Shaded ✔️

CHAPTER 32

The next week went by quickly. I was on bed rest for most of it, Val, Stas and some of the guys coming to visit me every now and then. I ignored the missing presence of the one person I wanted to see most. I was starting to get up and move around on my crutches, letting Stas drag me to the apartment to show me what she had done with the place. Nate's room had been cleared out, the last of his things in a box shoved in the closet. My heart hurt at the thought. Stas had set up all the baby stuff in the room, along with her bed and the rest of her things. My room was still the same as I had left it. We figured we would be taking the whole marriage joke a little too far by sleeping in the same bed every night. She had added some things to the apartment, making it look less like a man cave. The grey couch had a couple pale pink pillows and faux fur throws. There was another picture on the table by the door, one of me, Stas, Nate and Val. I tried to ignore the fact that it was damn hard to remember a time where I was as happy as I looked in the picture.

I decided to move all my stuff from my room at the clubhouse, letting Val know I was no longer staying there. I swear I could feel Jax's eyes on me as Ash brought the boxes and I hobbled my way through the door. A part of me wished he would come after me, but I knew he wouldn't.

I tried to convince myself that I was being stupid, that he was nothing more than a one night stand. I knew he was more than that. Despite the fact that I didn't know everything about him, I knew enough. I knew that underneath all the sarcasm and dirty jokes, there was a good man. The guy that was there when I needed him most. The guy that could force a smile onto my face no matter how mad I was. The guy who made me question the part of me that didn't want to stick around in this shitty town, that made me want to stay. Maybe in another life if we both weren't so fucked up, it would've worked.

Time seemed to pass quickly after that. I still managed to work at the tattoo shop, booking appointments and taking care of computer stuff. I had my casts taken off, replaced with a brace on my wrist and a walking cast on my foot. Me and Stas had fallen into a routine; we had breakfast and dinner together. While I was at work she would do "baby stuff" which mostly consisted of buying various unneeded items on Amazon. I went with her and Val to all her appointments, painted her toe nails since she couldn't reach them over her extremely large belly, made sure she wasn't eating too much Nutella when I wasn't home. I drowned out the noises coming from Stas' room whenever Val spent the night with noise-cancelling headphones. I was the perfect husband, if I say so myself. I tried to distract myself from all thoughts of Jax by reading or drawing, making sure the only drink I had was a non-alcoholic beer every now and then. Things finally seemed to be returning to as normal as could be for a girl who was filling in the role of her dead brother to her pregnant best friend. But I knew it wouldn't last, and I knew I was just waiting for the storm to hit.

"Stas? I'm going to the store you want anything?"

"Nutella?"

"No."

"Come on Scar."

"You'll thank me when you don't still look like a whale after birthing my nephew."

"I DON'T LOOK LIKE A FUCKING-"

I slammed the door, laughing silently and speed walking out of our building before she came waddling out after me. I made it to the grocery store, picking up the stuff we needed for the week and giving in a buying a second jar of Nutella. I was walking to where my car was parked when someone grabbed me, covering my mouth and dragging me to the side of the building before slamming me against the brick wall of the grocery store. The guy was at least twice my size but I struggled against him anyway until finally he spoke.

"I heard you've been looking for me."