Epilogue 2
ALLEGRA
Summer, One Year Later
Cassian and I eat frozen custard out of paper cups while sitting on the beach, which is remarkably quiet considering how beautiful the day is. The sun is shining, a breeze blowing off the ocean leaving the tangy taste of salt on my lips as it whips my hair around.
“Things are going well, don’t you think?” I ask him. The families have not quite been working together, but living in relative peace side-by-side since the treaty was signed.
“They are,” he says, looking at me, pushing my hair behind my ears. “But that’s not why you brought me out here. What’s on your mind, Little Moth?”
“Are you ever going to stop calling me that?”
“No, probably not.”
I roll my eyes and shift my gaze out over the ocean. I lick my lips, anxious to bring this up. Seth’s death isn’t that far away and well, I’m not sure if it’s too soon, but I don’t want to wait any longer.
“Cassian, I…” I start, the argument I had practiced in my mind not quite sounding as convincing as it had in my head.
He smiles. “Should I be worried? You are never at a loss for words.”
I swallow, draw a deep breath in and face him. “I stopped with the birth control shot.”
He studies me, one eye narrowing infinitesimally.
“Don’t worry, I’m still on the pill, but—”
“Okay,” Cassian says.
The next part of my sentence is almost out of my mouth, but the words stumble against each other as I catch them.
“Okay?” I ask.
“You want to have a baby.”
“I mean… well… I was…”
He smiles. “You’ve been leaving lots of research around,” he air-quotes the word research.
“You noticed.”
“You’re not very subtle,” he says with a chuckle as he again tucks a lock of hair the wind blows across my face behind my ear. “I have read everything there is to read on this subject, Allegra. I’ve spoken with a dozen experts. I—”
“Then you know it’s impossible for you to pass on a gene you don’t have, so why are you arguing?”
He chuckles. “Am I arguing?” He wipes a smudge of custard off the corner of my lip.
“Aren’t you?” I ask, suddenly realizing I might get what I’m asking for, which makes me more nervous than I imagined it could.
“There’s a little more,” he says, setting his empty custard cup in the sand and taking my face in his hands to kiss me fully on the mouth. His tongue is cold from the frozen custard, his mouth warm, lips soft.
“Mmm…” I say as he draws away. “You have a little custard too, just there…” I kiss him. We draw apart, but just an inch.
“So, you want to have a baby with me?”
“Is there an option to have one with anyone else?” I ask and although I’m playing around his grip tightens just a little. “Kidding. Just kidding.”
“Smartass.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, you’re a smartass?”
“That and yes, I want to have your baby, Cassian. Our baby. I want that very much.” My eyes fill up because, well, I don’t know, but the playfulness is momentarily gone. “I love you so much and I want a family with you.”
He’s serious too now. No playing. “Good. Because I want a family too, with you. But I don’t want just one, Allegra. I want half a dozen. At least.”
I laugh even as a tear drops from my eye. “Half a dozen sounds about right.”
He pulls my face to his, kisses my mouth again before whispering in my ear. “What do you say we get out of here and start working on making those babies?”
“I say yes.”
The end