A Dove's Tale

Epilogue

The gardens were loud on this particular early spring afternoon. Not that the noise bothered Jin and Theresa. He was seated on the bench by the pond with her on his lap, and they were kissing as if they hadn't seen each other in months.

"Hey, knock it off! There are kids here, ya know!" Luke shouted down at them from a nearby tree.

A strawberry blonde boy struggling to climb that same tree turned around to look at Jin and Theresa, and he fell to the ground. "Ew! Gross! Uncle Jin and Aunt Theresa are making out again!"

Jin waved him off. "How do you think you got here?"

Theresa giggled. "Speaking of which, where are our kids?"

A surprised shout from across the gardens echoed through the air.

"That'll be them." Jin grinned up at Theresa's sparkling green eyes. "I told them to find their Uncle Clavis."

"Oh, we're in trouble." She leaned in and kissed him again.

Elsewhere, Yves was tangled in a net suspended from a tree, glaring down at Clavis and the five freckle-faced, red-headed children giggling beneath him.

"We got you, Uncle Yves!"

"You never saw it coming!"

"Very good." Clavis applauded the unruly bunch. "Next, we'll move on to pit traps."

"Clavis, I swear, when I get down—"

"Oh, Yves," interrupted a soft, feminine voice.

He flushed, his deep blue eyes widening as he twisted around to see the black-haired, blue-eyed woman looking up at him, her hand covering her mouth to hide her smile. "Grace! Th-this isn't what it looks like! I was just—this was—"

"Relax, Yves," Clavis said, laughing. "She already married you. You don't need to impress her anymore."

"Clavis!"

His predicament had Yves too flustered and angry to say anything more. He twisted and squirmed in the net, and the branch above snapped, dropping him to the ground with a thud. The five children scattered in different directions, laughing and squealing.

One little girl ran straight into Leon's leg and fell backwards.

"Hey now, what's this?" He turned around and scooped her up. "You weren't getting into trouble, were you?"

"We caught Uncle Yves in a net!"

"Like this?" He turned her upside-down, holding her by her ankles.

"No!"

He carried the giggling girl to her parents and dangled her above them. "You want this back?"

The pair glanced up at her. Jin shrugged. "Well, I guess she's kind of cute."

"Daddy!"

"She's pretty dirty, though," Theresa commented.

Leon's smile widened. "Wanna go for a swim?"

"I can't swim, Uncle Leon!"

He flipped her right-side-up and set her on his shoulder as he headed for the pond. "Then it's time to learn."

"Leon, don't you dare take that child into that cold water," scolded a green-eyed blonde sitting on a nearby blanket. She was bouncing a giggling baby on her knee.

Leon gave her a sheepish grin. "I wasn't actually gonna do it..."

"Put me down!"

"Fine." He sighed and squatted down, setting the little Theresa look-alike on the grass. She barreled over to the blanket, only to be caught again, this time by Arianna.