CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN

Website where all photos of all outfits mentioned is on my profile. I'm not sure what it's called in the US, in NZ its' called readylawn it's is basically rolls of grass in dirt that can be laid on bare soil that saves the hassle of growing grass from seed. Anyway, that's what I'm talking about when I say readylawn.

It had always been an interesting experience for me walking Doj in New York, because I did it at least twice a day people got used to seeing him around but in Charming everything is new and he pulls me to a stop at almost every garden we walk past, every mailbox is something to stiff and each lamppost is a place to pee. There's a few hesitant smiles as Doj and I walk a four block radius, I deliberately come back towards Gemma's past my new house and take Doj in to have a sniff around. The digger is still in the backyard and I can hear Gary and his men talking through the gap in the fence. Doj barks once before looking up at me and sitting calmly.

Gary's head pops out from behind a speaker shaped like a rock and when he spots me standing by the digger looking into the yard he emerges and comes towards me, pausing and taking a half-step back when he sees my companion "That's one heck of a dog, is he part pony?"

I laugh and shake my head "Nope, just all puppy. How's things going back there?"

Gary nods "It's going okay, did you get the message I left?"

"Yep, Gemma passed it on. How's the account doing? Is there any chance of getting readylawn put down instead of starting from scratch?"

Gary looks around the huge area that is my yard; there isn't a piece of it where there is still grass. "We can, but it'll cost a bit."

I shrug "That doesn't matter, but with this one here he won't go if it's not green." I pat Doj's head and laugh when his tongue rolls out the side of his mouth.

"I'll get it priced up, we'll be done here on Monday but if I can find someone to do it it shouldn't be a problem. Do you want them to do anything with the area where we've sent the wires for the pool and BBQ areas?"

I glance over at the two areas in question "Get them done with lawn as well; I'm not sure how long it will be before we get around to getting those bits done."

Gary nods "Can do."

I turn to leave him to it but have a thought "Oh, and Gary thank you."

Gary waves his hand "Not a problem, it's been good having the run of the place to be able to do it at our speed, and your guys that have been coming in have been good too. There hasn't been a night when we've left without a beer or two, course I think that's just so they can check up on us."

I smile at the Sons being referred to as 'my guys' knowing them if they heard it they'd be a mixture of insulted and annoyed.

Doj and I head back out onto the street and finish our walk, stepping onto Gemma's path as Jax pulls up on his bike Doj almost pulls me over in his enthusiasm to get to the stunned looking biker.

"You might wanna kneel down or something, cause if he jumps he'll knock you over." I pull on Doj's lead and try and get him to calm down but telling him to sit is falling on deaf ears. Jax crouches down and the stunned look doesn't fade from his face when Doj suddenly lies down at Jax's feet and puts his head on Jax's knee.

"What on earth?" Jax glances up at me and lifts a hand, running it over Doj's ear softly "Does he always do this?"

I shake my head "Nope, apparently he loves you, I can see why, you are easy to love."

Jax grins up at me as Doj happily sits there with his ears being stroked. "Guess we won't have many problems with him then."

I shake my head again passing the lead to Jax. "Bring him inside, he'll be thirsty."

Jax gets to his feet and pulls the lead; Doj obediently falls into step with Jax, right behind his foot and trots towards the door happily. Opening the door for them Jax unclips the lead and sets it down on the table while the dog sits down just inside the door and looks up.

I lean into Jax's side, sliding my arm around his waist "Tell him 'good boy' and 'drink' and he'll leave."

Jax repeats the three words and his eyes widen when Doj quietly gets back to his paws and trots through to the kitchen. "What the fuck just happened?"

I shrug "I really don't know baby. I have never seen him react like that to anyone. I wonder if it's cause I smell of you and you smell of me he knows that you're part of the pack."

Jax rests his arm over my shoulder and pulls me closer to him leaning down and kissing my temple lightly before pulling away and frowning "You're all sweaty now."

I laugh "I did just take him for a huge walk, and I may have been forced into jogging with him for most of it."

"Do you want to go home and have a shower before we go see Clay?" Jax asks pulling me towards the kitchen where he pours a glass of water and hands it to me. "Hey Don, hey kids." He says towards the table.

The calls of "Unca Jax." coming from the table make me giggle as I nod "That would be good. I'll go back and have a shower and you can spend some time here with Neeta, I think you need to get to know her, she'll be looking after Abel three days a week when he comes home."

Jax frowns "It seems like all you've done so far today is go away from me."

