Page 171 of Shattered Silence Duet

“Neither did I, but they’re so cute. Even the adults are cute, the way they waddle around like that.”

“Are they your favorite animal you’ve seen?” Atlas asks, surprising me. He’s been pretty quiet today, even when I’ve tried to get him to join in our conversation. But I still enjoyed his company. He’s normally quieter than the others anyway, so it’s not totally out of character for him.

“Yep, definitely,” I reply, answering his question.

“Well, Princess,” Ben says, turning away from the exhibit and offering his hand to me, which I take. “That was the last exhibit, anything you want to see again?”

“No, I’m exhausted, my feet are killing me, actually.”

Atlas grunts before dropping to a knee in front of me, giving me his back.

“Uhh….” I mumble in confusion, wondering what he’s doing.

Ben laughs as he explains, “he’s trying to give you a piggy-back ride, Princess. Jump on.”

“Oh! Um, okay, thanks,” I say as I climb onto his back. It was on the top of my tongue to refuse. But honestly, he’s massive, and I knew he could easily carry me, and if I was being honest, it was a huge relief to get off my feet. They’d been hurting for the past two hours, but I didn’t want to say anything before we’d seen all the animals, afraid they’d make us leave.

Atlas stands, boosting me up as he goes, and I wrap my arms around his neck, resting my chin on his shoulder. I can feel all the muscles in his back as he moves, making me realize this has another benefit I hadn’t considered.

I wiggle against him, partially trying to get comfortable and partly trying to get closer to him.

“Thanks for the ride, big guy,” I whisper in his ear. He grunts in response, making me smile. “You’re like a gorilla,” I reply, making Ben laugh. He wiggles his fingers where he holds my thighs, making me squeal at my ticklishness, and a smile pulls at the corner of his mouth.

“Be careful, big guy, I could choke you out from this position, you know?”

“Oh really?” he asks, skepticism in his voice as he turns his head just enough to make eye contact with me. “And who taught you how to do that?”

“You did.”

“I did, did I?” he asks with an eyebrow raised.

“Yep, don’t you remember? Oh no, are you losing your memory already, Atlas? It’s a shame you’re getting so old—Ahh!” I squeal with laughter as he tickles me again and I try to squeeze his neck, but it doesn’t seem to restrict his breathing at all, causing me to surrender. “Okay, okay, I give, you win!”

His fingers instantly stop moving, and I release my poor imitation of a choke hold on his neck. My eyes catch Ben’s and he gives me a wink before looking back as we near the zoo exit. But instead of heading to the gate, Atlas walks to the large gift shop and kneels down to let me off his back by a bench.

“You two sit here and don’t move until I get back,” he commands, quickly entering the store.

“He’s bossy,” I whisper to Ben, watching where Atlas went.

He laughs, grabbing my hand and distracting me from Atlas’s abrupt departure. “Did you have fun today?”

“The zoo is awesome! I had no idea how fun it could be looking at the animals. Thank you for bringing me here.”

“Of course. I actually have something for you,” he says, pulling out a tiny little velvet pouch and handing it to me.

I open it up and pull out a new charm for my bracelet, a gorilla. I look at him and we both burst out laughing. “I can exchange it for a penguin, now I know that’s your favorite. I chose the gorilla because I thought it looked nice and I thought you’dappreciate the symbolism. The gorilla represents family and protection.”

“It’s perfect, I love it,” I tell him as he attaches it to my bracelet for me. Along with the horse and popcorn, my bracelet was starting to look more filled out. And I loved that at any time I could just look down and see those charms and be brought back to those fond memories anytime I wanted.

“Will you stay with me tonight?” I ask Ben as he finishes attaching the charm.

He looks up at me in surprise, swallows nervously, then nods, all without muttering a word.Is he nervous?At least that makes two of us. We’ve never even cuddled before. But I have a feeling he’ll be great at it.

Ben’s eyes move behind me and I turn as Atlas comes out of the store and holds up a large white bag to me. My surprised eyes meet his intense gaze and I take it silently, and when I open it up and peek inside, I squeal at what I find.

“Oh my goodness, it’s so cute!” I pull out the giant stuffed baby penguin, clutching it tightly to my chest. Atlas’s eyes soften before he turns and kneels down for me, silently telling me to climb on.

“Here, I can take that for you,” Ben says, reaching for the penguin, but I pull it away as I scold him.