Money Can't Buy Happiness

Chapter 48

Jax left Katie at the gym and headed home, not hesitating to wake Tara despite the time, to have a long talk. He was beginning to wonder if he had let her push him into decisions he wouldn't have made himself and it made him furious, not with her as much as with himself.

"Tara," he said through the darkness. "Tara," he tried louder now. "We gotta talk."

"Huh?" Rolling over she looked at him through squinted eyelids. "What wrong?"

"Everything's okay," he sat on the edge of the mattress and rested his hand on her waist. "I talked to Katie, we came to an agreement."

Tara sat up and, even in the darkness, he could see she was angry. "What kind of agreement?"

"You back off," he said slowly, "And let us parent Charlotte together and she'll drop the suit."

"Back off?" Tara snarled. "I'm your wife and I'm her step-mother, am I supposed to just ignore her?"

"Actually yeah," Jax sighed. "You're too involved and I have to have Katie's back with stuff concerning Charlotte. Put some distance there and she'll probably eventually ease up."

"I can't believe I have to tiptoe around her," Tara said incredulously. "Like I'm the one who brought that baby into this, like I created this mess. We didn't ask for Charlotte, Jax, and now she wants to dictate how we deal with it?"

Jax drew his head back, his face twisting with a look of disgust as he looked at her, and pulled his hand away from her. "I want Charlotte," He said firmly. "I asked for her and I helped bring her into this. Christ, Tara, she's just as much my kid as Abel or Thomas."

"Of course," Tara said quickly. "And that's why we're trying to treat her as if she were ours."

"But she's not," he said gently. "That's the problem, she isn't ours and you're forcing yourself between us all."

"Between you and Katie?" She asked suggestively.

He paused and groaned. "You know what I meant."

"She's a hooker, Jax," Tara said with contempt.

"Was a hooker," he reminded her. Narrowing his eyes and furrowing his brow, Jax looked at Tara and said, "And I'm a gun running murderer. I think Katie scores higher than me on the morality scale."

Her shoulders slumped, "Jax, you-"

"It's not up for a vote," he said authoritatively.

"Okay, Prez," she sneered. Laying back down she turned her back to him and shut her eyes right.

There was nothing Tara hated more than feeling so alone and shut off from Jax. He was her sole companion and always on her team until now, at least that's how it felt. Jax had tried to see it from her point of view, she was simply trying to do with Charlotte what she did with Abel. In some ways it could be seen as commendable, wanting to welcome a child into their family, but not like this. Jax was desperate to make her see how platonic his and Katie's relationship was in case that was all she needed to back away from their co-parenting relationship.

—

A few days later, midmorning, Tara strolled down Main street and into the gym with Thomas in her arms. Her and Jax had barely spoken since the conversation about Katie but Tara was staying away from her, Charlotte and even the club despite not agreeing to his request. She wasn't sure what pushed her to visit, maybe she was looking for Jax it looking for a fight, she couldn't pinpoint it but she was there anyway. It was cleaner and brighter than before and she was truly impressed by all the upgrades but she didn't plan on mentioning any of it.