I laugh and lean up kissing him softly, the sneakers I'm in make the height difference obvious, the half a foot a long way to stretch. "When you come back to your place I'll be ready to go and then you have me for the rest of the day, and I've already seen Gary so we don't have to do that now."

Jax nods and smacks my ass lightly "Well go then, I'll come get you in 30 minutes."

I walk back to Jax's house slowly, the streets are pretty quiet for 10am on a Thursday morning but I guess everyone is already at work or school. Letting myself in the front door I drop my sweaty clothes in the laundry before walking through to the bathroom. While I'm in the shower I hear the phone ring but ignore it, the answering machine that is tucked in the corner of the kitchen can get it and I'll check the message when I get out.

Towel drying my hair when I'm finished I'm even more surprised when the phone rings again and this time I head towards the kitchen to answer it before the machine picks up, barely missing it Jax's voice comes out of the box with the pre-recorded message "I'm busy, leave a message." It's so typical Jax that I have to giggle until the hesitant voice comes through the phone and my blood turns to ice.

"Umm hey Jax, its Tara. Uh, I wanted to ring Sarah and let you know that I'm sorry about what I did to her car but I know she won't answer. Next time you see her can you please tell her. And umm, I need to talk to you about something really important so can you please ring when you get this." She rambles off her number and just as she's about to hang up I snatch the phone off its base.

"Hello." I know the ice in my veins is coming out in my voice when Tara suddenly stammers for words.

"Oh shit, umm Hi. Is Jax around?" My eyes narrow at the cupboard in front of me at the hopeful tone in her voice.

"Nope sorry, he's at his mother's. Anything I can help with?" I know that I don't need to be polite to her, she threw so many spanners in the works of my life that all I'd like to do is slam the phone down, but she rang for a reason and there's a tiny part of me that's desperate to know why.

"Not unless you can get a message to Jax to get him to ring me. I need to talk to him." Tara's voice is a little stronger now like she's decided that I'm still unimportant.

"I can tell him when he comes home to pick me up before we go see our son. How important is it cause I'm kinda standing here in a towel dripping water on my kitchen floor?"

Tara's rapid inhalation of breath when I say 'our son' doesn't escape my notice and I'm sure she doesn't miss the smile in my voice when I refer to Jax's house as my home twice. "I wanted to talk to him more about the conversation we had last Wednesday about my pregnancy."

The poor cupboard in front of me should be bursting into flames by now with the flames that are shooting from my eyes at the huge pile of bovine excrement that's coming from her mouth. "Okay then, I'll let him know that yet again you're pulling your manipulative lying bullshit trying to ruin his life. Don't ring again."

I hang the phone up and lean against the cupboard door for a second taking several deep breaths before I stand up straight and set the phone back in the cradle. I tug my hair lightly and start muttering as I storm back down the hallway "What is it with these fucken psycho bitches that keep claiming to be pregnant with my man's children, first Ima now Tara, who next, the bloody Queen of England!"

Slamming around Jax's bedroom I miss the sound of the door opening and closing and footsteps coming through the house, it's not till I practically throw my shoes on the bed that Jax's voice behind me startles me "What's wrong?"

I spin around and frown "Oh, just another supposed baby-mama coming out of the woodwork."

Jax cocks an eyebrow "What?"

I shake my head and prop my foot on the edge of the bed pulling my towel around to dry my leg. "You have this stream of women who keep trying to claim they're having your baby."

Jax crosses the room and sits on the bed, grabbing me around the waist "Slow down and tell me what's going on."

"Tara." I state, one single word holding enough anger, irritation, and venom to poison a football team.

"Okay, what about her this time?" Jax moves me so I'm beside him before pulling my down so I'm sitting on his lap, my towel forgotten on the bed.

"She just rang while I was in the shower and started to leave a message about needing to talk to you so I picked up the phone to see what it was. She said she wanted to talk to you more about what you talked with her on Wednesday."

Jax's brow creases "I didn't talk to her."

I nod "I know. She's just pulling shit again, but from across the country this time. I think it might be an idea to get a new phone number when we move."

Jax nods and kisses my shoulder "We'll do that babe. Now get dressed so we can go see Clay. I'll ring about getting a new number now. Maybe we should get new pre-pays too, there's a stack of them at the Clubhouse."

I nod "Please."

Jax lifts me off his knee and stands easily setting my feet on the ground. "Anything to keep my Princess happy, cause after all if I'm the Prince of SAMCRO you must be the Princess."

I giggle and kiss him softly before shooing him out of the room "Let me get dressed and we'll go have an audience with the King."