Just Pretend

Chapter One

Jason

'Ow! Fuck!' I look up from chasing my niece across the yard when the exclamation reaches my ears and Clarissa, of course, immediately repeated the word from her newest perch on the lower branches of the oak tree in the middle of the yard.

'Don't repeat that,' I say sternly and look over the fence to see a woman bending down and rubbing her shin with a box sitting on her foot. A large built guy walks past her carrying two boxes in his arms and I can see the disdain on his face when he takes in the sight.

He ignores her completely, only yelling over his shoulder that he didn't want to be at it the whole day, and I watch her head lift slowly to glare after him, her dark hair forming a curtain around her face, before grasping the box and hefting it up into her arms with a groan. She starts walking and I can see the red spot on her shin and wince, knowing it was going to bruise.

As she disappears into the house, I can hear her mutter under her breath but the words are muffled by her back and the box in front of her face.

When I turn back to the yard, Clarissa is nowhere to be seen and I spin around in exaggerated circles, knowing that it's what she wants, looking for her. I smirk when I hear her giggle and lift my eyes slightly higher than the lowest branches of the tree to see her sitting between the leaves a little higher up. I shake my head with amusement and she leans forward to look down at me before her face splits into a grin.

'Hi, Gwen!' she yells loud enough to make me jump and she starts waving her arm like crazy, causing her long dark curls to bounce around her shoulders. I hear her greeting returned by the same voice that drew my attention away from Clarissa in the first place, and I force myself to turn around slower than I wanted to.

I suck in a breath at the sight of big blue eyes looking over the fence with thick, black lashes framing them. Chestnut hair is now pulled into a bun at the top of her head and I can feel her calculating gaze on me.

'Gwen! Gwen, meet my uncle!' Clarissa says from her spot in the tree and the girl raises her eyebrows at me, stepping back to stand with her back against the wall.

'Hello, Uncle,' she says with a small smirk, her head tilted to see over the fence, and I conclude that she was a good foot or two shorter than me.

'Jason,' I say and her smirk changes into a smile that has my knees weak and my heart beating in my throat.

'Gwen,' she says, raising a hand in greeting before excusing herself when the guy calls for her and she disappears behind the fence.

'Uncle Jace!' I look up and see Clarissa hanging dangerously forward with a grin on her face, and I position myself underneath her so that she can drop down into my arms. She always does this.

She giggles and I brace myself for her weight, catching her when she drops down and spinning her around. She laughs and clings to my neck as I start walking toward the house to prepare dinner.

Clarissa jumps down from my neck the moment we reach the house and rushes inside, but I can't help but look over my shoulder at the fence and possibly the girl behind it. The top of a blonde head peeks out from behind the fence as I look back and I turn to walk back into the house.

'For fuck's sake, Gwen. You're like a child; you need to be watched to make sure that you do anything,' the deep voice says with the same disdain I'd seen in his face when he'd looked at her, and I stop in the doorway, turning my head slightly to listen.

'You didn't tell me to do it, Mark. And do not say that I should have thought for myself because you were busy there, not me,' she says and I frown at the strain in her voice, unsure of if them fighting is a regular thing.