CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

Website where all photos of all outfits mentioned is on my profile.

Between leaving the house and pulling into the car park on Main Street mid-way between the paint shop and the flooring place my phone rings three times. The first call from Gemma is to let me know that a huge box has been delivered marked Jimmy Choo. The excited squeal that comes out of my mouth has her laughing down the phone and telling me she's had it put in the back of the office for me.

The second call from Donna is a quick question of if I want her to bring anything for dinner that night, glancing at Jax I consider the stuff I brought the previous day and give her a negative answer. Asking if the kids are coming has her laughing in a distracted way and informing me that Grandma and Grandpa are taking them out to eat.

The third call is from Mandy who lets me know that the valuation is there if I want to come by and have a look at it, making a tentative time to come see her an hour later I do let her know that I'm not sure if we'll be on time. I'm told that she'll be in the office all morning and whenever we make it is fine.

Jax shakes his head as he parks my truck into a spot and pulls the key from the ignition "I was right."

"What's that baby?" I ask, tossing my phone back in my bag and undoing my seatbelt.

"Coupla things, one that this is an okay cage to drive, not that I did much of it. The other, that you spend a lot of time sorting shit for other people." He opens the door and gets out, stopping at the front to wait for me.

Linking my fingers through his we walk towards the carpet place first. "I don't mean to be seen as organising everyone, I guess because everything was out of my control for so long I grasp hold of the control I can get now with both hands and a death grip."

Jax squeezes my fingers and smiles at a couple of the locals I recognise but couldn't name "Sarah, no one is going to worry about it. If they do you know all our friends will tell you before it becomes an issue."

I chuckle "I know. I can imagine I would be told in very precise ways where to stick it if my organising became meddling."

Jax pulls the door open and holds it for me "It would be exact and very detailed." He agrees nodding once.

The person behind the counter looks up as we enter and blinks several times; probably trying to work out if Jax wants a patch to cover a bloodstain or an off cut to hold a body. The morbid thought makes me giggle as we head into the corner where all the vinyls are in their display books.

Jax and I flick through the pages my nose wrinkling further with each of the hideous patterns we pass; one that's bright pink with purple stars on it makes me laugh out loud. Flicking past the last one I sigh.

"I guess we'll have to rethink the flooring in the bathrooms."

Jax nods and continues past the vinyl displays to the wall of tiles "What about that? It kinda looks like the basins upstairs."

I duck under his arm letting it settle on my shoulders "We could do a pattern with those two."

The black and white tiles that are in the section labelled as being marble. The price makes me cringe a little with the fact it's going to be laid in four bathrooms, the kitchen and the storage room off the kitchen. The person behind the counter finally realises that we're actually looking to buy stuff and not just browsing she jumps up from her seat and comes over, grabbing a pad of paper as she comes.

Stepping up beside us she smiles brightly "What can I help you with today?"

I gesture towards Jax and leave him to be the front person in the organising of carpet, his constant presence in town may help, if not the panty-dropping smile that crosses his face may help as well.

"We're in the process of redecorating our new house; we've got to do flooring through the whole place. We've got 5 rooms to be tiled with those. And carpet for 12 rooms, including 5 bedrooms." The poor girls face drops when Jax tells her the magnitude of what we're looking for before she must suddenly realise the side of the commission she'll get if she has everything we want.

"Wow, that's a huge house, do you know the measurements of the rooms?"

Jax shakes his head "No, we'll need someone to come measure the areas and give us a quote for the installation of it all."

After she writes some notes in her book of the tiles we've chosen and the number of rooms beside it we move to the carpet. I don't bother looking through the whole book but ask her if she can show me the grey carpets they have. I only have to flick past five before I find two side by side that are perfect for what I want; Jax nods his agreement and tells the woman writing notes that we want those two, telling her the lighter one is for 8 rooms and the darker one for 4.

Heading back to her desk she has a quick look through a diary on the bench "I have two appointments to do a quote left for this week, we've got one on Wednesday and one Friday afternoon."

Jax glances over at me and I shake my head "Have to be Friday; we're going to San Francisco on Wednesday."

Booking a time in for Friday at 2pm we walk back out the door and down the street. David steps out from one of the businesses between the two shops and catches a look at us. I sigh and lean my head against Jax's arm "I forgot to take the receipt for the helmets to him. Bet that's the first thing we hear about."

Jax chuckles and nods "Probably."

Sure enough almost as soon as we're in ear shot David calls out a short greeting then the expected "Didn't see you with proof of purchase for helmets, did you get one dear cousin."

The sarcasm at the end of his sentence makes me want to pull my own hair out but instead I just nod and start fishing through my bag "I did get one, well in fact I got more than one. Give me a second, the docket is here somewhere."

Sure enough at the bottom of the bag I find the receipt and pull it out "There." Shoving it into his hand I give him a few seconds to look at it, long enough to see the word helmet and quantity beside it before pulling it back and returning it to my bag. "Now, we have stuff to do, be seeing you."

Brushing past him I slide my hand into Jax's and pull him with me.

When we're out of ear shot Jax tugs my arm and makes me slow my steps "What was that about?"

I smile up at him "I don't want him to know that I shared the knowledge of his impending departure. I figure it's better to wait till he tries to be an asshole and then remind him that in 6 months what happens in Charming will have nothing to do with him."

Jax chuckles "You really are evil. Just as well I love you for it." Kissing me on the temple again he steps in front of me and pulls the door open to the massive paint store tucked in the middle of Charming.

It doesn't take long for us to go through the paint charts and pick the 7 paint colours that we both like, but a quick discussion with one of the sales people has me realising that the desire for marbled paint on the kitchen cupboards may be harder than I thought. He helpfully tells us that it would be best to talk to whoever we're getting to build the kitchen cabinetry and they may be able to help us more.

My distracted nod has Jax sorting the list of paint colours to pass to a painting contractor.

Stepping back out of the shop a little over 30 minutes after we went in Jax tugs me to a stop in the middle of the footpath "What's up?"

I giggle the sound distracted, distressed and annoyed all at once "I completely forgot that I have to sort out an entire new kitchen."

Jax shrugs and tightens his arm around my neck "We'll sort something out, after we come back from San Francisco. You're not going to be doing the kitchen fit out til after the painting and flooring is done anyway, are you?"

I shake my head "Course not. Guess we'll have to go to Stockton or something won't we?"

Jax nods "I'll talk to Ma; she had their kitchen redone while you were away."

"I noticed that, what was she thinking of, all that polished wood it just makes that room so dark." I shudder, the couple of times I'd spent cooking in there since my return while the size and layout was amazing the darkly stained cupboards and floor just made the room seem smaller.

Jax shrugs "Dunno, guess she thought it'd be better than any girly shit. That way Clay actually goes into the kitchen."