The text message simply commanded him to " come inside immediately "

That proved difficult, after noticing the lawn unmowed, and his son sitting with some young female next to the bonfire pit. While she seemed to catch his glance as he walked towards the house, Abel remained oblivious, and it was only his wife's request that kept Jax from interupting his sons break from work.

" Will you stop focusing on his jobs, and look at him?" Tara was frustrated. " He's happy...I haven't seen him like this for the past six months, and I don't think it's fair right now to deprive him of it "

Her husband was watching them from the window, as Tara blocked his way to the back door. True, he thought, Abel was looking happier than he'd been for awhile, but that wasn't an excuse to blow off his work.

" She's gotta go home, Tara. He can hook up on his own time, and I've had to kick his butt over this before. We can't back down, or it's gonna get worse and we'll loose him !" He hated being the bad guy in a situation like this, because Tara was usually the one who disapproved of the " bitches " Abel ended up with. Her attitude today caught him by surprise.

" Em, take these out to your brother " she instructed the 7 year old, handing her two cans of pop. As she skipped outside, she faced Jax defiantly.

Emily Teller almost adored her oldest brother. True, he would tease her sometimes, but most of the time he was easygoing. Her other brother, Tommy, was awful, and once, when he made her cry, Abel beat him up. That made her happy.

Sort of like now, she thought, sitting between him and this new girlfriend, babbling about her ant farm. She's different, Emily thought...I like this one...

Tommy rummaged thru the pantry, grabbing the syrup bottle, as Abel walked past, into the family room.

"Mom, where's your laptop? I need to get something for school."

Both his parents were in the middle of something, he thought, but couldn't read what exactly they were arguing about.

" For school?" this from Jax. Was he being sarcastic?

" Yea, there's some audio books on line, and I want two of em for my English Lit. I've already got the app on my phone, but ..." Abel shrugged, knowing they'd need no further explanation.

Tara watched her husband's expression of disbelief to surprise. She'd been trying to convince him of what was going on for the past half hour, and was relieved their son finally proved her point. Now she was trying not to smirk.

"Here, and don't screw with anything else on it...and NO MESSAGING , or I'll take your phone away altogether !" Abel accepted Tara's laptop, wondering why she thought this was funny. And dad was pissed, but what the fuk was that about? Then he remembered the lawn.

" I need to order mandrels for the mower, Dad. I can still run it, but they're real noisy, and the belt jumped a couple times already."

He stopped halfway into the kitchen, noticing Tommy, as he squirted Mrs Butterworth into his open mouth.

" Let's look for those when your online then..did you finish the mini van? " Jax asked, relieved he wasn't gonna have to confront Abel over that.

" The rotors need to be turned, and I wanna replace the front wheel bearings, but yea, it's done...can you ride with me when I test it?"

Jax glanced at Tara, trying to ignore her smirk. " Yea, we'll be out there in a little bit."

Abel walked quickly out with the laptop, but couldn't resist giving his brother a quick shove.

Caught in mid squeeze, the syrup shot over Tommy's face, hair and the kitchen floor.

" What the FUK, you common dik licker!" He sputtered angrily. He tried to throw the bottle , but Abel jumped out of the way, laughing.