Jax and Cori grew up together. They, along with Opie, were best friends growing up, but Cori always saw Jax differently. She watched him go through several relationships, all of them ending badly, as she sat back and waited for him to notice her. So...
Cori Langford sighed as she shut the passenger side door and walked around the front of her dad's old Cutlass, digging the keys out of her bag as she went. She was exhausted and still had several hours to go before her head could hit a pillow. She had just picked her father up from his chemo treatment and needed to drop him at home before heading out to do errands. It took three tries to get the car to start, making Cori shake her head in annoyance.
"Ok, so after I drop you off at home with Sara, I'm going to take your car to a garage, then head to the grocery."
Her dad nodded wearily as he stared out the passenger window. "Take it to TM. They always work on this car."
Cori sighed and nodded, thinking that wouldn't have been her first choice, but considering that it was probably still the only garage in town, she didn't have much choice in the matter unless she wanted to take it to Lodi. She pulled into the driveway and barely had the car in park when her dad was wrenching the door open to get sick.
After helping his nurse Sara get him inside, she hosed down the driveway then went back into the house. She walked into her dad's room to find Sara tucking him into bed.
"Dad, will you be ok long enough for Sara to follow me to TM in my car? Then I can drop her back off here."
Her dad nodded before letting his eyes close and Sara followed her back out to the cars. It was a quick drive to TM, and as she pulled onto the lot, she couldn't help but smile. She'd had a lot of great memories here over the years, and it was good to see the business still thriving, even if she didn't necessarily want to be here. She got out of the car and walked toward the office, finding that it was empty. She turned to go into the garage itself when a voice stopped her.
"Hi! Sorry, what can I do for you?"
Cori turned to see a young guy with a close-cropped mohawk and tribal tats on his skull and grinned. "Yeah, I think the starter is going out and wondered if you could take a look at it."
The man nodded and smiled as he motioned toward the office. "Sure. If you'll step in here, we'll get the paperwork taken care of. I'm the only one here right now, so it may be a couple of days before we get around to checking it out."
Cori nodded and stepped inside and over to the desk where the young man was setting a form and pen out for her. "Yeah, that's fine. There's no hurry."
Cori quickly filled out the paperwork before smiling at the man and leaving. As she and Sara were pulling out of the lot, five motorcycles filed past them. Cori kept her eyes straight ahead, not daring to glance in their direction, but that didn't stop Sara from staring as they turned the corner.
Once Sara was dropped off back at the house, Cori was able to work on the rest of her errands. First stop was the bank to pay some bills then off to the grocery store. As she walked the aisles, she grinned at the constant bombardment of memories she had been under since arriving in town two weeks before. She could remember shopping with her mother on Saturday afternoons for the coming week, then running off to play with her two best friends as soon as their family station wagon had parked in the driveway.
She was brought out of her thoughts by a familiar voice from behind her.
"Cori? Is that you?"
She turned to see Donna Winston standing behind her with a full shopping cart and a grin from ear to ear. Donna had married her best friend Opie when the two girls had graduated high school. She shook her head and walked into her old friend's arms for a hug.
"Oh my god, Donna! It's so good to see you!"
The other woman laughed and shook her head as the two parted. "How have you been? Are you in town visiting your dad?"
Cori shook her head. "No, I've moved back. Dad isn't doing so well, so I thought I'd spend what time he has left with him."
Donna nodded understandingly. "I heard about your father. I'm so sorry. Is the chemo not helping at all?"
Cori shrugged. "It's slowing it down, but that's about it."
Donna shook her head and looked down for a moment, but then looked back at Cori and grinned. "Opie's gonna be so happy to know you're back. Jax too. He talks about you all the time."
Cori grinned. "Well, I haven't seen anyone yet, other than you and I ran into David Hale the other day."
Donna just grinned and winked at her. "Yeah, he always did have the biggest crush on you." She looked at her phone and sighed. "I need to get going, but you have to come over for dinner one night soon, ok?"
Cori nodded and the two women parted ways. Cori shook her head and chuckled as she thought that things never did change much in Charming.
Jax and Opie walked into the garage and noticed the old Cutlass sitting in a bay waiting to be worked on. Jax frowned and looked over to where Juice was installing a new battery in a Kia.
"Hey, Juice, Harry Langford bring his car in for work?"
Juice shook his head as he looked over at the car that looked as if it had seen better days. "Nah, some woman dropped it off. Said she thought it might need a new starter. I told her it would be a few days."
Jax nodded as he looked at the car. "Was it an older lady? His nurse Sara?"
Juice shook his head. "Nope, some young woman. She was hot too."
Jax looked at Opie and lifted one brow. "You don't think it was Cori, do ya?"
Opie scoffed and shook his head. "Nah, brother. If she was in town, she would have come by before now to let us know. Harry probably just has a new nurse."
Jax nodded, his hopes being deflated at Opie's words. He was probably right. If Cori was in town, she would have let them know.
