6

Chapter 551 Pandora's Box

"

Jax drove around thinking about the trunk. If his father wanted him to keep the trunk a secret, it must have some pretty explosive stuff in it. He felt like he might be opening Pandora's box. Who knows what he could be unleashing?

His memories of his father had grown hazy after so many years, but his father loved him. He wouldn't have left him a treasure chest full of woe unless it was something he needed him to know. Jax frowned. He couldn't shake the feeling that whatever was in that trunk would change his life.

He resisted the temptation to go to his house or Scarlett's condo and open the trunk. It was time to head over to Scarlett's father's house.

Scarlett answered the door.

"You'll never guess," she said with surprising enthusiasm, "I've figured out the color scheme for your kitchen. Fuchsia cabinets with a magenta back splash."

Jax pulled Scarlett close and rested his hands on her hips.

"You know I do know that those colors are pink and as a woman with impeccable taste because you're with me, I know you are just trying to jerk my chain."

"I thought men liked to be jerked," Scarlett said with a saucy grin. Jax chuckled. "A woman doesn't have to have taste to be with you. Just eyes because you are scorching hot."

"Well, that is true," Jax said pretending to think that over. "I'm so damned hot sometimes I have trouble getting out of bed in the morning."

"I think a lot of men have that problem."

Jax grinned down at her before wrapping her in his arms and kissing her softly.

"No pink kitchens," he said sternly as he raised his head to look at her.

"You're no fun."

"I promise we'll have fun tonight," he said giving her ear a small bite.

"Ummm . . . I guess I'll just have to think of some other color scheme for your kitchen then. How did your . . . quest go?"

Jax gave credit to Scarlett for not asking the moment she let him into the house about whether he'd found the treasure chest.

"I found the next clue at the clubhouse and the treasure chest turned out to be a trunk at Piney's. He's been holding it all these years."

"I'm glad it didn't turn into a scavenger hunt that would have taken you months to complete."

"I think my father was aware that time changes things and he had to streamline the hunt to make sure the clues stayed where they needed to be."

Scarlett looked at Jax expectantly and he knew she was just dying to ask him what was in the treasure chest.

"You must not have spent much time looking inside the trunk," Scarlett said.

"You're just dying to ask me what's in it."

"I don't want to be pushy."

"I don't know what's inside. I haven't looked."

"I can't believe your self control!"

"Remember how much self control I had with you?" he reminded her softly as he pulled her closer to him.

"Yeah, you were amazing."

"And I'm still amazing."

"You are," she agreed smiling at him, standing on tiptoe and kissing him on the cheek. "I just hope you don't get tired of me while you're staying with me during your reno."

"If you get boring, I'll just move in with your dad."

"Hey," Scarlett said giving him a playful elbow in his hard muscled abs, "you're supposed to tell me that you will never get tired of me."

"Darlin', I'll never get tired of you."

"It's a little late for that now," Scarlett said tartly. "You just may regret that later."

"That's OK. I don't mind a little pain with my pleasure."

Scarlett laughed and gave him another elbow to the stomach.

Over a dinner of pot roast, mashed potatoes, roasted baby carrots and sticky toffee pudding for dessert, they discussed tomorrow's demolition at Jax's house. Both Decker and Jax would be there to make sure nothing got destroyed that wasn't in the plan.

Scarlett proposed a couple of alternatives to Jax's fireplace. The existing brick was an ugly beige and brown mess. The solutions ranged from putting a new façade on the fireplace to leaving it as it was. Scarlett recommended painting the brick white and frame out the fireplace in black, put in a black mantel and add a flat screen TV above the mantel.

"For the kitchen, I was thinking charcoal or black cabinets with quartz counters in white or a black and white granite like pattern," Scarlett said.

"Quartz is cheaper than granite," Decker added. "Less upkeep. Looks good and they can do patterns so they look like granite. It's also popular right now. We could go a little cheaper with butcher block, but I hate it. You can't use it as a cutting board or you'll get knife marks and it's a bitch to take care of. You could do ceramic tile. It isn't that much cheaper than quartz and you've got to keep the grout clean."

"Quartz is fine and I like a charcoal for the cabinets. I don't want it to be too dark," Jax said.

"We'll balance the dark cabinets with some white. I'm not sure about the walls yet. I'm thinking of a very pale gray or a pale gold—not yellow. I hate yellow, but there's a certain shade of gold almost a buff color that looks good with every color and gives a rich look to a room. I was thinking a white back splash."

"Subway tiles?" Jax asked.

Decker sucked in his breath and looked at his daughter.

"Subway tiles? Subway tiles? I hate subway tiles. You want to use subway tiles and we're done. I hate them," Scarlett said.

"Tell me how you really feel?" Jax asked grinning at Scarlett's passion.

"I can't stand them," Scarlett said with anger in her voice. "Why use a tile found in a subway? Overused and clichéd. You don't have a lot of back splash area and we could do a really beautiful glass tile or just plain white ceramic tile, but no subway tile ever."

"Does that go for the bathrooms?"

Scarlett gave him a look causing Decker and Jax to laugh.

Later that evening, Jax brought the trunk inside Scarlett's condo and put it in the loft area. He resisted the urge to open it and went back downstairs to bring the promised fun to Scarlett.

He woke a few hours later finally feeling ready to open the trunk. He took the key from around his neck and unlocked the padlock on the trunk opened the lid and chuckled. The note from his father told him he would have to be patient because the trunk's contents needed to be explored in the exact order they were packed into the trunk. JT added that he trusted that Jax had learned patience since Piney found him worthy of receiving the trunk. OK. The trunk was going to take him on a journey. Jax would just have to buckle up and be ready.

He put the note from his father to the side and dug began on the first layer of his father's treasure chest. Over the next hours, Jax lost himself in his father's life. It was everything that he always to know about his father including old report cards from elementary school and high school as well as pictures that a grandmother who died before he was born had lovingly put in a photo album when JT was born.

Jax trusted Scarlett. He left out the stuff he'd looked through and left the trunk unlocked. He carefully positioned the items he left out and the trunk so he would know if Scarlett had looked at the stuff. Trust but verify. He'd soon know if his trust in her was misplaced or not.