CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

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Three hours later I'm still trying to work out what Clay was thinking ordering Church for before lunch on a Sunday when there had been a multi-charter party the night before. I'm sure that the only thing keeping most of the Sons awake at the moment is the almost constant stream of coffee that's been coming out of the kitchen, the massive grill that have been cranking out steaks for the last 25 minutes are probably helping as well.

The grin that Chibs shot at me as he stepped through the doors completely unexplainable until he came back out after they finished and sat beside me, leaning his forearms on the table his eyes fixed on mine "You do realise I know how much that booze you gave me cost don't you?"

I nod "Do I look worried?"

"No lass, ya don't. That's what concerns me. You dropped over 100K on a bottle of drink that vanished in a night and don't seem at all stressed about it. Jax okay with you using that sort of money on me?" Chibs glances over at Jax before looking back towards me.

I nod "He doesn't care. But he has told me I can't do it again."

Chibs laughs and the volume attracts Jax's attention, he heads towards us, sitting in the chair beside me. "What's all the noise about?"

"Chibs was worried that you'd tell me off for spending so much money on booze." I mutter, running my finger around the top of my empty coffee cup.

Jax snorts and rolls his eyes "Can't really do that after this morning's revelation now can I?"

Chibs' eyes flick between us "Anything you need to share?"

Jax shakes his head "As of sometime in the last 72 hours apparently I am mortgage free."

I wave my hand in the air in a dismissive gesture "Yes, and last night as a pre-celebration of something you didn't know was coming you had a 10 thousand dollar shot of scotch."

Jax's head stops mid shake and snaps towards me "What?"

I giggle "You heard me. You know what we spent on the scotch, and you saw how much of the bottle went after each glass. Did you not stop to work it out?"

Jax shakes his head "No, cause I wouldn't have drunk it if I'd thought about how much it was worth."

Chibs slaps his hand on Jax's back as he gets to his feet "Just as well ya didn't think of it then Jackie."

Chibs crosses the room and I turn my attention back to Jax "Are you that upset?"

He shrugs "About which thing, the booze or the money."

I roll my eyes "Aren't they both in the end the same issue. Are you upset I paid your mortgage from money that will be jointly yours in three days? Are you angry that we drank hugely expensive booze last night?" I stop and rub my forehead for a second before sighing "Jax, you asked me if things came easy to me and I told you that yes they do if I can throw money at them and make them disappear. Do you remember?"

Jax nods his head and opens his mouth but I shake my head quickly "Well, I threw some money at your mortgage and made it disappear. Do I regret doing it? Nope, not for a second. Did I expect you to react like this? Kind of. The fact of the matter is this though baby, I'm going to throw money at things if I know it will solve problems. I'll set fire to the fucken stuff if it will help someone I love. Yes, I have more money than I can use in a lifetime and while it is good for some things I would rather have my parents. But there comes the double edged sword, if my parents were still alive would I have still met you?"

I get to my feet and cross the room, my thoughts tangled in a web that I can't quite sort out at the moment. Sitting silently on one of the picnic benches outside I stare up at the clouds drifting through the sky for a few moments, my thoughts caught in that one dilemma, if my parents were alive would I have met Jax.

It takes a few minutes before I realise that Clay is sitting beside me at the picnic table, the cigar smoke what eventually penetrates the haze around my brain. I glance at him and see him intently watching me. "How much of that did you hear?"

Clay hands me my coffee cup now refilled which surprises me "I should congratulate him on being 23 and mortgage free, but I don't think he'd appreciate it right now. But I can answer something that I know is wiggling its way through your brain like a virus right now." Clay taps the end of his cigar and a shower of ash falls to the concrete drifting away in the breeze. "You would have met Jax even if Charles and Nicki were alive."

I fix my eyes on him "How do you know that? I wouldn't have ended up here if they had lived."

Clay shakes his head and looks across the lot to where Gemma is leaning against the door of her car talking quietly with Donna. "Gem and I were planning a delayed honeymoon. We were going to be coming to visit you guys in March, we'd put it off for that long to Jax could get used to it. He was going to be coming with us. Then I got the news about the plane crash."

I absently brush the tear from my eye, remembering that day never easy. "So why didn't you all come then?"

Clay wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me towards him "Gem wanted to come, but Jax was being a shit. Do you remember me spending hours on the phone?"

I nod, even in the absolute grief I felt then I was glad for Uncle Clay being there, but the tense expression that would cross his face when his phone rang is still ingrained in my mind.

Clay shakes his head "Jax didn't like that I was gone so fast after marrying his mother. We'd just started to get him to understand I wasn't going to go anywhere, and then I had to go."

"So that's why you only stayed for those two days?" Clay had flown in the day before my parent's service and left the day after.

Clay nods his eyes still flicking between Gemma who's now walking across the lot and my face "I should have stayed for the reading of the will. Then I would have been able to pick you up from the airport when you came in."

I shake my head "No, it's good the way it worked out. Uncle Jacob would never have let me go anywhere with you if not for Gem."

Gemma sits on the edge of the bench opposite us and frowns a little "What happened to Aunt Gemma?"

I giggle "Jax."

Gemma cocks an eyebrow and waves her hand for me to continue.

"Your son thought it a bit creepy that I was referring to his mother as 'Aunt', he also doesn't like it that there's an Uncle in front of Clay, but he'll get over it." I smile "Compromise and all that."

Clay laughs and Gemma's eyes roll towards the sky before she looks back at me and then towards Jax whose just coming through the door "I get it. I guess you'll just have to start calling me Mom."

I shake my head furiously, but am glad that she knows that it's not meant to hurt her, my mother, what I remember of her, had been an amazing woman. "Grandma will do I think. Or Gem."

Gemma nods and gets back to her feet, stopping Jax just out of ear shot, the conversation is short and his smile is brilliant and the fact he picks her up and swings her around in a hug makes a smile cross my own face.

Clay's arm is still around my shoulder and a gentle squeeze has my attention back on him "He loves you, I really am sorry for what I tried to do."

A tear wells in the corner of my eye and I furiously blink it away wrapping my arms around the greying biker's middle "I know Uncle Clay. I forgive you, but if you try and pull any shit like that again there will not be enough Sons to stop me for dismembering you."

Clay laughs, the sound echoing around the empty lot "Oh Sarah, I think if I tried that again most of them would help you. And my Old Lady would supply the chainsaw."