6

Chapter 598 No News is Good News

"

Jax knew that he would have to make decisions about his home reno, so he was going to take a day's shopping like a man and that meant no whining. He even paid attention to Scarlett as she discussed possible color schemes on their way to Builder's Outlet World.

When he bought his house, he hung up some Harley mirrors and thumb tacked some Maxim posters to the walls and his home was decorated. The rest of his stuff was hand me downs and garage finds courtesy of Gemma. After seeing Scarlett's condo and Decker's house, he realized it was time to start living like an adult and put some care into creating a nice place to live.

"You want to stop at Furniture Land to kind of get an idea of colors maybe see a combination that you like?" Scarlett suggested.

Jax nodded and pulled Scarlett's van into the shopping center for Furniture Land. He usually drove when they went somewhere together. Scarlett didn't mind and he couldn't shake his old school belief that men were supposed to be the primary drivers.

As they looked at the furniture, Scarlett talked color palettes and other considerations. He hadn't known it was so complicated. And then he found it the perfect sofa. It was terra cotta in a kind of brushed fabric with recliners built into it. One of the seats lifted up revealing cup holders and a table for snacks. It even had a light that could be turned on and a built in USB port.

"I like that," Jax said pointing. He half-expected Scarlett to recoil in horror, but she looked at it, pulled out a tablet of paper and began to sketch with a black ink pen.

"It would work in the family room. We can worry about the living room later. If you like that color, we could do a lighter shade on the walls. In the kitchen, we could do cabinets in a similar color, white quartz counters with terra cotta veining to break up all the white and then do a glass tile navy blue back splash with a terra cotta and white floor either tile or vinyl unless you want wood. Or we could do the kitchen walls in terra cotta and the family room in a light navy blue. It would look great with the terra cotta sofa. We can add some blue and white accent pillow to bring the room together."

"What about the living room and the fireplace?"

"We could do the walls blue or terra cotta. We could also do the fireplace in white maybe with white furniture with splashes of terra cotta and navy for accessories. I think maybe a pale terra cotta for the house except the master bedroom and we'll do it in a darker blue. More of a midtone. For the bed, do a big tufted headboard so you can sit up in bed and read in a darker navy and for the bedspread a white one with some kind of navy pattern or design. We just need to lockdown paint and flooring choices today. We only need to focus on completing the family room, master bedroom, kitchen and dining room for now."

"What about the same blue for the kitchen walls?"

"I'd like to use a different color to visually separate the kitchen from the family room even though the rooms open into each other. The flooring will be different too adding to the separate feel."

Jax couldn't fully picture it in his mind, but Scarlett was so sure that he was inclined to agree.

"If you don't like terra cotta walls in the kitchen, we can always change them or paint them white. Paint color is an easy fix."

"You think I should get the couch now?"

"It's a great looking couch and it will fill the space perfectly. It's got a nice cozy feel. It would be wonderful to curl up on to watch movies on a big screen TV."

"And it has cup holders and a snack tray," Jax said enthusiastically. "You think I should see if it comes in blue."

"Only if you want blue. Either color will look great."

Jax looked at the color swatches and found a blue he liked. He compared it to the terra cotta color on the sample sofa and hesitated. It was ridiculous having this much trouble deciding between two colors. He could make life and death decisions in the blink of an eye and couldn't pick between two colors. What the hell!

"If you were buying a sofa, which one would you pick?" he asked.

"You think I'm dumb enough to fall for that?" she asked with a laugh. "You decide or not. You don't have to buy the sofa today. We've got a color scheme for the house and can refine it when we get to Builder's World Outlet."

"No, I will not be defeated by a sofa choice," Jax said squaring his shoulders bravely. "I'm going to order the terra cotta sofa. If it comes before my house is ready, I'm sure your father will let me store it in his guest house."

"I'm so proud of you," Scarlett said dramatically, her hand over her heart.

Jax ordered the sofa and paid for it. It would take four to six weeks, so it would have to be delivered to Decker's. .

They ate lunch at Hot Dog Haven each getting foot long chili dogs and root beer floats and then splitting a large order of beer battered onion rings.

"There's just something so satisfying about junk food," Scarlett said happily munching on an onion ring. "It makes me feel so much better than eating a nice nutritious salad."

"Amen to that," Jax said.

"Still OK with the color choice on that sofa?"

Jax immediately began to second guess himself. Damn! He should have gotten the blue.

Scarlett burst into laughter.

"The look of panic in your eyes! So much fun," she said giving him a big grin. "It's nice to see you off balance for a change."

"OK, you got me," he said good-naturedly. "Do you think I should change the order to the blue?"

"I like the sofa color. Don't worry. I've got your back."

"Where do you plan on putting my Harley mirrors? The garage?"

"I wouldn't do that to you," Scarlett assured him. "There's going to be a table next to the washer and dryer in the new laundry room. I think they would look great above the table. Maybe add some framed pictures on the wall behind them."

"My Maxim posters?"

"No some black and white photos of the club and the guys."

"What about the Maxim posters?" Jax didn't care about the posters. He'd outgrown them, but it was his turn to give Scarlett a hard time.

"Did you save them before the guys did the demo?" she asked sweetly.

"I forgot," he admitted.

"Good thing you remembered the mirrors."

"Somehow I don't think the Maxim posters would have made it in your decorating plans."

"You got that right."

For Jax, it was a new experience allowing a woman to take the lead, but he was completely out of his element. Scarlett impressed him with her knowledge and how she could put colors together. They came away with numerous paint charts including one folder devoted to shades of terra cotta. They found tile and for the entryway and vinyl. Scarlett took pictures and wrote down the information for her father. He would return and purchase the material with his contractor's discount saving Jax 30%.

"See that wasn't so bad, was it?" Scarlett asked patting Jax on the shoulder.

"I hope I never have to do that again."

Scarlett laughed.

"Honestly, it's why I liked doing housing flips with my father. We just picked out the colors without any else's input. I really the colors for your house. It's going to be beautiful. Maybe for the patio, we paint the concrete blue to match the trim on the house with a white awning over it that would match the house's exterior color."

"I could barbeque year-round," Jax said. "Maybe I'll get one of those blue Weber grills."

They each used the bathrooms at Builder's Outlet World before heading back to Charming. Once they were on the freeway to Charming, Scarlett turned to look at Jax.

"While I was in the bathroom, I got a call from David."

"Chasing after you?"

"Not exactly," she said. "He said Tara's dead. Something about a blood clot to the lung."

Jax suspected this was going to happen, but still it caught him by surprise.