CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

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

Cam carefully washes her face; the streaks of blood making the water run red. Once her mouth and cheeks are clean she lifts herself onto the edge of the basin and turns her eyes towards me "You nailed it, completely. I'm scared."

"Why?" I close the lid of the toilet and sit down on it, looking up at her "What's so scary?"

"This." Cam waves her hand around the room and I laugh.

"My bathroom is scary?"

Rolling her eyes slightly she shakes her head "No. Charming scares me. Happy scares me. The future scares me. Your bathroom, it just worries me."

"Why does my bathroom worry you? I'll get to everything else in a second." I say, standing up and pulling two towels out of the cupboard, leaving one in there for Jax.

"How many times have you guys fucked in here?" Cam asks with a giggle.

Lifting my hand I pretend to count, tossing my hands in the air after going through both hands twice "No idea."

"That's why I'm worried about your bathroom."

Turning the shower on I strip, dropping my clothes into a pile and stepping into the shower "So tell me," I start over the sound of the water "Why does Charming scare you?"

Cam shrugs, a movement I see out of the corner of my eye "Like you said, it's so slow here. I'm used to New York where everything goes a mile a minute and it's either full speed or dead. Around here full speed is the same as a snail. What if I get bored? What if I have a craving for Starbucks in the middle of the night? The nearest one is at least an hour away."

Giggling at her I look over my shoulder "Starbucks? Really?" Shaking my head I think for a second before opening my mouth again. "Honestly Cammy, I don't know. If you get bored I guess we find things for you to do. Maybe this could be your chance to get into interior design. I know you wanted to. You've got heaps of big enough cities around. Sacramento, San Francisco, and Reno are all less than 3 hours from here. LA is only 5 hours. Las Vegas is 8 and you've got plenty of places in between where I'm sure you could find work." Cam hums a little. "Why does Happy scare you?"

"He's so intense. He gets this look in his eyes that could vaporise a human with one glance. Sometimes I feel like he's reaching into my brain and picking my secrets from the depths preparing to use them against me at a future date." Looking over at her through the steamy glass I can see her picking at the hem of her shirt.

"So the fact that you've fallen in love with him is hard for you to deal with his intensity?" I ask, watching her reactions carefully. Her hands instantly stop moving, her breath hitches a little and I have all the answer I need before she opens her mouth.

"Am I that obvious?" She asks me for the second time that day.

"To me, yes. To Al, probably. To anyone else, no." She relaxes and starts picking again "Has he said anything to you about his past?"

Cam shakes her head frowning a little. I sigh, rinsing the shampoo from my hair carefully "I will tell him I told you this, so don't be surprised if he gets really fucked off with me later. Hap was married once."

Cam's eyes widen and she looks up at me "What?"

I nod "You know how old he is right?" Cam nods "Good, it was the year I moved here, so I was 12. He was 23 I think, 24 at most, this chick turned his world upside down and not in a good way. She made him question everything he ever did, every move he made, every Club related situation he was put in but he let her, he loved her so intensely, so completely, that his entire focus shifted to her. She was killed because of who he is."

Cam gasps, her hand flying to her chest "What?"

Pouring body wash onto my sponge I look over at her as I set the bottle down "You're not dumb, you yourself put together most of the stuff you know. A group of unpleasant people heard she was in Lodi; she'd been stupid enough to not listen to Hap about going with a patch and went by herself. She was murdered driving back to Charming. Shot, in the back of the head in a drive by."

Speaking to her quietly while I run the bubbles over my body "I remember vividly the days after her death, Happy had been out for blood, he didn't care whose it was and who paid the price he was determined he was going to find out who it was that had killed his wife and make them pay. Unfortunately for him, or maybe it was fortunately for us, a whole lot of shit happened in a very short period of time and he had to bury his grief, his sadness, his sorrow for what happened to her. By the time everything settled back down he'd moved on. Put her in his past and sworn he would never let pussy get that close again."

Cam sighs "So I should prepare for heartbreak?"

I shake my head, rinsing the sponge and replacing it on the shelf "No. On the contrary. I think you need to be prepared that when Hap realises he's fallen in love again he's going to do everything in his power to push you away. He'll lie, he'll drink more than usual, he'll smoke more than usual, he may sleep around, or try to, he'll vanish for days."

"So what do I do?" Cam looks at me, her eyes pleading for me to have the knowledge to make it stop. "How do I go to LA for this job without this all turning to shit? I have to cancel the job."

I shake my head, rinsing the bubbles "No. That's not what you do. You need to show Hap that you're made of tougher things than that. You go to LA, do this job for 6 months. Come back here at least once a month, ask Hap to come down once a month. Remind him every time you talk to him that you're coming back here for good. Go see his Mom as much as you can before she moves here. Insert yourself into facets of his life that he can't be without. You've already done that before meeting him with me."

Cam frowns as I push the shower door open "What do you mean; with you?"

