Chapter Twenty-Three:

Happy and I arrived to Gemma's house for family dinner at five-to-six, when the sun had just started to set and all of the bikes were already parked in the driveway.

He waited for my to pull my car up to the curb and opened my door for me, put his arm around my shoulders and lead me towards the house.

"You're extra emotional and touchy today." I said my observations. "You're not secretly in love with me, or anythin', are you?"

He smirked down at me and my attempt at a joke when he turned the knob and shuffled us inside. "As if I could put up with your ass for the rest of my life. I'd kill you before we even got to have sex."

"Do I even want to know?" Jax grumbled, only hearing the last snippets of Happy's words when I bent down to kiss his cheek.

I shook my head with a soft smile, greeted the rest of the boys, and then walked down the hallway towards the kitchen where I knew Gemma would be.

She handed me an already-poured glass of wine as soon as I was in reaching distance. "Did you have a good day, baby?"

"Yeah, it was good." I looked around the kitchen. "Is there anythin' I can help with?"

Gemma shook her head. "You can take the guys out another beer and then sit down, I've got everything sorted out in here."

It was the first time since I'd started attending her weekly Family Dinners that Gemma hadn't asked me to do anything in the kitchen, so I did what she asked but wondered if she was angry at me for spending time without Happy and not inviting her along.

Jax kissed the side of my neck when I dropped into his lap and handed him a new beer, then carried on with the conversation he was in with Chibs, Tig and Juice.

I looked around the crowded room and frowned when I noticed one very important member was missing. "Where's Ope?"

"He's got the flu." He explained. "Probably in bed watching a porno and trying to beat himself to health."

Chibs let out a gruff laugh at Jax's words and I felt my cheeks burn. No matter how much time I spent around the outlaws, my blood still had the ability to rise to my face at a moments notice, especially when I wasn't prepared for a dirty comment.

"Tig, help me bring out the food." Gemma appeared in the room. "Everybody else go to the table."

Jax noticed my frown and shook his head, but lead me over to the table and dropped down in the chair next to me at the head of the table.

While Gemma and Tig were busy in the kitchen bringing out a ridiculous amount of food, Jax looked down at his phone and then slammed it down on the table.

"Is everythin' okay, babe?" I asked quietly, hoping that Tara hadn't had a change of heart and started to message again.

He gave me his best attempt at a smile, emptied his beer, and nodded. "Fine, darlin."

By the time that they'd brought in the last plates and were having quiet conversations, it got the better of me and I had to try again.

"What's wrong?" I frowned over at Jax who genuinely looked like he was on the verge of a heart attack.

He shook his head but didn't say anything, just kept glancing at the door like an intruder would burst through at any second.

"How's work been, lass?" Chibs sat down on the other side of me and pulled my attention away from the blonde god.

I began to rattle off my day-before clients and went into detail about the screaming blonde who had gotten butterflies on her ribs. Tig and Juice joined somewhere at the start of the tale and by the end, both were laughing like I'd told them the funniest thing they'd ever heard.

Jax's knee was bouncing under the table and, when the trio began talking about a car that had gone into the shop that day, I turned back to face him. "Seriously, babe, what's goin' on? You look like you're goin' to pass out. You're freakin' me out."

Before he could answer there was a knock on the front door and I frowned at the packed room. Apart from Opie, who had come down with a cold and wasn't attending, nobody was unaccounted for.

"Can you get that, Ellie?" Gemma called out from the other end of the table where she sat at the head, opposite Jax.

I kissed Jax's head on the way past and pulled open the front door, all of the air leaving my body. "What the fu-"

"Surprise!" Mama and daddy grabbed me as soon as the door was fully opened and pulled me into a group hug that had me on the verge of tears.

"What the heck are y'all doin' here?!" I laughed as I breathed in my mother's perfume.

Daddy pushed me back to arms length. "Jackson invited us, he wanted to surprise you. I like that young boy, Ellie-Mae, you keep him."

"Believe it or not, daddy, I was plannin' on it." I looked at mama in silent question and she nodded once to say that his approval had come even though she'd informed him of Jax's and my full story. "You should have told me you were comin', I would've gotten you from the airport."

"Harry was quite welcomin'." My mother winked at me and I frowned in confusion until Opie walked up the steps to join us. "He's a good man."

"Thank you, Mrs. Squires." Opie grinned down at her.

She shook her head and pointed her finger at him like he wasn't a foot and a half taller than her. "I told you to call me-"

"Lisa, sorry." Opie had the audacity to blush like he was scared of the tiny, older woman while she scolded him. It wasn't like she even had her newspaper with her and was ready to smack him over the head. Not that she could have reached, anyway.

Daddy shook Opie's hand and thanked him again, surprisingly at ease with the giant outlaw.

"Harry?" I laughed, and he mumbled for me to shut up under his breath when he pushed past me into the house.

Daddy looked at the group behind me and smiled before his eyes met mine again. "Well, are you goin' to let us come inside, or are we goin' to stand out here all night?"

"Oh, crap, sorry." I spun around to let them in, but my world tilted on it's axis and I stumbled back into them, grateful that daddy was behind me to catch me so I didn't fall flat on my ass. "What the hell are you doin'?"

Jax grinned up at me nervously from where he was on one knee just inside of the house. "I think you know what I'm doing, darlin."

Gemma and all of the Sons had risen from their seated positions and were watching with large smiles on their faces, all let in on the plan that I hadn't been privy to.

But it was when Abel pushed through them and came to stand in front of me that my heart started to pound from my chest.

He held out a small velvet box, cheeks red and pulled up. "Daddy said I could ask."

"You've got to actually ask, buddy." Jax laughed from behind him, earning a chorus of chuckles from the group inside and my parents.

"Will you be my mommy?" Abel asked quietly. "And marry daddy so Larry can be my brother?"

I felt the tears sliding down my cheeks when I crouched down and pulled him into my chest.

Jax stood and walked over to us, waited for Abel to extract himself from my grasp and then stole the velvet box from his little hand.

"I had to ask your dad over a FaceTime call, darlin." He opened the box. "Which was an experience and a fucking half, but he said yes, and I'm hoping you'll do the same."

The large diamond ring made me sputter on my tears, and I choked on the air that I was trying to breathe.

"Darlin? Say something, would you?"

I was still staring at the ring when Chibs' voice yelled out. "Say yes, lass. Put the shite out of his misery, he's been carrying that fucking box around with him for a month."

Behind me I heard mama mutter under her breath about them all needing to find Jesus because they cursed like devils. She didn't know the half of it.

Jax's blue eyes were staring at me with a million emotions running through them when I met them. "No."

He blanched. "No?"

"I'm kiddin'." I smirked. "Of course I'll marry you."

Jax closed his eyes and shook his head, then slid the ring onto my finger. "I told you from our first meeting that you were going to be trouble for me."

"But our fairytale ain't been borin'."

He put his arms around my waist and crushed me to his chest. "And I'm all about the fairytale, baby."