Tribulation | Jax Teller

Love Love Love

"I just want to know how you feel about her being back."

"Do you think I should be feeling anything?" Noelle asks her.

Gemma shakes her head. "No, baby, I just want to make sure you know that."

...

Jax is sitting outside watching Noah and Kenny play against their sisters in corn hole while AJ, of course, is scorekeeper. Tig and Happy have a bet against Piney and Bobby that the boys will win. So far, Jax thinks his daughter and niece are going to win.

He is sipping on his beer watching as Noah and Kenny bicker over their aim when Opie comes and joins him.

"I heard an old flame is back in town." Opie says to him.

Jax rolls his eyes as he sighs. Somehow it had spread rapidly about Tara being back in town. He was confused on how she had been in town for a couple weeks apparently before AJ's appointment that she was able to keep it under wraps.

He didn't see the big deal. Tara was back. That was that. He didn't see the need to linger on it or dissect why. His only surprise about it was that she cared enough about her dad to return.

"Nothing to say?" Opie eggs.

"Not really." Jax says truthfully. "I'm glad she's doing good in her life. She achieved her dream."

Jax is happy for Tara. He knows he wasn't supportive of her when they were teens. Truthfully, he didn't know how to be supportive of her. He could laugh as he thought college and Tara leaving for it was a scary thing to him when barely two years later he would enter fatherhood, which was terrifying on it's own.

However, with everyone making a fuss about his ex-girlfriend, he knows someone is bothered by her appearance. "I know Noelle is bothered by it." He reveals to Opie.

"Can you blame her?"

"She shouldn't be." Jax says. Jax wouldn't risk what he has for what he had. Even then Tara and he were just high school boyfriend and girlfriend. When he thinks about those years with her, he feels embarrassed at how crazy they were.

"Jax, you should've seen how you and Tara were from our perspective." Opie says.

"It was first love bullshit," Jax replies.

"Yeah, crazy first love bullshit you still were moping over when you began messing around with Noelle." Opie points out.

"I haven't thought about Tara since she left."

"You tell Noelle that?"

"I didn't think I had too."

...

After coming back from his mom's family dinner and wrangles his youngest into bed, Jax stands in the doorway of his bedroom as he watches Noelle comb her wet hair.

She's in one of her skimpy bathrobes and skin still pink from the shower. With her face free from makeup, he knows that without a doubt, Noelle is the most beautiful woman in all of Charming – in the fucking world.

"You're beautiful, Noelle." He tells her.

Noelle looks at him through her vanity mirror and gives him a bashful smile as she places down her comb and turns to face him. "So what do you want?" She teases.

Jax removes himself from the doorway and shuts the door before he makes his way over to Noelle and pulls her up. "I can't just tell my wife she's beautiful."

"You don't need to butter me up to get some ass."

Jax raises his eyebrow at that. "And here I was trying to sound like a romantic husband."