Page 122 of Forever Fascinating

It was the little stomp of the foot that caused Jana to snort in laughter, only succeeding in making the young girl even madder.

Goodness, she looked so much like Jace in that moment,she thought wryly, remembering the fights they’d had.

“Julian,” Jana called out, only to see her son appear before her, looking meek, but his eyes were dancing with amusement, reminding her of Matthew when he was up to no good. Her beautiful son looked just like him yet acted like her… a wonderful mix of the two of them. “Did you tell Claire that you were flying today with Uncle Jace?”

“It must have been a misunderstanding, Momma,” Julian said openly, this time causing Karen to cough loudly to cover her laugh. “Do you know that when my cousin gets mad, she refuses to throw the baseball back? She’s not playing right.”

“What’s going on here?” Jace said walking up beside Matthew, causing Claire to stick out her tongue immediately to Julian – who leaned forward, lightning fast, slapping her chin upwards, causing her to bite her own tongue.

“Daddy! Did you see that?” Claire gasped angrily.

“I’ve told you not to stick out your tongue, young lady,” Jace said, crossing his arms. “Julian, don’t hit your cousin.”

“But Uncle Jace…”

“Julian, I better not ever catch you doing that again,” Matthew interrupted, looking at his son. “Youkissgirls, never hit them.”

Both children looked at each other in utter horror – backing away immediately to hide behind their prospective parents. Julian actually spat on the ground in disgust.

“Exactly – now quit fighting and stay away from each other… or else! Pick up the equipment where you left it and then we are going up,” Matthew ordered, and both children obediently disappeared into the field.

“That’s disgusting,” Jana said bluntly. “They are first cousins, and you arenotgoing to encourage them to kiss…”

“No, absolutely not,” Matthew laughed, smiling at her. “No kissing cousins in our family –ever- but they don’t know that. If it stops them from fighting finally and gives us a little peace while on vacation? I will threaten them with every disgusting, abhorrent thing I can think of…”

All four adults shared a knowing smile.

The children fought… always!

“Can you imagine what Mom and Dad thought of us fighting?” Jana said finally, looking at Jace. “They must have hated us doing that all the time.”

“You twoarepretty annoying when you get started,” Karen smiled

“Omigosh yes…” Matthew agreed, rolling his eyes. “Like when they were arguing over who was the banker in Monopoly? Or what about when Jana took all the wild cards in Uno because she wanted to play Scrabble instead?”

“And Jace took all the vowels out of the bag?” Karen volunteered, laughing.

“Right?”

Jace and Jana looked at each other – and then their spouses - grimly. Neither of them looked very pleased to hear their significant others pointing out their weaker moments where they acted like children still.

“Are you two about finished?”

“Oh, we could go on for hours,” Karen said, high-fiving Matthew… who looked at Jana and instantly sobered up.

“I’m finished, darling.”

“Thank you,” Jana said simply, before winking at him.

Julian and Claire walked up and turned in the baseball mitt and ball over to Jana, who set it in her lawn chair. Only to hear a plane arriving in the distance…

Looking up, she glanced at the kids, quickly taking a photograph of their profiles as they watched the plane arriving in stunned awe.

The little Cessna looked quite wobbly for a few moments there before straightening out and touching the ground moments later. As it taxied forward, Jana saw both her husband and brother wave a hand in acknowledgement.

“We’re clear to take off now – do you want to head up first with Claire?” Matthew asked. “Reaper just landed with his boy, Ben, and Harley said that Thumper won’t be back for another hour or so with Samantha.”

“Yep…” Jace said, looking at his daughter. “You ready, sweet cheeks?”

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