The Best Thing ch. 4 {JB}

by Victoria L. on January 16, 19100 at 12:35:56:

Hey, all! Many of you expressed interest in 'meeting' Jax and Brenda's kids in this story, so I thought I'd post another 'filler' chapter so you guys could see a little bit of how they interact. And don't worry Janis, Between Now and Forever is Still coming. I promise.
Victoria L.

Chapter 4

“Yes, I’m well aware of the statistics, Jerry. That doesn’t mean that it
would be wise to start another company like this. It’s what you’d call a trend,
it’s not going to last and all the PR in the world is not going to make it more
than a passing fad.” Jax tried to speak calmly into the receiver, but his
brother’s stubbornness didn’t make it any easier. “I’m going to hang up now,”
Jax said into the phone, “And you can take the matter up with dad, but don’t
count on my capital to back you.” Jax waited for the normal string of
expletives. “Lois is on my side, and I wouldn’t let Mum hear you talking like
that. Yeah, same to you, Jer,” Jax said, before hanging up once and for all. He
buried his face in his hands, and sighed. He then turned on the monitor, and
buzzed his assistant, Addie. “Addie, love, I’m going to call it quits a little early,
today.” He smiled as he thought of Brenda, Jody, Jasmine and Victoria. “Yeah,
there is a gentleman and a few ladies that I want to see. You can forward
anything major to my cell, but other than that, I’m off for the day.”

“Very well, Mr. Jacks,” Addie said, returning to her work. Jax finished
quickly and headed to Brenda’s to pick up his daughters. Before he headed to
her house though, he stopped at the Java House to pick up something for
himself and Brenda. After the night they’d had, he was sure that coffee would
still help, because hours of work had only intensified his hangover.

He breezed in, and smiled when he saw Carly Roberts. She handed a
customer their change and then smiled when she saw him.
“Hey, Jax,” she said, reaching over the counter to squeeze his hand.
“The usual?” she asked.

“You know me well,” he said, his eyes roaming over the sweets that
occupied the counter and shelves in front of the cash register. “Would you
add another coffee to that, Brenda takes hers straight black with a bit of milk,
but I trust that you know how to hook it up,” he said, debating on the
cinnamon rolls or doughnuts. She glanced over her shoulder at him.

“You better believe it, baby.” She turned around and handed him his
cappuccino, and Brenda’s black coffee. “Can I uh, interest you in anything
else?” she said, waving her hand over the array of delicacies. “Made them
fresh myself this morning. You don’t have to worry about Brenda getting her
hands on that oven back there,” Carly mused, pointing behind her. Jax smiled
broadly, and then gave in.
“All right,” he groaned, “Give me three of the sweet rolls, a cinnamon
roll and a couple of doughnuts, too.”
“That’s all?” Carly asked, jokingly. She began putting the treats into
white bags as Jax still stared at all she had to offer. “Let’s hear it Jax,” she said,
“What else do you want?”
“Nothing,” Jax said adamantly, waving his hand, and then looking up at
Carly with a boyish grin. Just then, Jax’s cell phone rang.
“Tell you what,” she said, “I’ll surprise you.” He nodded a ‘thanks’ and
then turned his back and stepped a few feet away to where no one was sitting and spoke into the phone.

“Jax here,” he said.
“Hi daddy,” Victoria said brightly. Jax’s heart melted right then and
there at the sound of his five year old’s voice.
“Hello, love. What are you doing on the phone?”
“Mommy let me call,” she said. Jax’s heart twinged at the sound of
Victoria calling Brenda ‘mommy’. It had just happened, and Victoria and
Jasmine took to it, so neither Brenda or Jax had ever really done anything to
curb it. He did everything for Jody that a father would do, and Jody had called
him ‘dad’ for a long time, and it didn’t bother him. He supposed it was all
right since he and Brenda would always be friends. Jax and Brenda had sat
down and explained as best they could to their young children that their
mommy and daddy relationship wasn’t the norm, and that they should
understand that they weren’t their real mommy and daddy respectively. Both
Brenda and Jax wanted Daniel and Marian’s memories to be kept alive in the
hearts’ of their children. “Daddy?” Victoria said. “Are you coming home,
soon?” Jax heard Brenda’s merry laughter in the background and he hoped that she would get the phone from Victoria, because he didn’t want her to
ruin the surprise. Jax coming home early was quite an event.

