CHAPTER FOURTEEN

By the time we leave the Home Depot car park later I've ordered the granite that I want for my kitchen bench, having ordered at least twice the amount that I think I'll need, I'm not sure if it'll be the Sons installing it or someone else and I want to be prepared for any fuck ups that may happen. I've also gathered an enormous pile of paint charts to start picking paint colours and made the decision that once the painting is done I'll go to a carpet specialist to pick carpet and get it laid.

The drive back to Charming is full of Donna's random exhalations and expressions of her disbelief over my vehicular costs. She finally manages to get hold of herself as we pass the sign welcoming us to Charming when she looks over at me and smiles, "Sorry, that took a bit of internal ranting."

I giggle, "And external too. Don't think you realise how often something actually was vocalised."

Donna blushes a little, "So before we get to the garage can I ask you a couple of things?"

I nod, "Sure, anything."

"Does Jax know how much your cars cost?"

I shake my head, "Nope, I'm sure he has some sort of vague idea of the cost of them given that one is 3 years old and one is 2 and I brought them brand new."

"Does he know how much money you have?"

I nod, "He does."

"Do I get to know?"

"If you want, if you think it will make you feel better about the house rebuild and refurnish then I'll tell you, but if I tell you I want to tell Ope as well to make him feel better about it as well. If you come over for dinner tonight we'll talk about it, k?"

Donna nods, "Who else knows?"

"What I'm worth?" At Donna's continuing nod I think, "Umm, the complete list of people who know my net worth is; my lawyer, my life insurance company, Al, Jax, Cam. I think that's it."

"Derek knows too remember." Al says from the backseat.

"Oh yeah and Derek. Cam's dad." I finish, turning on to Main Street the giant Teller-Morrow sign at the end of the street one of the most welcome sights that I've seen in a while.

"God I wonder if we're going to be mobbed for the coffee machine." I muse quietly as I cross the final intersection before the driveway.

"Probably." Donna says "If they've been without coffee for the day they're going to be grumpy."

I giggle as I turn into the drive, my foot almost instantly twitching to slam on the brake where we are. "Oh hell no!" I snarl, pulling Gemma's car into her park as I undo my seatbelt and jumping out of the car, the car off but the key still in the ignition.

Al and Donna are both still sitting in their seats when I stalk around the back of the car and straight across the lot to where Jax is sitting on the end of one of the picnic benches. His eyes shoot up and meet mine and a faint look of relief crosses his face.

I completely ignore the reason for my irate state and step up to the table, right between Jax's legs and wrap my arms around his neck. "Hey baby, I'm back."

I press my lips to his, tangling my fingers in his hair and trace my tongue across his bottom lip, the micro second that it takes his arms to wrap around me and pull me close as my eyes drift closed is enough to watch the shock appear on Ima's overly made up face.

Kissing Jax right now there is nothing soft in the meeting of our lips, our tongues aren't gently caressing but the long strokes of his over mine are full of pressure, his teeth graze my lip and his tongue wraps around the top of my tongue stud tugging it upwards.

My breath is coming in hard gasps when I detangle myself from his, pulling away very reluctantly.

"Good shopping?" Jax asks, his forehead resting on mine.

I nod, my eyes flicking to Ima so he catches the movement, the expression that crosses his face is one of irritation.

"Ima heard the coffee machine broke and brought some in for us all."

I twist where I'm standing and lean against Jax's chest. "Thanks, where's Jax's?"

She scowls and hands me a cup which I take a tentative sip of his drink before handing it back to her. "He won't drink that."

"Why don't you ask him if he'll drink it?" Ima says, her tone challenging.

I wave my arm and she passes it to Jax who takes a mouthful, I can feel him tense up as he swallows forcefully. "I'm good." He hands the cup back to her and she looks confused.

"It's Tig that has 3 sugars in his coffee. Jax has one." I lean back and twist my head so I can look at Jax. "New machine is in the car if you wanna come help me set it up."

Jax nods and I step away from him, being held in place by the arm that's still wrapped around my waist while he hops off the table. We open the back of Gemma's caddy and he shakes his head, "You couldn't help yourself?"

I shake my head at him, dropping my bottom lip. "Nope. They didn't have what I wanted to get so I had to get two of the second choice." Jax picks up one of the boxes while I grab the other and we go to set them up.

Because it's similar to the one that we had in one of the café's I'd worked in it only takes 10 minutes before they are running brewing coffee for the impatient horde that's gathered around the door when the smell of coffee started drifting out.

The coffee pots are almost full when Donna shoves her way through the waiting crowd, which is really only made up of Hap, Tig, Opie, Clay and Piney. "I'm going to get the kids. We'll be at yours at 7 for dinner?"

I nod, "Bring the kids, if you want. Can you let Gemma know that I'll come by her place after LA instead of tonight?" I sigh quietly, I'm missing Doj but time seems to be passing so rapidly I can't find five minutes to spend with the animal.

Donna nods and I hand her the first cup of coffee before she leaves, the groans from the guys behind her making me laugh. "It's for Gem, you wanna argue?"

They all quickly slam their mouths shut and Donna walks back through with the cup in her hand.

The first pot is almost entirely emptied by the time I get Clay and Piney huge mugs full. The second pot appears in front of me and Tig, Happy and Opie get full cups handed to them. Tipping the last of it into two other cups I hand one to Jax and watch as he adds a single sugar, still grimacing slightly at the overly sweetened coffee he'd been given.

Taking a sip he smiles his eyes crinkling, "That's much better."

"No diabetes in caffeine form." I giggle.

He shakes his head, "So Opie and D for dinner?"

I nod, "They need to know a bit more about why I'm so willing to pay for them to have a new house built."

Jax frowns, "You never said you were doing that."

I rest my head against his chest, his arms automatically going around me. "I want to, I've got Elliot's architect doing designs for them but I don't think Ope'll let me pay for it."

Jax puts his finger under my chin and forces me to look up at him "Maybe you need to tell him why you're doing it. If he gets it's not out of guilt he'll be much more willing to accept it."

I nod "Dinner tonight, I'll talk to him then."

Jax kisses me softly on the mouth, "Good. Now I better get back to work."

I watch him leave the room and take a few minutes to reset the coffee machines, setting the timers so that they'll start at 810 the following morning, by the time the guys arrive at 830 the coffee will be ready.

I'm not aware that there's someone standing behind me till I turn around, the blonde hair in the doorway is attached to a pair of eyes that are calculating in their assessment of me.