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Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run

Chapter 177 Ouch!

Watching Jax and Scarlett together was torture. It wasn't the 50 Shades good kind where it hurts but feels good on some level. It was just all hell, pain and horror with a carnival sound track. This was her new reality.

Jax was with someone else who seemed to make him happy because he was always smiling and happy when she saw them together. She knew that if she were a better person, she would be happy that he had found someone.

She was a long way from becoming that better person. She had serious doubts that she would ever be glad that he was with another woman. She wasn't perfect. She was going to quit beating herself up for her many faults and just accept them.

This was a test for her. She had to walk up to Jax and Scarlett have a brief conversation and leave the carnival. Once this was over, the next time wouldn't be as bad. In small town Charming, running into the happy couple was going to happen.

Now, she could see the good side to losing Jax. If she couldn't rekindle their romance, she could get the hell out of this small minded town. Focus on this part of not being with Jax. She got to leave Charming.

She forgot about Gemma. Being free of Jax, also made her Gemma free. She hated that bitch. See, she reassured herself, there were lots of good things about not being with Jax. With her head in a better place, she walked up to Jax and Scarlett.

"Are you enjoying the carnival?" she asked Scarlett.

"I am. I told Jax I can't remember the last time I went to a carnival."

"How are y . . ." Tara broke off as Wilda half staggered, half ran past her.

"She escaped. She bit me too," a man said to Jax.

"I'll be right back," Jax told the women as he left with the man.

"Do you know what's going on?" Tara asked.

"Wilda's drunk and Jax and Clay found her a ride home."

"My father was an alcoholic too, but he wasn't the Wilda kind. He was the kind that came home from work, ate dinner and then had four or five drinks before bed."

"The invisible alcoholic," Scarlett said.

"Exactly. Everyone thinks to be an alcoholic you have to be the Wilda kind of drunk or the violent drunk, but sometimes it's quiet."

"This is a little awkward," Scarlett said.

"It's Charming. That's the way it is. I have tried to think of a physio place that could help you, but there just isn't anywhere great."

"That's nice of you."

"I used to be with Jax and you're with him now. That doesn't mean we can't be friends. I don't hate you because you're with him. You didn't take him away from me. I lost him and it was more than a decade ago."

"I'm glad you feel that way. I don't like feeling like I'm the villain in some Lifetime or Hallmark movie."

"I know the kind where one girl is scheming and sucks the fun out of the guy."

"And the good girl is usually ruthlessly perky," Scarlett added.

"I like that. Ruthlessly perky."

"For once, I'd love for the guy to tell the bouncy cheerful girl that he can't stand another minute of her sunny personality."

"Love it. Next scene, he's gone goth with dyed black hair and eyeliner."

Scarlett laughed.

"It would be the biggest twist ever in a Lifetime or Hallmark movie. Of course, then the guy wakes up and realizes it was all a dream and there is the perky girl with a wedding ring on her finger, but in a twist within a twist, he longs to have the courage to be goth guy."

"He just doesn't have the balls to do it," Tara picked up one Scarlett's idea. "All those guys just seem too antiseptic for me. The guys look good, but there is just no sex appeal."

"What I really hate is they portray women as hunting for a man. Their lives can't be complete without one. I don't need anyone to complete me. That's why I don't understand the dating shows where women are in a pack, they throw in some guy who is fresh meat and the girls fight for him like animals in a jungle."

"I feel the same way," Tara said.

Tara planned to make friends with Scarlett to get to Jax, but she found herself actually liking her. Maybe women didn't have to demonize each other in a competition for a man.

Jax returned with a couple of scratch marks marring the tattoos on the lower part of his arms.

"She won't escape this time. We put her in the trunk. He'll let her out when he gets to her place. She wrecked her car in her last DUI and its almost ten miles to get here."

"That was kind of you," Tara said. "It's better than spending days in lock-up. Detoxing from alcohol can be fatal even under medical supervision."

"I'm not going to keep looking after Wilda."

"I don't think Wilda will ever get sober. My father may have had a drinking problem, but he never drove drunk or hurt anyone."

"Your dad was a good guy," Jax said.

Tara's eyes filled with tears. Her father's death was still a recent loss.

"Thanks, Jax," she said softly. She cleared her throat and looked at Scarlett. "You want to grab lunch some time?"

"Sure," Scarlett agreed.

"Give me a call at the hospital or Jax has my number."

"OK."

Tara saw the surprise in Jax's eyes. She had gotten in a few cat fights here and there when girls tried to cross the line with Jax.

There wasn't just surprise in Jax's eyes. She saw approval. He liked this new adult version of her. Maybe she could really get him back.