Before he could answer, Brenda did take the phone from Victoria.
“Hey babe,” she said into the phone as she picked Victoria up and
placed her on her lap.
“Hey yourself,” he said. “What’s up? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah yeah, it’s cool, she just wanted to hear her daddy’s voice. We
thought we were calling the office.”
“Addie forwarded my calls to the cell,” he said, taking the bags from
Carly and reaching into his wallet.
“Put your money away,” Carly said, giving him a wink. He whispered
thanks and headed out to his car.
“Where are you?” Brenda asked incredulously. “I thought I heard--”
“You didn’t hear anything, love.”
“Okay,” Brenda said, content to let him have his way. “Well we didn’t
mean to bother you or anything, I just couldn’t talk her out of waiting for you
to get home. Do you want to talk to her again?”
“No no, that’s all right, she’ll see me again soon enough. Kiss her for
me, will you?”
“Of course,” Brenda said, rubbing Victoria’s forehead as the little girl
leaned back against her chest. “I’ll see you later,” she said, hanging up. Jax got
into the car and realized that he’d forgotten the coffee. He closed the cell and
opened the door where he was greeted by Carly.
“You forgot this, Jax,” she said, giving him the coffee and a quick kiss
on the cheek. “You take care now,” she said sprinting back in.
“Thanks, Carly,” Jax said, waving to her and getting back into his car.
When he pulled into the driveway, he expected Brenda to come
outside, children in tow, but all was quiet. He knocked on the door, and
heard Maxie barking his arrival, and then he heard Brenda’s voice coming
from upstairs.

“Just a second,” she called. She opened the door, brushing hair out of
her eyes. “Hey you,” she said breathlessly. “Why didn’t you use your key?”
Jax raised his hands which were full of coffee and sweets, and she nodded,
opening the door to let him in. “I know three people who will be very happy
to see you,” she said, snatching the bag from him before he could protest and
kissing him on the cheek.
“Hey!” he said, setting the coffee down on the table in the foyer and
shrugging out of his coat, “when I get back down here, I would like there to
be at least ONE something left in that bag.” Brenda pretended to ignore him,
and then blew him a playful kiss. He chuckled and went upstairs. He
knocked once on Jody’s room door and then stuck his head inside theroom.
Jody was sitting up in his bed, staring at the door as if he’d expected Jax. He
reached for him immediately, calling “Daddy! Daddy!” Jax laughed out loud
and went over to the boy, scooping him up.
“Hey son,” Jax said, giving the boy a tight hug. “Have you been nice to
the ladies this evening?” he said, knowing that the answer would be ‘no’. Jody
shook his head vehemently and Jax only laughed even more. “I feel sorry for them,” Jax said, smiling. He carried Jody under one arm and then sat him
down on the floor when he went into Brenda’s room and was greeted by the
sight of his beautiful daughters, lying on her bed. Jasmine slept soundly, her
dark hair curling just at the base of her neck. Victoria lay in the opposite
direction, her chin balanced delicately on her hands and was staring at the
television, her blonde ringlets spilling out onto the bed. She looked up and
smiled and opened her mouth to shout “Daddy!” but Jax put a finger over his
mouth, signaling to her not to wake up her little sister. She jumped out of the
bed, her pink dress swishing with her movements. She had discarded her
shoes, but her little white stockings made her slip and slide on Brenda’s floor,
which she enjoyed immensely. She slid into her daddy’s arms, and hugged his
neck.

“You surprised me,” she whispered, her blue eyes dancing with the
same fire in his own. She kissed him on the cheek and erupted into giggles.
He called her “Miss Giggles” because she had this way about her, she laughed
uncontrollably at her own jokes, which she never chose to share with
anyone. No one ever knew why she laughed when she did, it was just
something about her that endeared her more to those around her. She
turned and kissed Jody too, who unceremoniously wiped the kiss away,
sending Victoria into another fit of giggles.
“All right,” Jax said, picking up Jody and reaching for Victoria’s hand,
“let’s go downstairs and see mommy.”
By the time they got downstairs, Brenda had polished off most of the
bag. He dropped her son into her lap and snatched the bag from her, giving
her an icy look, but then he gave her a smile.
“What?” she said, feigning ignorance.
“Brenda, how did you manage to INHALE all of that in the few
SECONDS that I was upstairs?”

