I grasped his hand and held it to my chest. “Mattie, I’m still not sure that I’m mother material.”
He kissed me to hush the words flowing from my lips. “You’ll be a wonderful mother. In my mind, I can see you rocking our child on your lap, your finger stroking her forehead until she drops off to sleep. Your neurological situation doesn’t exclude motherhood. I know the seizure disorder will change the way you mother, and will require me to be a hands-on dad, but we can do it, together.”
“I was less worried about my neurological conditions and more worried about my upbringing, Mattie.”
His head shook slightly when he kissed the spot right below my ear. “Just remember, you learned how to be a mother from Mor. Use her as your example of how to love, not the woman who gave birth to you.”
I nodded, resting my head on his shoulder again. “Her, huh? We’re already having a girl?”
He chuckled and squeezed me as my eyes started to drift closed. “She’s perfect in every way. Her little nose is just like her momma’s, and her smile is the same one you fell in love with when you were eight. Her eyes are that of her Grandpa Theo, and her hair is a perfect golden blonde with little ringlets around her face. She’s tiny, but she’s bold, strong, and loves to be in the middle of all the action,” he whispered.
I dropped off to sleep while he described all the ways we’d be a family together and how she’d change our lives for the better. I wasn’t sure my life could get much better than it was at that moment.
CHAPTER 20
I was so ready to be done with Milas’s business, so I could get back to my own. I had a ton of things to do before fall with The Honeybee Tree and every minute I spent on Milas was time wasted. At least in my opinion. Then again, maybe I should look at it as time spent to ensure our future was free of complications from Mathias’s old life.
“Did you finish the coordinates?” Mattie asked as he stepped out the door of the kitchen and handed me a cold can of Diet Coke.
“I have a couple left. Thanks,” I said, holding up the can and then taking a swig. It was warm out here, but I enjoyed working outside rather than hunched over the desk in my little office.
He walked into the backyard while I finished the last two coordinates and pinpointed them on the map. “What?” I asked, going back and checking the numbers again. “This can’t be right.” I rubbed my forehead in confusion.
“What can’t be right, honeybee?” Mathias asked, walking back across the patio. “Did you find something?”
I motioned him over. “I finished the GPS coordinates. Mathias, the last five are in Havana.”
“As in Havana, Cuba?” he asked, his head cocked to look over the map.
“Yes.” I tapped it with my finger. “What was he doing in Cuba?”
“Maybe he was planning to take clients from the Great Lakes down through the Keys, Bahamas, and then to Havana?” He paused and shook his head. “He never mentioned that to me, though. According to the police, he hadn’t even applied for any permits to run a cruise business. Maybe he was just plotting courses for where he would go during the winter months.”
“In light of that, do you think it’s safe to get rid of the boat and close out the estate?” I asked, leaning back in my chair. “I don’t know that we’ll ever know the truth, but I don’t see that he broke any laws just because he plotted points in Cuba.”
He shook his head, but I could tell he was frustrated. “No, there is no law against that, but I still feel like we’re missing a big part of the picture.”
I turned to face him. “Why? Just because you don’t trust him?”
He reached in his pocket and pulled out a key. “No, because of this.”
He handed it to me, and I turned it over a couple times in my hand. “A key? Was it Milas’s?”
“From what I can figure,” he said, pulling up a chair next to me. “It was taped to the inside flap of the box he had in the storage unit. If I hadn’t decided to flatten the box to recycle it, I never would have found it.”
“It’s too big for the padlock on the storage unit, right?” I asked, holding it between my fingers.
“It’s a house key, there’s no doubt.”
“But Milas didn’t have an apartment here.”
“Nope,” he said, shaking his head. “Not that I know of anyway. He lived on the boat, which is why he took it south in the winter. All I know is, Milas taped the key there purposely.”
“Why wouldn’t he have left it where you could find it easily? What if you hadn’t found it before you threw the box out?”
He shrugged, but I noticed his Adam’s apple bob when he swallowed hard. “Maybe he was thinking to the victor go the spoils. If no one found it then the treasure would remain hidden.”
I stared at the key, wondering if it really held all the answers to this mystery. “Maybe it’s the key to his secret office.”
