You Are My Sunshine

Chapter 28 - The Scattered Pieces

"They say love is blind. I disagree. Infatuation is blind. Love is all-seeing and accepting." - Unknown

--

Tiny beads of sweat dripped off Jax's forehead as he worked diligently, harder than ever before, to remove any trace of Kohn and Tara from his home. The floor was spotless, the laundry room and kitchen reset to Amelia's obsessively particular standard, but Tara was still asleep on the sofa, wrapped in Amelia's favorite fleece throw.

"Get up," he shook her gently. "Tara, you gotta get up."

She smiled as she fluttered her eyes open. "Morning, Jackson."

"Barely," he sighed looking out the window to see the moon still shining. "You gotta go."

"Oh," she sat up slowly. "Yeah, sorry."

"I have to leave," he explained. "I gotta dump Kohn and get to Vegas before Amelia slits my throat."

Tara huffed, rolling her eyes, and stood up tossing the blanket aside carelessly. "She should understand, the club needed you." Offering him the lie, attempting to prove how accepting she would be of such holdups and let downs, Tara kissed his cheek. "Thank you, Jax."

"Yeah," he raked his fingers through his hair. "You don't know anything. If anyone asks you anything you filed the report, saw him a few times but eventually he gave up and stopped following you."

"Okay." She nodded as she redressed. "He told me he was leaving today, had two plane tickets, one for each of us, so maybe they'll think he left?"

"Maybe," Jax nodded not noticing her anxious trembling.

Just a few hours before he was angry, feeling such bitter emotions towards Amelia, but suddenly he remembered why they had their issues. It was for the exact reason he was late and had left her hanging in Vegas while he was with Tara, his pride and selfish stupidity. He had yet to realize how Tara had bolstered that confidence and manipulated him so perfectly, she had been coached by Gemma to do it and while that alone would not have convinced him she and had the perfect scenario to mold him. Now, he was seeing clearly, albeit not through her ploys, and he hated himself. How could he have been so foolish?

"So?" Tara lingered in the doorway. "Will I be hearing from you?"

"No." Jax sighed. "That was a mistake, Tara, we got caught up in that shit."

"Of course." Laughing at her own foolishness, Tara opened the door and with one last loving gaze, climbed back into the Cutlass and headed home.

"Goddamn it," Jax hissed, slamming the door and looking at the blanket. "I'll get her another one," balling it up he tossed it in the garbage can outback before grabbing his backpack and jumping on his Harley.

--

Amelia got drunk, very incredibly, painfully drunk but didn't pass out, still in her lingerie, until almost ten the next morning. Gingerly, Juice carried her into the bedroom and laid her down, covering her with the top sheet, and wished he could crawl in beside her. Scribbling her a note, he left it on the TV stand in the main room of the suite before slipping out of her room and heading back to his. When the elevator door opened and he was face to face with Jax.

"Where the hell were you?" He spat, unable to rein in his anger.

"I got caught up in some shit, club shit," Jax explained. "After Tara filed the report Kohn came after him, I had to take care of that," he said cryptically. "She pissed?"

"Pissed isn't the word," Juice said sadly. "She got really wasted and cried, she passed out a few hours ago. I waited to make sure she didn't like, vomit and choke on it or something but I think she's gonna be fine."