Spark in the Dark

Chapter 25

Shawn woke up early the next morning. She hadn't slept well. Juice tried calling her the night before, but she had been in the shower and didn't hear her phone. Then she struggled with whether or not she should call him back. It's not that she didn't want to, she did, but she wasn't thinking rationally about the situation and didn't want her temper to get the best of her. The last thing she needed was the say something she didn't mean.

After seeing what time it was, Shawn got out of bed, although it was early enough she could have tried to go back to sleep. She went over to her closet to find clothes for work and saw her running shoes on the ground. They'd been there for years. She used to be obsessed with running. At first it was to stay in shape, but then when she became sick, the running was just another way to lose weight. Eventually, she was too weak to run anymore and she never got back into it once she was well again.

Shawn grabbed the shoes and walked over to her dresser to pull out work out clothes. After getting dressed and putting on her shoes, she went into the bathroom and put her hair up in a bun. She really had to search for it, but she found a holder for her iPod that strapped onto her arm so she could listen to music as she ran.

She left through the back door and did a few stretches in her yard before going out through the gate in her fence. She power walked to the end of the alley to warm up and started jogging when she got to the regular street. She jogged a couple streets down and turned to go down Clay and Gemma's street. When she got to the end of that, she knew she could double back to her house. When she passed their house, it looked like Clay was getting ready to leave and Gemma was at the door saying goodbye to him. They saw her and Shawn raised a hand to wave to them.

"Should we be worried about that?" Clay asked his wife. "It's been awhile since I've seen her run like that."

"I don't think so. She ate last night. Went back to the clubhouse with Jax for a beer. I think she's doing good."

"You let us know if that changes."

"You got it, baby," Gemma said and gave Clay a kiss.

Shawn got back to the alley and had to stop for a moment. She was out of shape, but was pleased with herself that she had run as far as she did. She walked a slower pace back to her yard and entered through the gate. She jumped when she saw Juice standing at her backdoor and pulled her earbuds out of her ears.

"Hey," he greeted her. "I thought you were ignoring me."

"I'm not."

"You did last night," Juice pointed out.

"I was in the shower when you called. I didn't hear the phone. I didn't ignore you, I just didn't call you back."

"I didn't sleep with her."

"You don't have to defend yourself to me," Shawn told him. "Even if you had, it's none of my business."

"What? Are you shitting me right now?" Juice asked, pissed.

"Ya know, I don't really get that phrase, but no, I am not shitting you. We're not together, Juice. You can screw whoever you want."

"Really? It felt like we were pretty together Saturday." Shawn just shrugged. Juice grabbed her waist and spun her around so her back was now up against the backdoor. He moved closer to her, close enough to kiss her, but he didn't. "Does it feel like we're not together to you?"

Shawn's breathing grew heavy. She bit her lip and shook her head. "Why did you go with her?"

"I had to. If I didn't Jax would have known something was up. If we're going to do this, we have to be smarter about it. I mean, you getting me hard at the dinner table while sitting next to your dad probably isn't a good idea."

"Sorry. I just won't touch you anymore around them, alright?"

Juice nodded. "I installed those cameras, too. If you try to sneak in the side door, they can see you on the tv above the bar."

"Maybe we should just... Tell them?"

Juice shook his head. "We can't. At least not yet. You didn't see your dad threaten Sack over that whole nickname thing."

"What if we just take it slowly in front of them. Let them see us talking more?"

"Ease them into it?"

"Right."

"Like a frog in the boiling water thing?"

Shawn smiled. "Sure."

Juice stepped towards her, again. "In the mean time, can I still come over?"

"You better," Shawn said and Juice smiled. Then he motioned with his head to a nearby table. Shawn looked and saw flowers there. "You bought me flowers?"

"Candy told me to," Juice explained.

"You told her about me?"

"Not who you are, but I said I was with someone. I offered to pay her the cash I won from your pool game to not tell the guys, but she told me to keep it and buy you those instead."

"So, we're... together then?" Shawn asked him.

"You tell me."

Shawn bit her lip and nodded. Juice smiled and leaned in to kiss her.