The night had crept into Charming in what seemed like an hour, in reality it was in eight hours.
Jax and I stood outside of Opie and Donna's house, waiting ever so patiently for them to answer the door. Jax was holding the plastic container filled with my freshly made Apple Pie; and Jax of course being the stubborn, cocky man, that I loved; wanted to add his own flavor to the dessert. But let me say now, I wasn't going to allow that to happen. He would make a mess of it, turning it into a crappy mix of Apple Pie.
He wasn't completely hopeless in the kitchen, but he wasn't that great. Not saying that I was any better, it's just I didn't agree on adding extra flavours that may just kill the dessert.
"Maybe they aren't home." I stare down at the ground, I was completely exhausted. My feet ached and my back was giving me curry.
"They're home, just give them a sec." Jax reassured me, allowing one hand to slip from the container grasping onto my hand, entwining our fingers together.
"How do I look?" I perk up, taking my attention from my feet, towards Jax.
"Good for a laugh." He cheekily replies, giving me a smirk.
"Hey!" I groan using my other hand, clenching it into a fist and gently punching his bicep.
"What was that for?" Jax groaned sticking out his bottom lip.
"You know what for." I smirk.
"Now seriously Jackson, how do I look?" I straightened up my posture and fixed up my clothes. I was wearing a bright floral dress with a pair of flat soled shoes. It probably looked like a unicorn had vomited all over me.
"Baby, you look beautiful, you always do." He leans over laying a kiss on the side of my temple.
"Sure, I do." I roll my eyes, my cheeks heating up and a small smile crossing my face. "I'm getting fatter everyday." I add.
"Not fatter, hotter. You're turning into a mother, and your beauty, believe me it stuns me." He chuckled at my reaction. How could he be so smooth with everything he said? It was like he practiced everyday. He knew how to talk; for god's sake Jax was a smooth talker.
"I don't believe you." I cross my arms across my body, stubbornly.
"Ethel-" Jax was immediately cut off by the door ripping open, revealing Opie standing there with his beautiful daughter on his shoulders.
"Sorry for the wait guys, come on in." Opie stepped aside whilst his daughter watched us cautiously. I swear she hated me, couldn't blame her if she did.
Opie shut the door behind us and knelt down, catching both Jax's and my attention.
"Hey honey, go tell mommy we got visitors." Opie sets Ellie down so she could go tell her mother. Ellie's attention converted from Opie towards Jax and myself, she was looking very cautious.
"Yes daddy." She takes her attention from us back towards her father. A small grin crossing her pale complexion.
Watching Ellie wander off into the house, Opie lead Jax and I towards the lounge room, showing us to our seats on the lounge.
"Thanks for coming guys, its good to see you guys together, for once in a while." Opie takes a seat on a single chair whilst Jax and I sat on the three seater.
"Once in a while? We're always together man." Jax chuckled positioning the container down onto the small coffee table in front of us, before draping his arm around my waist.
"That can be debatable." Opie smirked.
"You should see us at home. Now that's a sight to see, we're hooked by the hip." Jax leant over and kissed my cheek.
"Yeah hooked by the hip, naked on a bed." Opie chuckled proud of his own comment.
"You're a dick." Jax chuckled tightening his grip around me, almost painfully. What was going on with him?
Silence erupted the room and soon enough Opie was being called into the kitchen by what sounding, a very angry Donna.
"Be right back." Opie stared at us almost frightened before he leaped from the chair, leaving the room.
"Someone hasn't told about us coming over." I giggle.
"Yeah, fifty bucks says he didn't even mention us whatsoever, babe." Jax nuzzled his face into the crook of my neck.
Jax breathed heavily against my neck and brushed his lips across my skin, giving me goosebumps and a small chill.
"Jax what are you doing?" I question giggling. He was now, kissing my neck tenderly, sucking and nibbling every so often.
"Nothing baby." He quietly laughs, continuing. His lips were starting to tickle me and not to mention all of the sounds he made, and the slight pleasure he caused. He wasn't helping, I was starting to get aroused.
"Jax stop." I giggle trying to push his face away from my neck.
"Jackson stop it. There are little kids around and not to mention we are at somebody else's place." I quietly reason trying to remove him.
"It's alright darlin', they're too young to understand." He reasons trying to kiss me some more.
"Jax please stop." I beg, unable to contain my laughter, he was tickling me at the same time.
"Woah, I leave you two for two minutes and you're already all over each other. You two are like like rabbits." Opie entered the room, a bright smile plastered across his face.
"It was all her Ope, I swear." Jax ripped away smiling devilishly.
"No don't lie!" I cry out giggling.
Opie watched us intently, unable to remove the smile from his face.
"Believe me, I have never said this to anybody. But you two are just perfect for each other." Opie leans forward brushing his beard, his eyes glistening in the lighting of the room.
"No I think you've gotten it all wrong Ope." Jax suddenly states. My breath was cut short and I snapped my head in Jax's direction; what did he mean by that?
"I'm not the perfect one. Ethel is perfect; she's my other half. And I love her to death." Jax turned his head, facing me. A genuine smile playing on his lips.
My heart fluttered and my cheeks blossomed in heat, he always had this affect on me, no matter what.