I smile brightly, wrapping a towel around myself "Easy. You're one of my best friends and Hap is the Big Brother slash Uncle that's values my opinion more too then he will ever admit."

Cam lifts an eyebrow "Huh?"

"I liked his wife, she was a good person. She just wasn't the right person. She was too..." I trail off, searching for the right word. "Gentle? No. Calm? No definitely not. Soft. That's it. She was too soft to survive being an Old Lady. Now, before you get offended I'm not saying your hard but you grew up in New York; your father is an extremely powerful business man. You learnt at a young age to see through bullshit and lies. That's what Hap needs. He needs someone who's not going to fold the first time pressure gets put on them. He needs someone with a backbone of steel who can stand up and say 'Yes my Old Man is a member of the Mother Charter of the Sons of Anarchy.' Regardless of who they are saying it to. But he also needs someone who will let him be him. He needs control; he needs someone who won't argue when he demands something. Staying put, leaving, doing something for him."

Cam swallows tightly "And he needs someone who can wash the blood off his hands."

I nod, hugging her softly "Yeah that too. Cammy, I won't lie; bloodshed is something we're used to. I wouldn't have told you anything I just did if I didn't trust you and believe that you belong here. I love you, I love Hap too. There's a lot of blood on his hands, but there are scars on his heart and soul that are more important to be healed." Pulling backwards I smile at her slowly "If you can help him heal those scars on his heart I'm sure you'll realise exactly what I mean when I say that Hap is one of the greatest men I know."

Cam laughs, jumping off the bench "And what about the future? I'm terrified of what's going to happen."

Pulling open the door I call out that we're fine and wave Cam to follow me into the bedroom "Immediate future, short or long term?"

"All of them." Cam sits on the edge of the bed and starts picking at her shirt again.

Throwing my clothes onto the bed I walk around to the other side and start drying myself, Cam's back tense in my view "Immediate future, well I look at that as being this week. Tonight we have this party that Gemma has organised which is bound to be full of patches, both local and out of town, perhaps even state I'm not sure. You glue yourself to Hap's side; make sure everyone knows you're here with him. If he's not around you're with me, or Al. You're going home Sunday so until then you just do what you have been doing. Come here if you need to get out of the lot. Ring if you need a ride, I'm still down to no cars. When are you back?"

"August 20th. We'll fly back to New York on the 22nd."

I frown and lean over, slapping her on the back lightly "You are coming back for the reception aren't you?"

"Shit, umm. When is that?"

"30th. It's the last Saturday of the month. 2 weeks tomorrow." I finish getting dressed while she taps her fingers on her leg. "I want you there Cammy, please say you can come?"

Cam nods "Yeah I can, I just have to fly commercial. I'll book flights now if I can use your laptop, and I can only stay the weekend. I've got so much to sort with moving."

I snicker "Tell me about it. We can help when we come over next month though. Stay there, I'll go get the computer and we can get these flights booked now."

Cam nods, staying where she is while I dart out of the room and into the kitchen, pulling my laptop bag out of the box I'd set it in to move "Back soon. We're fine. Hap, need to talk to you later." I dash back into the bedroom, closing the door before anyone can ask anything.

It only takes Cam 10 minutes to find, book and pay for flights to come back, arriving at 6pm Friday, departing 10am Sunday it's nowhere near long enough for me but I squeeze her tightly for agreeing to come back.

Cam closes the laptop and stands up, finally getting a look at what I was wearing, bursting out laughing "Jax didn't see you did he?"

I shake my head giggling "Nope." Shoving my feet into my shoes I stand up straight "Do I pass inspection for 'Mommy'?"

"I think if all Mommies looked like you there would be a serious market for MILF porn." Cam splutters out through her laughter.

Poking my tongue out at her I look down again, the mid-thigh length black dress with a sheer panel in the front clings to every curve of my body, the long sleeves covering both arms, but the phoenix on my leg is almost totally visible, the crow's head and shoulders above the lacy insert and the property of tattoo in full view. Adding a bit of colour is the red peep toe stilettos I'd pulled onto my feet "Could have been worse. All my corsets are at the new house."

Cam sighs, nodding "I know. I'm the one that had to go through the dozens of them and hang them up, remember?"

I nod and hug her again "I know, and thank you Cammy. Could have been worse, I could have given you the job of organising my shoes."

Cam pulls the door open and shakes her head "No way. You're more anal retentive about them then you are about your cook books."

Pausing in the doorway I grab her hand "Are we okay?"

Cam nods, hugging me "Yeah, we're good. But elbow me again and I'll break your fingers." Cam laughs at the shocked look on my face pulling me towards the kitchen "S, I'm kidding. Have a drink, relax."

Lightly elbowing her in the side we step through the door into the kitchen, the room still full of people but a few patches have appeared "Now I know we weren't gone for hours. What's going on?"