Whispered Desires

Epilogue

Kilian

"Bibi you hold dis?"

The familiar voice comes from near me, but I have a hard time spotting the little girl until she tugs at my shirt, the action causing me to look down right behind me. "Oh, there you are, T-Rex. What's up?"

"Hold dis please." Nova smiles while holding up a small carton, a blue ribbon tied on top of it.

Taking it from her hands, I inspect the box with furrowed brows. "What is that? Is it for the raptor?"

"Noooo, Bibi!" Nova giggles and slaps my arm with a surprising force. "Open!"

"What, now? I still need to give your brother his first birthday gift. Shouldn't he go first?"

My question seems to find resonance with Nova, who now scrunches her nose and crosses her arms in front of her chest, like she's thinking hard of what to answer. A sigh leaves her throat as she looks around the garden and I follow her glance to find Hayden, Mila, and their little raptor standing at the terrace, currently accepting gifts from Mila's dad.

"Maddie sad you open now?" Nova asks with a whisper before she looks back up at me, and I practically see the inner battle in her eyes. This girl protects her brother at all costs.

"Well, is this your gift?" I ask.

She frantically nods her head, a proud smile on her lips as she replies, "Yes! I made myself. Mommy just looked. Mommy not so good with colors."

I can't help but laugh at her remark. "Yeah, but she's good with words. That's something, I guess." I shrug and squat down next to the feisty almost 3-year-old, her hair all over the place from what I'm guessing was her adventure in the bouncing castle Hayden set up. Because that's the kind of dad Hayden is - ordering a whole bouncing castle for his one-year-old son seems reasonable enough for the man. "Okay, you know what? Your brother can wait. He won't be sad, promise. I mean, he's the star today, anyway. Everyone forgets it's my birthday too! That's kinda fuc-... uh... it's mean."

Nova giggles and claps her hands, excitement sparkling in her eyes when she exclaims, "I not mean!"

"No, T-Rex, you're anything but mean." I can't help but laugh at her obvious joy. "Now, I can only open this box if we keep this a secret for now. Can you do that?"

I have a hard time keeping a straight face; Hayden will definitely have my head if I won't stop corrupting his daughter.

But damn, if only it wasn't that much fun...

"A secret?" Nova gasps. "I never do secret."

"Well, it's about damn time then! It's pretty easy. Just don't run to Mom and Dad when we're done here. They'll find some reason to be mad at me again, anyway."

"Okay!" Her excited giggle draws more attention to us than I'd like, but I still go for the ruse as I get on my knees, placing the box in front of me.

"Alright, let me see what's in here."

Nova's wide eyes sparkle with joy as she watches me curiously. And I swear to god... I may not want kids, but these fuckers can be real sweet if they want to.

As I open the box, I find a small key chain hidden beneath mountains of cotton balls. It takes a moment for me to free the chain from its prison, but once I do...

"You made me a dinosaur?" I inspect the pendant with wide eyes, suddenly impressed by this child's crafting skills.

"Yes! A bebodiraptor!"

"A velociraptor?"

She nods vigorously and points at the plastic dinosaur in my hand, the wild range of brushed colors depicting way too brilliantly how vivid this girl's creativity is. "Yes! Yes. The fast! Go nyooom! It is speed!"