Love & Serenity

Chapter 22

Jax and Lillian walked into Mindy's together a few minutes later that evening.

"I see Mindy." Lillian smiled, "I'll see you around."

"Yea." Jax smiled back and watched her walk away and head towards Mindy. He headed towards Parker and some of the other familiar residents.

"Oh good, you're here." Mindy beamed when Lillian reached her. "Oh, you look beautiful."

"Thank you, Mindy, so do you," Lillian said. "Emily?"

"Davis heading over here with her."

Davis and Emily in the same vehicle.
Lillian thought.

She could feel the heat inside the vehicle even without being inside it.

"They're here." Hank said and the whole room fell silent in the dark.

Outside Mindy's, Davis helped Emily out of the passenger's seat making Emily more suspicious than she already was.

"C'mon." Davis didn't let go of her hand but headed towards Mindy's with Emily by his side.

Emily couldn't get the butterflies in her stomach to settle down for just a moment as she stared down at their hands joined together and looked up at Davis.

He'd been acting weird all afternoon and even worse as evening approached. Emily looked up at her mum's diner and saw it was all dark.

"It's empty. Mum probably headed home early."

"Maybe." Davis smiled at her.

"Davis, what's going on?"

"Just go with it." Davis pushed open the door to Mindy's and let Emily go ahead of him.

Just as the door closed behind him, the diner lit up and everyone yelled surprise.

"Oh, my goodness." Emily jumped. "What's this?"

"A late welcome home party." Davis smiled and stepped aside to join the rest of the welcome party while everyone went and hugged Emily.

Jax cleared his throat as he went and stood beside Davis who was smiling with his eyes fixed on Emily.

"Could you be any more obvious?" Jax asked.

"I have no idea what you mean."

"Of course you don't." Jax said, "You can't take your eyes off her and you're smiling like a complete idiot."

That was all Jax needed to say to snap Davis out of his love coma and look at him.
"No, I wasn't."

Jax laughed and shook his head.
"You have it bad."

Davis sighed and looked away from Jax and back at Emily who was smiling and saying hi to everyone.

"You got to let her know."

"I don't want to mess it up like I did when we were kids."

"You mean the part where you proposed to her when you were eight and she stopped talking to you."

"Oh, I'm going to kill Mindy."

Jax laughed.
"Hey, don't blame her, I made her tell me. She also did mention that Em was so completely in love with you back then that she was shocked when you asked her to marry you that she didn't know what to say and was embarrassed to show her face to you."

Davis frowned and looked at Jax.
"What? I was the one who was embarrassed." Davis looked at Emily who found his gaze at that same time. "She was in love with me back then?"

"And maybe even more so now."

"I doubt it." Davis said, "She left Burlington to go find what she was searching for."

"Well, she came back. She's right here."

"She is."

Lillian smiled as she stood next to Mindy and Emily.

"Lillian helped with the decorations." Mindy said.

"Thank you, Lillian, so much." Emily said.

"Oh, it was nothing. I'm glad I got to be a part of this." Lillian said, "I heard you're back here for good."

Emily nodded.
"I am." She smiled. "I left Burlington to find what I was searching for and it turns out it was right under my nose the whole time."

Lillian smiled.
"Well, I'm happy you found what it is you were looking for."

"Thank you." Emily said, "Hank, the food is absolutely delicious."

"I'm glad you like it."

"Are you kidding me? I love it."

Parker joined them and some of the other residents.
"It's good to have you back little Em."

"I'm not little anymore, Parker."

"You'll always be little to me," Parker said and gave her a hug. "Now, that you're here, I don't have to worry about my boy spending all his day at the clinic."

Emily smiled, her gaze finding Davis who already had his gaze on her.
"Thank you all so much for this."

"We would have done it sooner if you hadn't arrived unannounced." Hank said

"I wanted to surprise everyone."

"Well, you sure did. Some a lot more than others." Mindy glanced at Davis and back at her daughter.

A few moments later, Lillian was alone in the corner with Emily while everyone else talked, ate and laughed.

"So, I hear you're here to stay indefinitely." Emily said, "You know most people who come up here without a time frame end up staying for good."

Lillian smiled.
"I heard." She said, "But that's more of something to look forward to than to fear."

"Well, we'll be happy to have you as one of us." Em smiled. "You're already family."

That made the blood drain from Lillian's face as she looked at Emily.
Family.

"I'm going to go help my mum." Emily said before she left.

Lillian's heart was doing something weird in her chest. She was breathing but the breaths weren't enough so she inhaled deeply and exhaled with a sigh.

"Hey, are you alright?" Jax was right next to Lillian when he noticed she looked lost in thought.

Lillian looked up at Jax.
"I don't know." She said truthfully. "Emily said I'm family."

Jax held his breath and watched her smile sadly as she scratched at her finger yet again. Without thinking, he held her hand with his and she looked up at him with glistening eyes.
"I've been here for just a few weeks and I felt more welcomed on the first day than I was in the few days I spent with my first and last family."

Jax couldn't handle seeing her looking so sad.
"Come here." Jax pulled her into his arms.

Lillian went willingly and sighed as her head rested softly on his chest. Jax's arms went around her and at that moment Lillian felt like she was finally home.

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Hey guys,

Just wanted to welcome all the new readers and thank you guys for reading till this point. I hope you'll all be here till the end of Jax and Lillian's story.

Also, one irrelevant thing, I've been posting song covers on my Instagram page (@janelanett), please give it a listen, like, share and all those things, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks so much,

J.L.