“That’s Raine. He’s Honey’s daddy,” Jax told her.
She was mesmerized by him. He was enormous, bigger than what had to be normal for a horse. His muscles rippled with restrained energy, yet he was calm and inquisitive. He had his head over the stall sniffing at her trying to figure out who the new person was.
She lifted her hand slowly, not wanting to scare him and brought it to his face where he nudged it like he was looking for something. Giggling had her looking down.
“He wants an apple,” Jax told her pulling her to a bin on the far wall that held them.
“Am I allowed?” she asked him wondering if it would affect his diet. Were horse’s supposed to have fruit? She’d never been around anything other dogs and cats, so she didn’t know. “Maybe we should wait for your da,” she suggested.
“It’s okay, the horse always gets one after brefkast. But you hab to give it to him. I’m not allowed,” he told her reasonably.
Grabbing an apple, they went back to him holding it out the way Jax showed her with her palm and fingers flat. She giggled as Raine ate it; his whiskers tickled her hand. Rubbing his nose gently, she was amazed at how gentle he was for such a big animal. He was majestic in his own right, far more so than Jax seemed to think she was.
“C’mon, I wanna show you da chickens, too!” Jax pulled tightly on her hand.
Laughing, she followed him out of the barn and to the chicken coop that was off to the side of the barn. “We hab fifty chickens! And they all have eggs!” he exclaimed excitedly.
“Do you collect them?”
Puffing up his chest, he told her, “I hold the bucket for Angie.”
“Such an important job.”
She listened with half an ear as he told her the cute names he’d given each chicken. And told her all the facts he knew about them, and about how the rooster woke them up at sunrise. Every kernel of information he had, he happily told her about.
Looking around the farm, she realized it wasn’t as small as Dom had tried to make it sound. It was actually quite large. He didn’t have many animals but acres of open land. She could see herself happy here. Peaceful. If only her father would leave her be.
*****
Dom watched as Jax pulled Deedee happily behind him from the barn to the chicken coops, talking animatedly. She seemed to listen to every word, too. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought this moment would come. But here they were, and his two favorite people seemed to genuinely like each other, and it couldn’t make him happier.
“She’s a keeper,” Case said behind him.
“Yup.”
“You’re not letting her go, are you?”
“Nope.”
“Gonna marry her, huh? Never thought I’d see the day.”
“Yup.”
“I’m happy for you, man.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ll leave ya to it then,” he said making his way out the way he came in.
“Later.”
What he was feeling for Deidre may not be love yet, but he was old enough to know a sure thing when he found it. And he found it in spades with her. He looked forward to having everything with her. A life filled with happiness and as many children as he could possibly put in her.
The way she accepted Jax, even though she was pissed at him, showed him more than she would ever know about how she felt about children. She loved them unconditionally. He hadn’t worried about Jax loving her, he knew his son would. But with how much he’d opened up to her it amazed Dom.
Ever since Brooke dropped him and ran, there has always been something missing in Jax. A need to be loved by a mother. Every boy needed it. A father could only do so much. There was no doubt he loved Jax with everything he had, but there was only so much he could do to fill the void she had left.
When he’d hired Angela to take care of the house shortly after Jax had arrived and just before Case did, he didn’t expect her to fall in love with his son and want to take care of him the way she had. But she’d helped fill the role of mother as best she could. He was happy she could let that position go and be more grandmotherly now.