Juice Ortiz took a swig of the beer in his hand, as he looked out Jax's front window at Tara and Jax's new neighbour across the street. The petite woman with sturdy shoulders and a firm but curvy frame; haul box after box into the newly sold house. He knew the house had been on the market for a while and had entertained the idea of purchasing it for rental purposes himself but the earnings through the club had been slow and far between lately with all the set backs they had run into. He thought it better to sit on it for a while, and apparently the lovely new neighbour had moved on the reduce price that the relator had placed on the house a few months back.
He also new that the house had gone through some major construction upgrades after it was bought. He'd been around Jax's place enough in the past few months to see the workers going in and out of the house.
The U-Haul had been parked ass backwards in the front driveway, and gave the neighbourhood the view of the contents that were inside. She had been making pretty steady progress since him, Jax and Opie had rode in on their bikes for lunch with Tara.
"Prev much Juice?" Tara asked as she cleaned up the empty plates from the kitchen table. The cut out in the wall allow her to see their front lawn through the living room window's and where Juice had firmly planted himself not long after lunch had finished.
Juice had taken to spending more time with the Samcro vp's Jax and his woman. Time which included an occasional lunch on a weekend or a rare movie night out when the club didn't interfere. It never seemed to bother Tara much, and for that Juice was thankful.
Juice turned to look back at the pretty brunette with a smile on his face. As much as he enjoyed hanging around with Chibs and Tig, it was a relief not to be the whipping boy all the time. It seemed that both he and Opie were hanging around Jax and Tara more lately. Each hoping to catch a little something different off the couple; Opie, a little happiness he once had but now lost, and Juice well he was still figuring out what he was looking for.
"You know me Tara, can't resist a pretty face." Juice replied as he took another drink of his beer. He turned back to the window to see the pretty auburn haired woman return to retrieve more boxes from the back of the U-Haul truck. He heard heavy footsteps and knew Opie was walking towards him.
"Look's like a heavy load for such a small thing." Opie comment as he watched the woman haul another large box of the truck. She fumbled a bit before reasserting her grip and trudging into the house.
"She's been unloading by herself since the morning." Tara told the boys, as she put the dirty dishes into the sink and began to wipe down the table.
"Really, she's been on her own all day?" Jax asked as he joined his boys at the front of the house. He had missed his best friend Opie while he was on his month long ride, but he understood that Opie needed and deserved some time to himself after Donna's death. Losing Donna in such a violent way made Jax question club life just a little bit more then he already had from his father's journal. He couldn't begin to imagine what he would do if he lost Tara. Juice's happy go lucky nature seem to up lift the sad tempo that danced around Opie, and for that Jax welcome the intelligence officer into their fold more.
"Yeah, saw the truck pull up just shy of ten this morning. Her pickup was here when I woke up this morning. The guy that was driving it left shortly after the truck got there. Just been her all day slugging those boxes into the house." Tara told the boys as she turned on the hot water and added soap to the sink.
Juice watch the woman reappear from the house and disappear into the back of the U-Haul. He liked to watch they way her body move, feet sure of where they were going, hips swinging and those jean shorts made her ass look better then good.
"Wonder what she's going to do when she get's to the real heavy stuff." Opie lifted his beer to his mouth and shifted his stance a bit. It was a bit odd, he suppose watching a lone good looking female through the window's of his best friends house but, he's seen and done much odder things then this in Charming.
" I think we are about to find out." Jax gave a bit of a chuckle as the three of them watched a girl half his size drag a full size couch down the back of the U-Haul.
"Are you seriously going to stand there and watch her unload the rest of that shit by herself?" Tara had come out of the kitchen with the dish towel in hand and an eyebrow raised at Jax.
Juice put his beer down on the side table by the door and was almost across Jax's front lawn by the time Tara had finished her sentence.
Jax laughed under his breath and elbowed Opie in the ribs." Guess Juice want's to play the good neighbour."
" I bet that's not the only thing he wants to play." Opie replied as he moved towards the front door.
"Real funny guys." Tara gave Jax a little push towards the front door after Opie." I'll be over to introduce myself after I finish the dishes."
"Your such a nice neighbour, babe." Jax teased as he gave Tara a playful kiss on the lips before walking out the door behind Opie. This might be what Tara needed, a girl who wasn't so weighed down in club shit. Maybe it would lighten her up a little bit and give her a little more confidence when it came to herself. In the hospital, Tara knew she what she was about, she knew her role and was comfortable doing what she knew best. But when it came to being his old lady, she let the other cro eaters walk all over her. he hated seeing that but knew if he continued to step in between them and her it would only get worse when he wasn't around.
Bran stopped pulling on the heavy ass couch and swore under her breath. What in the hell was she thinking when she refused to pay for the unloading service that came with the delivery of her belongings. Clearly, it was a moment of pure idiocy on her part.
