CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

Website where all photos of all outfits mentioned is on my profile. Forgot to give a health update in last chapter posted. Surgery went well, started at 2pm, over by 330. I was discharged the same night at 830 and back home by 9, felt like I'd been hit by a mini-bus, but only four incisions, two of them glued, two stitched with dissolving stitches. Onward and upward from here.

Derek and Trish end up going out with Al and Juice for dinner and drinks while Donna, Opie and their kids converge on our room and we order a huge amount of room service, the kids laugh when the adults sit on the floor to eat, mainly cause we'd ordered the two of them to the small table in the room, their burgers and chips consumed so quickly that the ice cream hasn't even started melting before they're diving into each side of the 2-person sundae I'd ordered for them.

Donna laughs at Opie's shocked look "They didn't have much lunch remember baby, a ham sandwich and an apple each is half what they'd normally eat for lunch. And they had no snacks."

Opie shrugs, turning back to his meal, cutting into the huge piece of New York strip steak on his plate with a grin. As normal by the time he's finished I'm only half way through my meal but before I can pass my plate to him Donna's reached over scooped half my leftover chips and the garlic bread onto her plate, leaving the rest for her husband.

Shoving a whole piece of garlic bread into her mouth she grins as she chews making me shudder in revolution. "D, that's really gross!"

Donna laughs and swallows forcefully "Sorry, I'm hungry." Leaning over she does something that makes all of us turn our heads when she dunks one of her chips into the kid's sundae before dropping it into her mouth.

Opie shudders "Don, love you and all but that's still disgusting, no matter how many times you do it."

Donna pokes her tongue out at her husband and drops the fry into her mouth "Don't knock it till you've tried it."

I shake my head "Nah, you started doing that when you were 15 and I did try it once. It was awful then, it's still gonna be awful now."

Jax nods in agreement "I second that."

"Third, motion passed. French fries and ice cream is gross." Opie says with a snicker at his wife's expression. "But I still love you."

Opie and Donna are heading back to their room when Cam comes through the door again, heading towards her father's room with a sad look on her face.

"Cammy, what's wrong?" I ask, waiting till she looks up.

"Where's Daddy?" She says with a sniff.

"He went out with Al, Juice and Trish for dinner. Hang on a second." I stick my head back into the room "Baby I'm going to talk to Cam for a while. Abel needs a bath, can you do it. His bath stuff is in my makeup case which is in the bathroom already." Without waiting for an answer I pull the door closed behind me and grab Cam's arm, dragging her towards Derek's room.

"Sit and talk." I say with a frown, turning to the bar and pouring her a double shot of whiskey into one of the glasses. "Is Hap still alive?"

She laughs softly and nods "Yeah he is. He spent some time muttering about inhumane threats of cupcake cut-off but he's alive." She looks up at me and starts blinking rapidly as tears well in the corner of her eyes "What the fuck am I gonna do S?"

I sit down beside her and grab her hands "What's wrong, I don't know how to help if you don't talk to me."

Cam swallows half the whiskey in one mouthful and sets the glass down on the table "On the plane I told Hap that Daddy did all those checks on my ex's and he looked like he was gonna skin me alive. Till I told him that none of them had been done on him."

I nod "He wouldn't have wanted that done without prior knowledge. God only knows what Derek would uncover."

Cam laughs "Daddy would find that he'd been married, was widowed due to a drive by shooting. He'd find all of his arrest record, including the 18 months he did for possession of a concealed weapon and the unsuccessful charge of smuggling. He'd also find out that Happy looks after his sick mother, and that she's probably got less than 6 months to live. What he wouldn't find out is that the bulk of Happy's money goes to paying for the drugs that are keeping his mother pain free and alive, he wouldn't find out that Happy rides 4 hours each way from where he lives to Bakersfield at least once a week to see his Mom. He would find out that Happy's buying a house in Charming but he wouldn't know that it's so his mother can move closer to him."

Cam swallows the second half of the whiskey in her glass and looks at me "Daddy won't find out that I've never loved someone as much as I love Happy Lowman, and that when I told him 10 minutes ago that I loved him and couldn't imagine life without him he asked me to wear his ink."

"What!?" I know my voice goes up at least 5 notches when I speak the single word and Cam nods.

"He wasn't happy about me not telling him everything but he understands, after all there's still a lot of secrets he has that I don't know." Cam tells me quietly "I did tell him though that Daddy would run all those checks when I tell him I'm moving to California to live with Happy, which is when he told me about the arrest history. I knew he'd done time, I can't imagine a single Son that hasn't."

I nod, Jax had done a 6 month stretch for assault 2 years after I left and Opie and Chibs had been inside at the same time on charges of breaching the peace, only because of their histories had they ended up inside but without the two of them it's possible that Jax wouldn't have come out alive.

"So what's happening?" I ask quietly while Cam twists the glass round on the table.

"I tell Daddy that once this contract is done I'm moving to California. He runs all these checks, finds out stuff I already know and probably some stuff that I don't, and that Happy didn't realise could be found digitally." Cam looks up at me "In the meantime I pack up the rest of my stuff, load it into the container with the stuff from the apartment and send it to California."

I nod "And get a pre-nup type contract cause you know Derek won't let you do anything without one."

Cam snorts and mock glares at me "Do you have one?" I shake my head and she lifts an eyebrow "Then why do I need one?"

"Umm." I point towards myself "20 million dollars, total." Pointing to her "100 million dollars, plus the heir to billions of dollars, and a multi country company with contracts so huge it includes NASA, the IRS and dozens of law enforcement offices."

Cam laughs, shaking her head again "And if anything happened with Happy and I can you really see him wanting anything from me?"

I shrug "Good point, but you know your dad."

"I do. And if I tell him I don't want one he'd listen, the lawyers may be a different story but they're paid to do what we want so they can go teach their grandmothers to suck lemons."

I laugh standing up and hugging her tightly "So you'll be coming to Cali lots till you move?"

Cam nods "I'll either drive or fly when I have time off, and if I can't get over there I'll bring Hap to me. He gets that money is nothing to me and he's even agreed to let me start paying for his mom's medication so she can get the best ones. I'm still working on getting him to agree for another specialist to look at her files."

Squeezing her again I whisper "Just keep working on him, he'll fold. And if he doesn't remind him that I was taught to bake by his Mom, and when she's living in the same property as you she can show you some things."

Cam shudders "I don't know about living with his Mom. Maria seemed nice but I only met her once."

I roll my eyes "You're going to be in LA, it's a hell of a lot closer to Bakersfield then Charming is."

Cam nods "It's 111 miles from LA to Bakersfield; it's 260 from Charming to Bakersfield."

I laugh walking towards the door "See, you already know that shit. It'll be fine Cam, and if you need anything, and I do mean anything, ask."

Cam follows me towards the door "I'm going to stay in here so I can talk to Daddy. Hap knows where I am."

I smile at her and nod again, pulling the door closed behind me. Once I'm in the hallway I can't help the giant smile that crosses my face and the little happy dance I do down the carpet brings a chuckle from the door to our room.

Looking up into Jax's eyes he lifts an eyebrow "You okay?"

I nod, jumping into his arms and squeezing his neck "I am absolutely perfect."

Squeezing my ass he winks "That you are. Abel's bathed and sleeping, the hotel provided a cot for him but what's he sleeping in once we're back at Cam's house?"

"Trish and Derek might have done out one of the rooms in Cam's wing for the kids, all three of them. But the cot can be moved into whatever room we get."