn't mind the fresh air."
Allie stared back at him. This was not what she'd expected. And, she worried, there was really no getting out of this either. She had promised Opie she'd call him the next time her mom came to her house with that guy, and if she knew her mom, she was about 99 percent sure that guy would be there with her in an hour, sitting outside on the street just like last time. It would save everybody a lot of time and effort if someone was already with her when they showed up. And she didn't know exactly what Opie had told him about her mom, but whatever it was, it was enough to convince him she needed a chaperone.
And, she realized with a heavy heart, maybe she really did need a chaperone now. Maybe she really did need to have someone there with her, just in case.
Just in case?
Even in her thoughts, she knew how stupid that sounded. How willfully ignorant and risky that was. That guy could just be biding his time, waiting for the right moment to barge in and...so why are you still agreeing to let her come to your house? That little voice in her head was right. She knew that. But she just couldn't bring herself to say no.
And now, as her eyes found Jax again and he stared back at her with determined resolve, she wasn't going to be able to say no to him either. Even if she did, Allie figured he'd just follow her home and sit outside her house anyway, whether she agreed to it or not. Maybe the path of least resistance was the right one this time.
"What was the point of installing those stupid cameras at my house anyway?" Allie groused sourly, determined to at least prove her point before finally giving in.
"Well," Jax grinned back at her, a slow grin slipping across his face. "Better to be safe than sorry, right? Besides, you got lucky this time that someone could be there before her and that guy show up at your house. Next time, you might not be that lucky, and then you'll be glad Ope forced your hand."
Next time, you might not be that lucky. He was right. As painful as that was to admit, for a whole slew of reasons...he was right. And while the thought of having Jax even within earshot when Anna Levy did show up on her doorstep sent a tremor of panic through her, Allie knew she couldn't tell him no even if she wanted to. At this point, she wasn't so sure that she did.
Still, that was a victory she wasn't willing to serve up, at least not fully.
"Fine," Allie told him flatly, hitching a hand defiantly on her hip. "But you are not coming inside my house. Do you understand?"
Jax's lips curled - his grin was too arrogant, too sensual, just...too much. But he held his hands up in defense, even though he knew he'd won this round.
"A'ight," he drawled easily. "You just lead the way, darlin'."
A/N - Thank you to everyone who's read/reviewed/favorited/followed this story! I just finished up chapter 17 yesterday, and I'm starting a one-shot to show a little bit more about what they were like in high school and how they interacted with each other (and illustrate an incident that will be discussed in the next chapter ;)
Thoughts on this chapter? I think we're finally starting to see Jax realize that his previous behavior toward Allie isn't doing him any favors with her, lol. And now that he's all set to be there when her mom shows up for her handout, some drama may or may not be going down in the next chapter.
Grace - I did see that Dan Levy won all the Emmys on Sunday! I was so excited when I was watching to see them winning literally everything - that's my favorite show right now, and I love writing Dan/David into the story!