The Choice

Chapter 10

Falling

Trying to convince Maryse not to let Jace come with us didn't work. So I kind of faked a little dizziness and went out to get some fresh air. That would buy me a couple of hours before she comes up with the idea again.

I sat outside on the small deck and ran my hands through my hair. I wanted to turn back to my apartment and lock myself in it.

I sat up and walked down the yard towards the tress. I needed to walk; my body was too fixed up to stay in one position so I walked without knowing where I went. I remembered the little pond I saw through my bedroom's window and tried to find the right direction to it. After walking a couple of minutes I found it.

The place was so beautiful. The close lined trees led to a small clearing with the pond just in the middle of it. The sun was reflected on its water giving away playful reflections of myself, as I sat near the water. Someone had placed a tiny deck on one side of it and I went and sat there, my feet barely touching the water.

The cold water cleared my head and for a bit I forgot about it all. The marriage I wasn't so confident about, the mistake called Jace, my feelings about that mistake which wouldn't came to light and of course my wedding which was fast approaching. I inhaled deep taking everything around me; and forcing myself to forget, pretending I lived another life; a life that constituted of waking up every morning and admiring all of this.

"I come here to forget." Jace said and sat next to me, a few inches separating our bodies. We were both staring ahead of us. "It helps me clear my mind."

"What do you want to forget?" I asked him well aware what he was going to tell me. I kept staring in frond of me when I felt him turn and stare at me. After a while he shrugged.

"Don't know yet." He said his voice a whisper. I turned to look at him. "I shouldn't have said those things last night but I was mad. That wasn't a reason to act like that though." He lowered his head. "You were right."

"About what?"

"That you tried to tell me. I just didn't want to see it." I stared at him as the sunlight fell softly on his hair and face and wondered why this felt right. Being with him like this felt right while if you took a step back and cleared you head, it was bad. Really bad.

I looked away and neither of us said anything else. We were each lost in our own thoughts.

"What are we going to do?" I asked him. His forehead creased.

"What are we going to do?" he laughed. "Oh, no this is all on you." He said and I wanted to erase his pretty smirk. He started to get up.

"All me! Wait a minute!" He turned on his heels and started walking. "Where are you going?" I followed him. "He is still your brother!" I reached for him only to see him smiling at something. I looked ahead of him and saw a huge black mass moving toward us.

"A wolf!" I chocked and stepped a few steps behind. I had read somewhere that when you face a wolf the best thing to do is not to run. So I stayed put and hoped Jace wasn't stupid

Jace though didn't seem afraid or even aware of the wolf heading towards him and instead of trying to avoid it he jumped into the wolf's path and waited for it to jump into his arms. I blinked.

"Do you know it?" I asked him avoiding getting close to it.

"Who? Martin?" He said and nodded with his head towards it. Now that I could take a better look of it, it kind of reminded me a dog, a mix between a dog and a wolf to be precise.

"He looks like a wolf." I said and dared a couple of steps closer to him. The dog bared its teeth at me and I stepped back. "He doesn't like me."

"It's a she." He said and stood up and started pulling the dog toward me.

"What are you doing? Keep that thing back. It'll probably try to eat me." I said stepping backwards as the dog kept barging at me.

"Relax. She just doesn't know you yet. Give her some time." He said and kneeled next to the dog. He leaned in and whispered something in her ear and all the time he kept staring at me barely holding his amusement off his lips. I wanted to kiss that off his lips.

He stood up and along with the dog he came to me and let the dog sniff me a couple of times and left running away from us. "Great, now I smell bad to her as well." I said calming down my heart rate.

"She likes you. She doesn't believe you could be a threat towards me." I raised my eyebrows at him. "Or else she would still be here barking your ears off. But other than that she doesn't bite." He walked away. "Most times," he said after a while. I looked around and hurried after him. You never knew when that black beast would come out to play…. or chew something.

"Where are we going?" I asked him.

"Trying to find Martin of course."

"Where did she come from anyway? I didn't see her at the house last night."

"We forgot about it. She usually stays at the back of the house. My dad has built her a place. She probably wasn't home last night."

"She just takes off? What if she get lost or something?"

He shrugged. "It rarely happens. She knows her way around. There aren't any houses for miles around and she knows that this is the only place that she'll get food. Although getting feed by Maryse isn't exactly what she likes."

"She isn't the only one." I whispered to myself.

"What did you say?" he asked and opened us a way through some bushes.

"Do you know where we're going?"

He smirked. "I know my way around." He said and leaned towards me, his hot breath on my cheek as he talked softly into my ear. "You should be more careful though," he said softly into my ear, "don't move." I couldn't move even if I wanted to. His even breaths on my cheek and neck made my heart accelerate in ways I didn't know was possible. My body stood still and awaited his next move.

"There is a bee on your shoulder, don't move. I'll try to fly it away."

