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Chapter 121 Can Romance Survive Cooking?

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Ava's father had dinner with her every Wednesday as he promised. During those meals, Ava told him how she felt when she returned home from school to find a moving van packing them up when he'd never even told her. He apologized admitting that he hadn't given much thought to how moving affected her since she never said anything to him.

She also demanded to know why she never got to choose how her bedroom was decorated. He told her simply it was because she never said anything. She thought he was deliberately doing it to torture her. Father and daughter discovered that a lot of their problems were miscommunication. And somewhere in her talks with her father, she'd quit thinking about him giving her a trust fund. She was focused on doing law projects and studying law with Jax.

Thanks to Jax and Jeeves, Ava and TB's relationship was improving. Unfortunately, he was still determined to marry Gemma. When Jax and Ava made it clear they would not attend TB and Gemma's wedding, Jeeves suggested they have a quiet destination wedding. Neither he nor Gemma wanted a big wedding so a quiet wedding made sense.

Jeeves played wedding planner and arranged a nice intimate ceremony on the beach in Hawaii. Jeeves would take some of his vacation after the wedding remaining in Hawaii and TB and Gemma would spend a week in Hawaii followed by a week in Cape Cod because Gemma always wanted to see that part of the country. It was his first vacation since he'd married Ava's mother. He gave all his employees two weeks paid vacation as his wedding gift to them.

Ava had been delaying getting the house finished. She didn't like change and she was comfortable living in her father's house. It was perfect. A chef prepared all the meals, laundry was done and maids cleaned the bedroom. There was no reason to move except her father had given them a house so she was trapped into moving out and Jax wanted them to live on their own. And now that Gemma was going to be moving in, Ava finally found the motivation to finish choosing materials that could be gotten and installed quickly so they could move in while TB was off on his honeymoon..

Jax was excited to move into a nice new home that was clean from top to bottom. His house had been grungy when he moved in and he'd done little to improve it. In a few short months, he'd gone from being a prison inmate to living in a new beautiful home.

He let Ava take the lead in decorating it. She'd picked a soft parchment gold for the walls that looked surprisingly good. They got a turquoise sofa and arm chairs and some red, turquoise and gold geometric patterned throw pillows, a dining table and chairs, a TV for the combination family room and kitchen, desks and chairs for their office and a bed and bedroom furniture. They would get more accessories once they settled in.

Jax took Ava to Costco. She hadn't been to a grocery store since she was six before her mother died. Costco was on a whole new level. Jax found her enthusiasm as she marveled at the size and the wide variety of merchandise infectious. They needed two carts to buy everything they needed to set up their house cookware, dishes, utensils, measuring cups and spoons, coffee maker, toaster, toilet paper, towels and everything that Jax had taken for granted because Gemma had set up his house for him. Jax also got a charcoal grill because he loved to barbeque.

They ate hot dogs in Costco's food court and got a pizza to take with them for dinner. Ava enjoyed the huge big box shopping experience. She could hardly wait until they went again.

The next day, Ava with Jax's guidance loaded the dishwasher with their new dishes, glasses and silverware and washed them. She washed all their cookware by hand while Jax put together the grill. He wanted to grill steaks for their first real dinner in their house. They got deli potato salad and prepared garlic bread in its own foil bag that he put on the grill to warm through. It was Jax's idea of a perfect summer meal.

Ava wasn't sure how she was feeling. There were a lot of changes and she never realized how much work there was to living on her own. She found herself actually glad that Jax was around to help with everything. It wasn't until she'd moved from her father's house that she realized how completely unprepared she was for life on her own.

For the first time, she felt married. Before when Jax was staying in her room, he'd felt like a visitor. Now he felt like a permanent fixture in her life and it worried her. There was a reason romance novels and Hallmark movies ended when the couple got together—it got boring after that.

Ava had been mulling over a big decision. She hated having to borrow her father's house van whenever she wanted to do much shopping. Her car wasn't practical. She didn't have anyone in Paradise Falls she needed to impress with it. She and Jax needed a car of their own.

She mentioned it to Jax. He was against her selling her car to buy another one. He thought she should keep it and they would get another car because he had also been thinking they needed a real car because grocery shopping wasn't practical with Ava's car or his bike. Ava insisted on getting rid of her car because that was her old life and a new car was a symbol of her new life.

Jax wanted to sell the car for her to get top dollar, but Ava wanted it done quickly. He suspected she wanted to shock her father with getting rid of her Ferrari. He contacted Ferrari dealerships with pictures of the car. A couple of guys from the dealerships came out, looked at the car and made offers. Jax picked the highest one and in less than three days, Ava and Jax were driving a brand new Toyota SUV. He insisted that Ava put the left over cash in her bank account and not their joint account.