She was no stranger to heavy lifting or hard work, but after driving most of the week from out east, cleaning the house top to bottom this morning then unloading box after box most of the day by herself she was almost burnt dry and still had at least half left to go and a full pick up full of shit left. The pick up was still packed to the brim even after she had unloaded her tools as she liked to refer to them as.
Bran pulled the handkerchief out of the back pocket of her shorts and wiped the sweat off her forehead and the back of her neck. She didn't think she would ever get used to the California heat. Why did she take that ugly ass couch anyway?
"Fuck it all to hell." Bran muttered as she shook her head and stuffed the red and black handkerchief back into her pocket. She placed her hands on the arm of the couch and gave a good pull. She had moved it back several footsteps and was picking up momentum moving towards the ramp of the back of the truck when she head a male voice, shouting at her.
"Hey, wait." Juice watch half in horror and the other half in amusement at this scrap of girl dragging a big, ugly ass couch down the back of the U-Haul. She had the angle all wrong, and was two foot steps from landing on her ass when she missed the ramp completely. " Let me help you."
"It's all right." Bran called back, without turning her head to look at the caller. She almost had it to the ramp and was too stubborn to think about how the hell she was going to get it into the house. ' I got it. No need to trouble your-"
Bran's sentence hung in the air as her right foot felt nothing but air and threw her balance to shit. She couldn't stop the momentum of the couch nor could she stop herself from falling. As her body jerked backward, all she could see was the shit brown and vomit green couch flying forward towards her face as her hands pushed down on the arm she was holding onto.
Juice saw the woman miss the ramp, and as her body fell towards the hard pavement of the drive way, her hands pushed down on the arm of the couch trying to right herself. Juice threw one his hands out trying to catch the couch before it landed on the poor girl and the other trying to catch the damsel in distress before she hit the ground.
He missed.
Catching the damsel that is. The couch he caught no problem but the girl he looked down at just in time to see his hand catch her in the side of the mouth and her body hit the ground with a hard whack.
"Shit." he swore looking down at the pretty faced woman with the split lip, laid out on the black pavement of the drive way.
"Nice save Juice." Jax chuckled as he watched Juice manoeuvre the couch back onto the ramp.
Bran laughed at herself, the spilt lip she had, and the dull ache in the back of her head. Wasn't this just the thing that happened to her. She touched a hand to her lip, wiping away the little bit of blood from the cut. She'd had worse before.
"I didn't see you two helping me." Juice bit out as he leaned down to help the girl up. His face was flush with guilt from her spilt lip. His ring must have caught her pretty plump bottom lip when he reached for her by mistake. "Sorry about your lip."
"It's alright." Bran smiled at the man who reached down with a hand out. She reached up, placed her small hand in his larger one and felt the strength behind him as he pulled her to her feet. She rubbed the back of her head with one hand and took a look at him, as she righted her glasses with the other. He was at least a head taller then her, but then it was a rare person who wasn't taller then her 5'4 frame. He had a mohawk, a perfectly straight three finger wide strip of dark chocolate brown hair clipped close to his scalp, with light brown skin on either side of that hawk. And tattoo's, on his head of what she first thought was some kind of tribal designs, but on the second look she doesn't know what the hell they could be. He's got a mile wide smile that makes her want to return it til, her spilt lip aches at the attempt. He had other tattoo's, three between his two arms and he wore leather and jean's in the California heat. Which made her think he was a little bit crazy. Sexy but fucking crazy.
There is something written on his leather vest, and before she can read it she realizes he was looking at her, starring at him. Her face flushes a bit, but she isn't sure if it's embarrassment from being caught checking him out or from the heat. She usually was better at hiding her looks.
She'll blame it on the heat.
"It doesn't pay to be stubborn." Bran says, as she reaches up to touch her lip that only aches slightly less the her head. It was still bleeding, which was annoying. " I think the couch would have hurt worse then your hand."
"My bad, I sometimes have shit coordination." Juice tells her as he sticks out his hand and introduces himself to her. He liked the fact that he caught her checking him out. It filled him with a sense of pride, usually he was the guy that got the left overs. Well as left over as you can get from the cro eater. " I'm Juice."
"That's no the only thing he had bad coordination with." Opie mutter's to Jax, as he watched the woman peer around Juice.
Hearing the another deep voice, caused Bran to break eye contact with the good looking would be rescuer and look around him at the two men dressed in a similar fashion to Juice. A tall blonde with shaggy jaw length hair, and well kept beard. He wore blue jeans, and a white t-shirt under that black leather vest. His shiny white kicks stood out among the other mens steel toe boots. His companion would tower over a regular sized man, and Bran knew if she stood next to him she would put a nasty crick in neck from looking up at him. His hair was hidden behind a black knit cap, while he had a long pointed beard. His size twelve boots were spread wide and his thick arms were crossed over his leather vest. His dark clothes seem to go along well with the sad look in his eyes.