“Trade secret,” she said, before pointing behind him. She had placed all
of them on a plate and had only eaten a single doughnut.
“That’s very funny,” he said, nodding sarcastically.
“I thought so,” she said. “I’m sorry honey, I didn’t mean to terrify you
like that. I know how much you like sweets. Did you see Carly, was she okay?
She doesn’t need any help, does she?”
“No,” Jax said, “It wasn’t too busy in there when I left her, but I know
she’ll be glad when Denise finally relieves her tonight. The baby-sitter wasn’t
too mad, was she?”
“No,” Brenda said, “that bonus of yours definitely lifted her spirits. She
was fine, and apparently the girls were good.”
“Of course we were,” Victoria said, her voice mirroring a bit of the
Australian accent her father had, “because me and my sister are gems!” She
spread her arms dramatically and smiled brilliantly at her father.
“What are you up to this evening?” Brenda asked, moving to go back
upstairs to put Jody down. Jax followed, and Victoria stayed down, playing
with Maxie. On the stairs, Jody reached over Brenda’s shoulders for Jax, and
Brenda handed her son to him without a second thought. It really was like they had become life partners. She had never trusted any man with her child the way she did with Jax. Daniel had been the only other significant male
presence in Jody’s life.

Jax took the boy and went into his bedroom, putting him down on the
bed.
“I don’t know what I’m doing, I thought we’d rent a movie, the girls
and I, probably Cinderella or Mary Poppins, those bloody Disney musicals
again.” Brenda smiled at Jax, knowing he loved to watch his girls watching
the movies, their eyes darting around in wonder and their melodious voices
signing along. Their voices had been inherited from their mother. From
what Jax had shared with Brenda, Marian had had a beautiful voice and she
could already hear the music in Victoria’s little voice when she sang. Brenda
was glad she had something of her mother that she could be proud of.

“That sounds like fun,” Brenda said, “why don’t you stay? I’d like to see
a little Cinderella myself.”
“I’d love to oblige you,” Jax said, moving into Brenda’s bedroom, “but if
I put that movie in over here I will fall asleep before the ending, I always do,
and if I fall asleep, I’ll have no choice but to sack out on your couch.”
“So what?” Brenda asked.

“No problem for me, but what about you? If Denise is working tonight,
then you have the morning shift, and you’ve got to be there for the opening.
There’s no way you’re going to get all of us out of your hair before you have
to leave, plus the girls were with the sitter all night and I know they want to
be in their own beds, as comfortable as yours is,” he said, winking sexily at
her. She swatted his arm away playfully, and then went willingly into his
arms for a deep, slow hug. She closed her eyes and let her hands run up and
down his back. She was so grateful for him. He did more for her than he’d
ever know. He took responsibility for her son, and her in ways that she never
thought she’d let another man be responsible for. He held her up on those
nights when missing Daniel became too much, or when she didn’t know
where her life was going without him, or if she was doing enough for her
son. He assured her more than once of her capabilities as a mother, and
reinforced her security by allowing her to play the most prominent female
role in his daughters’ lives. She cherished him as she cherished no other
human being, and he knew it, because he valued her just as much.
“Momma,” a sleepy voice said. Brenda turned around and saw Jasmine
was awake, and Jody was alerting his mother. Brenda went over to the bed
and picked up the little girl who was just over a year and a half.

“Thank you Jody,” Jax said. “Will we see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” Jody said, smiling up at Jax. Jax laughed and picked the boy up,
plopping down on the bed beside Brenda. Just then, they heard Victoria
bounding up the stairs with Maxie in tow.
“Momma,” Victoria said, “Dogs can’t have chocolate, right?”
“That’s right baby,” Brenda said, dodging Jax’s fingers as he tried to
tickle her.
“I told you,” Victoria said in a scolding tone to the dog. Victoria joined
Jax, Brenda, Jody and Jasmine on the bed and they all laid there for a while,
and then Jax got up with Jody and put him back down on the bed. Brenda carried Jasmine downstairs and then helped Jax to get their things together,
and placed Jasmine’s bag over Jax’s shoulder. She then called for Victoria to
come downstairs and helped them pile into Jax’s car.

“Thanks for the help mom,” Jax said, smiling at her. “I left coffee for
you,” he said as he cranked up the car.
“Oh thanks,” she said. “Do you want me to run inside and get yours?”
“No thanks,” Jax said, “I think these little ones are all the energy booster
I need.” Brenda leaned in and allowed Jax to kiss her on the cheek before
waving goodbye to them and heading back inside, her heart beating a little
faster for some unknown reason.