Chapter 3

Jason walked into Kelly's with knots in his stomach. He didn't have a good feeling about this meeting he had with Jax. Between the time of him calling Jax, and now Jason had picked the phone at least 10 times to call Jax to tell him that he had reconsidered his offer and wanted to call the whole meeting off. Of course Jason hadn't and that was why he was here now.

He looked around the small building. He was short, balding, and a little chubby. Jason assumed that this was Mike. The man looked up from his post at the counter when he heard the small bell above the door ring signaling Jason's entrance into the small café.

"You must be Jason." The man who he assumed was Mike said

"Yeah I am. How did you know?"

"Jax told me what you looked like, and I have my ways of knowing who people are. Anyway, Jax is in the back room." The man pointed to a set of stairs that Jason assumed led to the room that Jax was in. "He's in the first room on the left." Jason went to the direction of the stairs and followed them up to a hallway that had at least five doors. He went into the door that he was directed to go to and knocked on the door. He heard a voice on the inside yelling for him to come in.

The room was large. It had a large table in the middle of the room. When he looked around he room he noticed that there were three men strategically placed in the corner of the room. They were standing un-moving and he assumed that they were bodyguards. Five people were sitting at the table. Three of them Jason recognized immediately. It was Jax and the two men that were with him the day they met. The other were two women. One looked to be in about her early thirties and the other looked to be in about her late fifties.

Jax looked up when he heard Jason enter the room. He nodded his head towards an empty chair that was directly in front of Jax and directly in front of the door. Jason took a seat in the chair, and Jax immediately started talking as soon as he sat down.

"This is Jason. He will be working with us from now on. Jason this is Ric." He pointed to the man sitting on his left. He was wearing a gray pinstriped business suit. His hair was slicked back and he look to be in about his early forties. "This is A.J." He then pointed the man on the right of him. He looked to be in his mid thirties. His suit was the same as the man named Ric's except his was black, and his hair was slicked back in the same fashion. The men both gave a small wave to acknowledge Jason's presence.

Jax then pointed to the two women that were sitting next to him.

"This is my mother Jane," He said pointing to the woman who looked to be in her late fifties. She was a short pudgy woman with graying hair. She smiled at him warmly and gave a small nod of her head. "And this is my cousin Caroline." He then pointed to the woman in her early thirties. She was a tall thin woman. She had short brown hair that was in a bun on the top of her head. The woman smiled and stuck out her hand. Jason shook it and she continued to smile.

"He calls me Caroline, but everyone else calls me Carly, so you can too." The woman told him, before she turned and started a conversation with Jax's mother, Jane. They continued their conversation until Jax broke into their conversation.

"Where is Courtney? She was supposed to be here 10 minutes ago. I swear, that girl is always late.

"You know that she is at the children's hospital." Carly said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. She rolled her eyes at him and turned to continue the conversation with Jane.

"She spends too much time at that hospital. She knows that if she needed the money I would give it too her. I don't know why she insist on going to that damn hospital." Jax said with anger in his voice. He then slammed his fist down on the table causing his glass to fall off the table and shatter on the floor. Carly rolled her eyes and turned again from her conversation.

"You know that she loves to go to the hospital. She loves helping the children. She doesn't go for the money. She loves the kids. You can't expect her to devote all of her time to you. She has a life, and it's almost time for the annual Christmas pageant down at the orphanage, so she is going to be spending a lot of time their. I wish you would stop giving her a hard time about it." Carly told him. She was now fully angry. Her face was flushed with anger, and her eyes were wide. Jane finally choose this time to speak up and stop the argument that was about to start.

"Jax, you need to let the girl live her life. Let her do what she wants to do. You can't run it for her." Jane obviously had authority over Jax because he shut his mouth before he could get out a reply.

"Who is Courtney?" Jason spoke for the first time since entering the room. Jax, Jane, and Carly, all stopped arguing, and looked at Jason with shock written on her face. Jax was the first to shake off the shock.

"Courtney is my girl." Jax said with a smug arrogant grin on his face. Carly just scoffed and rolled her eyes again.

"You know she doesn't like you calling her that. She is not your possession."

"She doesn't care. She would tell me if she didn't like it." Jax said with the smug grin still on his face.

"SHE HAS! She's told you thousands of times not to call her 'your girl.' She hates it." Carly finally lost her temper and started yelling. Before the fight could get any larger, soft clearing of a throat, stopped all conversation.

Jason turned around and saw the blonde from the bar a few weeks ago, and since that day in the bar he hadn't been able to get the beautiful blonde out of his mind.

"I hope I wasn't interrupting anything," she asked quietly. She walked over to the empty chair next to Carly, and she took a seat.

"No you weren't interrupting anything. I was just telling my idiot cousin that you do not like being called his girl." Carly told Courtney. Courtney turned in her chair and glared at Jax.

"Jax I have told you thousands, no millions of times that I am your girlfriend. Not your possession." Jax just rolled his eyes and turned to look at Jason.

"Courtney, this is Jason. Jason will be working with us from now on." Courtney turned to look at Jason. She looked surprised to see him, but immediately smiled at him.

"Jason and I have met before. Haven't we Jason?" She asked with a warm smile on his face. Jason felt his heart swell when she smiled at him.

"Yeah we have. It's good to see you again." He smiled a small smile at her. He looked over at Jax and saw that a small hint of anger

"Where have you two met before?" Jax asked through clenched teeth.

"Don't be a bastard. We met at the bar. He was talking to his friend, and we talked to each other for like five minutes, and then I left. I don't know why you are always so jealous." Courtney was fully angry. Obviously Jax could be a very jealous man and Courtney didn't like it.

"Well you're a beautiful girl and I'm scared one day you will leave me." Courtney's eyes softened as she rolled her eyes playfully. She got up from the chair and kissed him passionately on the lips. "That's not going to happen," she told him before she got up and headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"I know you probably want to talk business, so I am going to go." She turned and walked out the door and was quickly followed by Jane and Carly.

Jason had felt a surge of jealousy wash over him when he saw Courtney kiss Jax, and in that moment, when he felt the jealousy course through his body, he knew that he was in big trouble.

Two updates inthree days. I think that this is one of the fastest updates I have ever done. Well I had a day off from practice today, and I decided that since 'The Pearl' is getting boring, that I would update this story. I will try and update some of my other stories. I have another chapter to 'An Affair to Remember' almost finished.

I tried to add a bit more Journey in this chapter, because there was none in the last chapter, and I didn't like the Casper that I had to put in there, but it's important to the story, and there may be a bit more in some of the later chapters. But not a lot, since I love Journey. There will definitely be a lot Journey more in the next chapter, since I can't live without them. So tell me what you think, and if you like it I will update sooner.

Leanna R.- I'm so sorry I haven't been able to review you story, I am having problems with my computer and I haven't been able to review to anything lately. I took your advice on taking a break, and ya'll got this chapter. lol