Money Can't Buy Happiness

Chapter 36

I'm backkkkk, kind of! Slowly going to be updating but I'm still healing from the c-section AND ya know, have three little kids so it may take some time to get back to a normal schedule. Thank you all so much for sticking around and waiting. I appreciate it and love you guys so much! Enjoy! Xoxoxo

—

"Is she a good mom?" Tara asked casually the next morning. They spent time together at the hotel but conversation was limited. Now she wanted more information.

Jax nodded, "I think so. I know you don't approve of her job," he said with a look, "But she's a really good mom."

"Do you have an idea for visitation?" She sat across from him at the kitchen table.

Drawing his head back he looked at her questioningly. "No. Kid's still so little and we're cool, plus it's still an adjustment."

"Jax," she said accusingly. "You need to do his right. Let the courts decide support and set up a schedule, she may be too young for overnights but still. This should be by the book."

"I'll talk to Katie," he said dismissively.

"I'm involved in this too," she reminded him. "I'm Charlotte's step-mother, I'll be taking care of her sometimes, I'm sure, and I think you need to really look at this from a mature point of view."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Mature?"

"I know she's a friend of the club," Tara huffed, "But these things get messy and she has that high powered lawyer she's holed up with. You need to protect yourself and your relationship with Charlotte."

He stood up, annoyed, and glared at her. "I'll take care of it." Reluctantly he kissed her head and stormed out the door leaving her to take some initiative and call Lowen herself.

—

When Happy opened his eyes the next day, struggling to find composure with his pounding headache and intense confusion, he heard Katie's voice in the hall. She was laughing about something and the muffled, but surely happy sound, brought a smile to his lips. She found him on his back, smoke lingering a few feet above the bed, as he puffed on a cigarette.

"You're not supposed to smoke in here," she chided without forcing him to put it out. "Coffee?"

"Thanks," he grumbled as he sat up and took the paper cup from her hand. "Sorry bout last night."

"You're fine," she chuckled. "It happens to everyone, shows you have some heart, Hap. You're not the Tin Man after all."

He scoffed. "You knew that shit."

"I did," she shrugged as she leaned on the liquor cabinet.

"You have clothes here?" He asked her, gesturing to the new and much more casual outfit she wore.

Katie shook her head. "I didn't stay with you," she admitted shyly. "I had to get back to Charlotte and you were out cold. I couldn't carry your ass to the car."

"Wasn't my first night in a whore house," he laughed heartily.

"I'm sure it was the loneliest though," she teased.

"I'm always lonely." It was a sharp turn from the generally light conversation they were having.

Katie hung her head and sipped her coffee. "I'm not sure what you want me to say.

"Nothing," he sighed heavily. "You don't have to say anything, Kate."

She nodded, looking around awkwardly, and waited for him to say or do anything. "So, what now?"

"I talked to Tara," he suddenly remembered. As he said it her back tensed but she didn't say anything. "Maybe uhh, I should go back and talk to her again."

"Did you piss her off?" Katie asked accusingly.

"No," he grumbled, "But I was pissed and we complained about you, about what Charlotte means to her and Jax."

"What does she mean?" Katie asked angrily.

"That Jax isn't just Tara's, she don't like that," he admitted.

"I don't want Jax," Katie stomped her foot as she said it.

"I know," Happy said adamantly. "But he's got a second family now, Kate. Tara is pissed, she's bitter, and she knows after what his old man did to his little bastard daughter in Ireland that Jax ain't gonna give Charlotte, and you, less than the boys."

It was wonderful for her to hear, as Charlotte's mother, but Katie knew how awful Tara must have felt. How crushing it was to know he had another child he loved, someone she didn't share with him, and Katie would be just as jaded.

"Don't compare my daughter to a bastard baby, Hap, don't," she spat. "And he knows, he knows he doesn't have to give me shit."

"But he will," Happy grumbled. It was part of what enraged him so much. "He'll take care of you and Charlotte and me and Tara can't say shit."

Katie knew that was true. "I'm sorry, Happy. After it all happened he was all I had, I had to tell him, and we both couldn't do anything about her. We tried to find someone to adopt her but it was hard to find a good couple who could look passed her genetics."

"He wasn't all you had."

"You left," she reminded him. "You hated me! You hated him!"

"I still do," he admitted gruffly as he stood up from the bed. "I fucking hate Jax and every time I see that kid," he stopped. "She looks like you, so fucking pretty, but I see him. I woulda played house with you but knowing she's his, nah," he shook his head. "It changes shit."

"I know," Katie sniffled. "And I understand if you can't," she shrugged, "You know."

He ignored her and took his cigarette to the bathroom to flick it in the toilet and, after a long pee, flushed it. "I don't know."

Katie shook her head. "I knew this would happen," she said ruefully. "I knew I'd lose you but keeping Charlotte from her Dad was selfish. I'm sorry you got hurt too, Hap. It wasn't my intention."

"You didn't lose me," he said angrily. "I'll worship your ass till I catch a goddamn bullet in the head. I can't change that."

"Well, that's morbidly romantic," she tried to joke. "What does it mean though?"

"I don't know," he moved toward her with an accidentally threatening look on his face. He didn't stop until they were centimeters apart, almost uncomfortably close, their noses almost touching. "I love you," he grumbled as he took her face in his hands and kissed her.