"Bran." She replied, shaking Juice's hand with a firmer handshake then Juice expected. The handshake went on longer then socially necessary and caused her to break contact with him when she noticed it. " Your name is Juice? For what, juice box?'
" Your riding me about my name and yours sounds like the fibre cereal." joked Juice. He was relieved when she laughed at his weak ass joke. He turned and introduced his boys to her. "This is Jax and Opie. Your actually Jax's neighbour."
"Imagine that." Bran moved around Juice to shake both Jax's and Opie's hands. The house directly across from her's had three motorcycle's parked in it's driveway. She assumed that this was Jax's house. She had heard them come roaring in and successfully ruined the quiet of the street. Seeing as they came home just before 12, they must have rode home for lunch. Be friendly, she reminded herself."It's nice to meet some people in the neighbourhood."
"We've got some time before we need to be back at the club house so we can help you with your furniture." Jax said moving towards the truck, with Opie at his heels.
"Oh, no I can't ask you to do that." Bran said shaking her head as she watched Jax and Opie pick up her kitchen table and start to move it down the truck.
Juice was already moving towards the couch picking up the end and looking at her expectantly.
"You might as well let them help you." came a female voice from behind her. A brunette had walked across the street from the house where the bikes were. She was three inches taller then Bran, dressed in causal clothing, jean cut off shorts and a grey tank top. " It does good for their manly pride to help the little woman from across the street, lift heavy things."
Bran laughed and extended her hand to the woman. "I don't think I thought the unloading portion out very well. "
" Bran this is Tara, Jax's girlfriend." Juice made the introduction for both women, he watched them shake hands and eye each other up. He personally thought it was in Tara's best interest to meet and befriend other women outside of the fucked up recycled shit that goes on with the club life. Tara was not your usual cro eater, so she shouldn't have to always be around the Samcro bed warmers. 'Specially when most of the women were trying to fuck her man behind her back. " It's no trouble for us to help you."
"Juice, that couch ain't going to move it self man." Jax mutter as he and Opie waited for Juice to move the couch out of their way if he was planning on spending the day starring at his new neighbour.
"Shit, I'll help you Juice." Bran replied as she saw Jax and Opie waiting for Juice to move the couch from blocking the ramp. she helped Juice shift the couch enough that Jax and Opie passed by them, lifting the table high over the couch. Bran grabbed the end of the couch nearest to her, and cursed herself for bringing it again. Sentimental value be damned, she should have just bought a new one.
"I'll grab the lamps and small pieces." Tara offered as she watch Jax and Opie manoeuvre the table into the front door. She scouted around the couch and walked further back int o the U-Haul. Tara picked up two lamps and waited for Juice and Bran to move the couch so she could exit the truck.
Juice had swung the couch around so he was the one walking backwards, seeing as Bran had shit coordination, not that he was much better. He took smaller steps so her short legs could keep up.
The over cautious part of Bran warned her of the dangers of letting men she didn't know into her house but she was her to have a normal life and that consisted in having helpful neighbours.
Besides it would take her days to lug all this shit in and her guns were well hidden in their new homes hours ago.
"Where does this ugly fucker go?'" Juice asked as Bran smiled at him, her eyes twinkling at him. "Please tell me some where close. This is one heavy fucker."
"You think my couch is ugly?' Bran try not to stare at the way his muscles flex in that tight t-shirt as he walked with the couch in his hands. She was going to be hard pressed to control her baser instincts when it came to this man. Good lord, it had been a long time since a man made her just a little bit wet this fast.
"Are you kidding me?" Juice tried to keep his eyes on her face, but her chest was right about the couch arm and he was only a humble man. Her breast weren't as big as some of the porn stars at Cara Cara but she wasn't flat chested by all means. She had enough for him to enjoy, and if he had any game at all he would be.
Sooner rather then later.
" So maybe the colours don't really work together." Bran said as she watch Juice check behind him as they moved the couch into the front door. Opie and Jax had already deposited the table in the kitchen and were waiting to get out the front door.
"You got that end?" Opie asked her as she passed by him.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Bran replied with a friendly smile. The couch was heavy but Bran wasn't lacking in the pride department, it ranked right up there with her stubbornness." Just drop your end over there, Juice." Bran nodded to the corner of the living room furthest from the entry way.
Jax watched Juice and Bran looking at each other when the other one wasn't looking. He recognized the look in Juice's eyes. He had seen it on it on his own face years ago, looking in the mirror. It was the realization that you want someone that is too good for you. Jax turned at the front door, as Tara entered with arms full. She was his someone to good. Always was, even back then when they were 16 and running wild in the streets.
Juice may not know it yet, but Jax knew what his poor brother was looking for these past months. He was looking for an old lady. He was looking for his Tara.