Cold sweat run then through my body at the mention of a bee. I never liked those little bugs especially the ones that had wings. I got chills just by thinking of them and now I had one on me. "WHAT! Take it off now!" I said and tried to shake the bee off my shoulder.

"Wait!" he said and grabbed my shoulders to steady me and with a flash of his hand he squished the bee out of me. He let me go.

"That was disgusting," I said as I moved around myself shaking my chills out. "I can't believe you just did that." I glared at him. He just stood there smiling and I wanted to delete that smile off his lips preferably with a punch. I curled my hand in a little fist.

"Come on," he took my hand in his and my hand instantly relaxed. He called out for Martin.

"By the name of your dog I would think it's a he not a she."

"That was what we all thought but after a visit to the vet it turned out to be a female. You would think that would make my mother like her more. She might even have hated her more," he laughed it off as if he remembered a long lost memory.

We reached a big tree with what looked like to be a small wooden house on it. Martin was patiently waiting under it her tale going crazy.

"A tree-house?" I said and looked up. I had never seen one of those up close before.

"Our mother's gift to Alec and me." He said gesturing to it. "I think she mostly had this build so would stop messing around the house." He rubbed his chin. "I think it was after Alec destroyed the big porcelain vase."

"I can only imagine what happened when Maryse found out." I said and went to climb up the tree-house.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going? There is a no-girls police for this place." He said serious but I could see the glim in his eyes.

"Stop me if you can," I said halfway up the stairs. A few more and I would have reached the top.

"Hey! That's not fair!" He shouted from below. "I have Martin to carry and she's heavy." Martin barged then and bared her teeth at him. "What?" he turned to her, "It's the truth after all. All that fur is weighting you down," he added and petted her. She seemed satisfied with him.

I had already reached the tree-house and now I was sitting my feet dangling over as he reached me.

"I haven't been up here since I was 10."

"That was the time you decided that kids' toys weren't good enough for you?" I said smiling playful to him.

"No, my then my girlfriend just didn't appreciate getting up here while wearing a skirt." He reached behind me and opened the door to what it seemed as the inside of the tree-house.

He stretched and tried to fit through the narrow little door barely getting through it. I followed him. The place wasn't big but it was enough for both of us to sit there without knocking our heads against the roof. There were childlike drawings along the wall and a couple of pictures of two cute little boys. They were either playing smiling at a back yard or crying; but through their teary little eyes you could their happiness.

"You are blond." I said looking at the pictures again. The boys there were nothing alike. Alec was black haired and had the same features, as his mother while Jace was total opposite of them. He was all bright and shiny.

"Last time I checked in the mirror." Jace said and looked at me as I might have a serious mind illness.

"No, I mean I thought you died you hair. The rest of your family has dark colour hair while you are blond." That sounded close to an accusation.

"Grandpa's genes." He shrugged. "Hey, look at this." He went to his right and tugged at something on the wall. All this time the little light that we had was coming from the tiny door we crawled in. Now the sun was coming from above us and I raised my head to find that the roof was cracking an opening. Jace kept pulling a rope and with each pull the opening grew bigger until the whole roof was open and the sun came blasting in showering us with it's warmth light.

"This must be the coolest tree-house ever!" I said widely smiling at him. I couldn't even imagine how his childhood must have been. Form the broad smile on his lips I could easily say that it was filled with many happy moments.

"Every single girl that I brought up here said the exact same thing."

"How many have you brought up here?" I said trying to hide my irritation but failing. I looked around.

He smiled. "Not many. Not many, that are worth remembering at least." His voice held something because it made me turn and get lost into those fire-blazing eyes. The space was tight and it made us sit very close, not that close to touch and I wished the space was smaller so all we have to do to fit between these walls was to touch each other.

I reached with my hand and stroke his cheek, slowly testing his reaction. His eyes widened but didn't make a move to get away from me. He just stood there waiting. Waiting for me. My hand moved toward his jawline, my hand over the places I wished I had the chance to touch again, to smell, to kiss; memories from that night. Each moment I spent with him I realized that I wanted to spend more time with him. I tried to keep it out of my mind but as I was standing there in front of him, touching him my heart ached and I couldn't stop myself form kissing him again.

He was stiff against my lips and my heart hit bottom. Maybe what I was thinking, feeling was just a fantasy I had created; wishing he would return the same feelings towards me. But then he reached up with his hand and placed it behind my neck bringing me closer to him. At first he was hesitant and then I could feel him making up his mind. He was struggling too but this felt so good but we weren't both sure of it. But as the kiss continued our fears and worries vanished as easily as the kiss continued on. We were lost in each other and we didn't plan on getting back.

But barking from below brought us back to reality and as I looked into his eyes I wished I wouldn't have seen in his eyes the regret I was now feeling.

"Come on," he said and got out. "Maryse will be looking for us."