"Ethel, Jax, I'm sorry. I would've by now had dinner served on the table, but I didn't know we were going to have company." Donna took a step into the room, giving Jax and myself a smile before darting her attention to Opie, glaring daggers at him.
"Donna." I squeak in delight. It had been a long time since I last seen Donna and I was more then excited to see her again.
Quickly removing myself from Jax's embrace and the lounge itself, I leaped towards Donna, wrapping her into a tight hug.
"Ethel, you don't know how much I've missed your company." Donna squeezed me tight, returning the hug.
"I've missed you too." I whisper. After everything lately, I hadn't been getting around a lot to see people. I was going around on my own to do my own things, such as clean my house.
"I've been meaning to call around you and Jax's house, but it's been a struggle with the two kids." Donna pulls back, staring up at me with a small smile.
"It's alright Donna. I've been wanting to come see you, but I've been too much of a slack arse. Sorry about that." I reply.
"You're not a slack ass Ethel, you're getting yourself prepared." Donna chuckled, obviously amused by seeing the look of confusion on my face.
"Prepared? Prepared for what?" I furrow my eyebrows.
Donna looked down at my stomach, seeing the noticeable bump. That was when I finally understood what she was talking about, I could practically face palm myself. I could be blonde sometimes and those sometimes now usually meaning all the time.
"Oh prepared." I giggle shaking my head, feeling dumb. "Yeah, I guess so." I nod my head agreeing with her.
"So, I'm about to start a roast. Do you want to help?" Donna perks, half a smile plastered across her face. There was no doubt that Donna was a beautiful woman; she was naturally gorgeous, even after having two children.
"Donna, I'd love to." I nod my head, ignoring the fact that my back and feet were killing me. Donna squealed in delight, grabbing my hand and leading me towards the kitchen.
"Where're the kids?" I ask curiously.
"They're just in their rooms playing." Donna replies quickly walking towards the box freezer, grabbing the defrosting chicken from the silver tin container.
"Oh okay." I nod my head. Watching Donna make a start on a few things, I walked over to the sink grabbing the bar of soap and cleaning my hands.
"So what do you want me to do?" I ask drying my hands on a tea towel that was situated beside the sink.
"Um." Donna paused standing there with her finger pressed against her lip.
"Actually yeah, it would be amazing if you started on peeling and cutting the potatoes, please." Donna grasped onto a plastic bag, filled with spuds.
Placing it down in front of me, I casually grabbed the bag and carried it over to the sink again, turning the bag inside out and allowing the potatoes to fall into the sink.
"Do you prefer a knife or a peeler?" Donna questions from behind. Before I could even answer her question, Donna gently placed down a knife in front of me, giving me a smile.
"Truthfully? You know me too well." I return the smile picking up the knife and turning on the tap.
Donna knew exactly why I would have chosen a knife, they were my favourite weapons. In that sense, I guess I got that from my father. He found the slower he killed someone, the more painful it was. He and I both weren't psycho's, but really; guns weren't my cup of tea.
"Maybe so." She giggled walking away and bringing back a decent sized container for the potatoes.
"Thanks." I smile at her appreciatively, but it slightly altered once my eyes landed on her stomach. She didn't have a baby bump whatsoever, it was like her entire pregnancy just disappeared. Opening my mouth to question Donna on it, I decided to keep my mouth shut. Maybe Donna may have lost the baby? And I really didn't want to ask about it if she had, she looked happy and I didn't want to disturb that for her.
"So I see you and Jax are doing fine." I could hear the smirk in her voice. Picking up a potato, I rinsed it under the water and began to peel the skin off with the blade of the knife.
"Yeah I guess so." I smiled staring down at the engagement ring in my finger. Damn I forgot to tell Donna!
"Donna, I need to tell you something." I say straightforward, keeping my position, not looking back towards her.
"If it's what sex position you two do, then I'm not interested. But if-" I turn around and hold up my hand, revealing the ring on my finger.
"It's got to do with that engagement ring! Oh my god Ethel! Congratulations!" Donna grinned brightly, quickly walking over towards me to examine my ring.
"When, where and how?" She leans against the bench, allowing me to turn back and start on the potatoes again.
"Well it was not so long ago. It was actually the day I built up the courage to tell Jax I was pregnant. So we headed off to the room right and I admitted the pregnancy and literally straight after, he proposed to me while we were laying in bed." I answer, not feeling like I had enough energy to tell the entire story from start to finish.
"That's so sweet of Jax, good for you Ethel. You deserve it, I'm just glad Jax has enough brains to do something like that. The last chick he had, Tara, well she was a piece of work. He was definitely looking in all the wrong places for love. But now that he has you." Donna trailed off giving me the thumbs up.
Smiling to myself, I kept my attention on what I was doing with the knife, making sure I wasn't going to cut myself; whilst I thought up something to say.
Just as I was about to speak, heavy footsteps caught my attention. Looking back in sync with Donna, our eyes stopped directly on Jax who was now in the kitchen with a worried expression plastered across his face.
"Jax what's wrong, honey?" I ask staring at him concerned.
"It's Mom, she's up at St. Thomas in a critical condition." Jax looked like he was about to cry.
Dropping the knife that was once in my hand, the breath in my lungs got caught halfway. No, not Gemma.