CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

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Gemma wakes both Jax and I up before 7 with coffee. Abel had woken up again at 3am; another long stretch of trying to get him back to sleep meant I wasn't back in bed till almost 5am. The smell of coffee permeates my brain as Jax moves and starts speaking softly.

"Ma, she's been awake half the night. Let her sleep another couple of hours. Abel had a really rough night."

I lift my head off the pillows "No, I'm awake." The words are slurred to my own ears and Jax and Gemma both laugh at me.

"Go back to sleep baby, Jax is going to work soon. I'll be around starting to sort stuff for the party and I'll look after our baby. I'll come back and wake you up later. Or come see me when you wake up on your own. Okay?" Gemma picks up the coffee she'd set on my bedside table, taking it with her as she leaves the room.

Jax leans over and kisses me, my head falling back onto the pillows with a sigh "Okay. I'll give."

Jax laughs, sliding out of the bed and grabbing clothes for the day from the diminishing pile on the dresser, the draws of it are completely empty and the only things left on the top are the clothes for the party tonight and the ones I'd intended on wearing to move, I manage to make a mental note to bring at least one clean outfit each back from the new house before my eyes close and I end up sound asleep again.

It's a combination of the bed bouncing and giggles right by my ears that wake me up later in the day. The room is bright enough that I can tell the sun is high in the sky. Turning over I discover the source of the bouncing and giggles all in one, Ellie and Kenny are sitting on the bed, Doj rolling on his back between them as they both scratch his belly. Propping myself up on my elbow I look at the three of them and smile "What are you two ragamuffins doing to my poor puppy."

Donna chuckles from the doorway "Those ragamuffins have been tormenting your poor puppy all week. He barely gets to sleep before one of them is calling him. The only time he gets to rest is at night, and meal times."

Laughing I reach over and rub my fingers over the bottom of his chin his head flopping back, his mouth falling open. Ellie and Kenny start laughing at Doj, his mouth twitching as he breaths.

Donna sits on the edge of the bed, her hand resting on Doj's back leg lightly "He really has been good with the kids though, how did you manage to get such a well behaved dog when he's so huge?"

I sit up slowly "If I was going to make any suggestion when you guys decide on a dog, obedience training. You go through it, not Ope cause you'll be the one he will be around every day. Do make sure though that you teach him basic things to listen to anyone on."

Donna nods "Sure. Anything else o wise one?"

I giggle, running my hand over my head "Yeah, I'll take a coffee, maybe some toast?"

Donna pokes her tongue out at me "Coffee I can do, there's a pot in the kitchen. Toast, well it's almost 11am, you sure you don't want lunch instead?"

My eyes widen "Really? I slept another 4 hours? How?"

Donna motions towards the baby monitor, its normal green light showing it's on is dark "Jax turned that off before he left. He said you were sound asleep before he'd even left the room." Donna gets up and waves to her kids "Come on, let's let Aunty S get dressed, Grandma has cookies in the kitchen."

Ellie and Kenny squeal as they jump off the bed, Doj rolling over and following them, Donna trailing behind, pulling the door closed as she goes. Pulling a pair of jeans up my legs and a clean shirt over my head I follow the sound of many female voices towards the kitchen. Leaning against the doorframe I'm surprised at the number of people crammed into the space. Donna is at the table with the kids eating cookies while she slices through an enormous pile of tomatoes, sliding them all into a bowl. Lyla and Cherry are at one side of the kitchen bench wrapping ears of corn in tin foil like I'd shown Gemma. Al and Cam are in the laundry, by the looks of it stacking bottles of beer and wine into the sink which is full of ice, Luann sticks her head in through the open front door beside me and pats my arm lightly.

"Morning sleepy." I smile at her and turn to look at the women in my kitchen.

"What can I do?"

Gemma picks up the coffee pot from beside her, pouring some into a mug and handing it to me before turning her attention back to the huge pot in front of her "You can sit and drink that."

I walk round the kitchen, hugging each of the people there and whispering thanks. When I get to Al and Cam I lean over their shoulders "Add some salt and water to that, it'll get them cold faster and keep them colder longer."

Al lifts her eyebrows and I nod "It works. Trust me chicky."

Gemma throws over a bag of salt from the pile of food that's appeared around the room shaking her head when I tip half the ΒΌ pound bag over the ice and turn the cold tap on full. Waiting till the full bottles are floating in the salty liquid I smile "It's a catering trick. If there's more that needs cooling in a hurry do the same thing. They'll be cold in less than an hour."

They all look sceptically at me but I just shrug "Fine, don't believe me. If everything is under control here I'm going over to the new house."

Gemma nods and waves her hand towards the door "Sure, Jax said you were going over there today. The back of his truck is loaded with the last of the boxes from here. The guys will be here at 5, they're going to set up the chairs and bring the rest of the tables then leaving again."

I finish my coffee and drop the cup into the dishwasher "Where's Abel?"

Gemma lifts an eyebrow "He's sleeping at the moment. You leave him here, you'll be back sooner without him there."

The mental checklist running through my brain of what I have to do isn't long, only the kitchen stuff to get through the dishwasher and the cookbooks and baking things that had been left to unpack. I'm just pulling the door open when Cam appears in the doorway "Do you want any help?"

Shaking my head I squeeze her into a hug "Nah, its all kitchen stuff and you know how fussy I am about that."

Cam laughs, nodding at me "Does Jax?"

Gemma's voice drifts through the door "I'm pretty sure he remembers from the entire weekend she spent reorganising my kitchen. And how long she spent on the one at the clubhouse."

Cam let's go of my shoulder "I'll send you a text later to remind you to come back. What time?"

"430, I want to be back before anything is set up." I know Gemma will have worked out how she wants the yard done but I'd like to be there to help move furniture around.

Cam nods watching as I climb into the driver's seat of Jax's truck, jogging over "You sure you don't want a hand?"

I glance in the rear view mirror and look at the amount of boxes, nodding towards the passenger's seat she smirks "Thought so." Jumping into the seat she pulls her phone from her pocket and dials a number as I back out of the drive. "Ali-bean I'm going with S. She realised she needed help."

Cam laughs "I'm going to tell her that." Looking over at me she smiles "Al said you need more help then we can give."

Poking my tongue out at Cam I roll my eyes "I knew that years ago. Did you not get the memo?"

Cam hangs up not long after, watching the streets as we drive through them, it's an average Friday late morning, there's cars around and people walking down the streets but the town still has a sleepy feeling. Looking over at me when I flick my indicator on to turn into the drive "How did you manage the difference from here to New York? It's like different planets."

Backing the truck as close to the doors as I can I wait till I've turned the car off, the drive empty apart from us. For the first time since I brought the house there's no tradesmen around, the grass hasn't been sorted yet and Elliot's still waiting for approval for the other garage to be built, with the inside completely done Jax promised he'd sort the alarm company to come and change the codes, and the locksmith to change the locks again.

Shaking my head as I jump out of the truck, opening the back door "I was so out of place the first few weeks there. I'd been there a month when I met you and I was still trying to adjust. Coming home reminded me how much I prefer the slow life. Charming is my speed."

Cam laughs, lifting one of the boxes from the backseat and following me towards the door waiting while I unlock and disarm the alarm "I can tell. Even though you've been doing way too much it's still half speed when you think about what you used to do in New York."