That night, Ava was going to make dinner for the first time in her life. She decided on a simple menu of tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches. Jax showed her how to use a can opener. She dumped the soup out into a saucepan and cranked up the heat. Next, she buttered the bread, put in four slices of American cheese because she'd seen from a commercial that was the correct cheese to use and put the bread in the toaster. Seconds later, the toaster began to smoke. Ava watched thinking that might be normal for a new toaster. She'd never used one before.

Jax was in the family room putting together a shelving unit they had gotten at Ikea. He sprinted into the kitchen and unplugged the toaster just as it caught fire.

"The toaster is defective," Ava said giving the toaster a reproachful look.

"Ava what did you put in it?" Jax demanded.

"I was making toasted cheese sandwiches, so I buttered the bread, put cheese on it and put it in the toaster."

"You don't make toasted cheese sandwiches by putting them in a toaster. You put them in a pan and cook them on each side to toast the bread and melt the cheese," Jax said. He'd seen Gemma do it a hundred times.

By now, the tomato soup was smoking and he switched off the burner.

"Did you put water or milk in the soup?" he asked.

"Why?"

"You're supposed to. Did you read the directions?"

"I thought I just needed to dump it in a pan and heat it up."

"You have to look at the can. Some soups you add water to."

"Guess we'll need to get a new toaster," Ava said sadly.

Jax resisted the impulse to berate Ava for her stupidity because he knew that would lead to a fight or tears. Ava knew what she did wrong and wouldn't do it again. There was no need for there to be a fight.

"Ava, you're a smart girl. Next time, read the can and ask your phone about how to make toasted cheese sandwiches. Now, you want Chinese for dinner tonight?"

Ava put her arms around Jax and hugged him.

"Thank you for not being a jerk. Chinese will be great. When Chef Miriam gets back from vacation, I'll pay her to give me cooking lessons. Make a list of the stuff you want me to learn to cook."

Jax stroked Ava's hair.

"How about I join you for part of your cooking lessons? I had cooking in high school, but I wouldn't mind learning a few things."

Jax and Ava split the household chores and he was going to be doing the cooking a couple of days a week. He might as well learn with Ava.

She hugged him harder.

"That's a great idea. I'll make a good dinner tomorrow."

He kissed her deepening the kiss as he ran his hands up her shirt. She knew when she met him that he was the type of guy who kissed a girl and tried to sleep with her. Now she had to admit that she would have been disappointed if he didn't try now. He didn't disappoint her because Jax Teller never disappoints the ladies.

The next night, Ava made chili dogs with cheese. She checked with her phone and got the ratings for the different types of canned chili and got the highest rated one. She did the same with the hot dogs. She made French fries by reading the directions on the back of the bag. Aside from the disastrous tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwich night, it was the first time she'd made dinner. She was proud of herself because the food actually tasted good and Jax ate four chili dogs.

"That was very good."

"I think I want to try to learn to cook on my own before I get lessons. There's lots of stuff on the internet and TV."

"I'm proud of you," Jax said.

He realized that Ava's upbringing had deprived her of independence because everything had been done for her.. He was pleased that she was enjoying doing things for herself. He wouldn't have much patience if she'd played the helpless entitled princess.

"I made dessert," she said with a grin.

"You made dessert?" Jax asked skeptically.

"Well, I followed the directions on the package. Those are really helpful."

"What did you make?"

"Chocolate chip cookies because I know you like them. They came out perfectly. I didn't burn them," Ava said going over and putting some on a plate. "I just set the timer on my phone."

The fact that Ava made him chocolate chip cookies because she knew he liked them meant a lot to Jax. Ava was really trying hard. They had both grown a lot since he'd been in the hospital near death and he'd asked for chocolate chip cookies.

"Does this mean you don't mind that I'm out of prison?" he teased her.

"Well, sometimes I don't mind that you're out."

"You're a cold-hearted woman," Jax said before taking a bite out of a cookie.

The next day Gemma and TB were due to get back from their honeymoon. Both Jax and Ava were dreading their return, but Jax more than Ava because he knew what his mother was capable of and that worried him. He would have to keep his guard up.

Author's Note: I wanted to do a little chapter with Jax and Ava making a life together. You see Jax really thinking about Ava and why she can't do things for herself and you see Ava learning to enjoy doing things for herself. I don't know if doing what Ava did would cause a toaster to catch on fire, but I didn't want to do any first hand research.