Page 68 of Honeybees and Sexy Tees
I nodded my agreement. “I know, and I have the one thing from that apartment that mattered to me.”
His eyes darted to me for a breath and then back to the road. “What’s that?”
“My diploma,” I said, shrugging my shoulder. “I put it in my car that day I was going to Duluth for the doctor’s appointment. It always gave me strength to look at it when I wasn’t feeling strong. Is that dumb?”
His hand slid up my cheek even as he kept his gaze on the road. “No, sweetheart, it’s not dumb. Anything that helps you get from day to day is never dumb in my book. Fair warning, I’m going to be that thing from now on.” His wink, while playful, told me he wasn’t joking around. He would be, forever.
“Kevin and Lucy wanted to cut a check to me for my clothes, but I refused. They have enough to worry about, and the loss of my wardrobe wasn’t much of a loss. It needed updating anyway.”
“Let me take care of it,” he said immediately. “I’ll set up some appointments at my favorite shops, and we’ll go together.”
My snort of laughter echoed inside the car. “I was thinking JCPenney, Mattie.”
His head swung several times before he spoke. “Maybe for your basic layers and intimates.” He moaned for a long minute before he cleared his throat. “Sorry, I was thinking about shopping for bras and panties with you.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. I didn’t know this man. It was like an alien had been dropped into the body of Mathias. I loved it, but it was such a one-eighty I had to shake my head a little bit.
“Anyway,” he continued. “With our new business venture, you’re going to need quality clothing. Leave it to me.”
I held up my hands. “Okay, consider it left to you, but I am going to a department store for my bras and panties. I have my favorite brands that I like to wear.”
He squirmed in his seat and moaned again. “Fine, but we’re going to have to talk business now so I can get my libido under control.”
“Right, business,” I said, nodding as I worked to keep the smile off my face. “I meant to ask if you had any luck figuring out the paperwork that Milas left you.”
“No, it doesn’t make any sense to me. I was hoping you’d be able to help me with it.”
“Sure, I’ll look at it when we get home.”
He pointed at his briefcase on the floor by my feet. “It’s in my case.” I pulled out a sheaf of papers and glanced over them while he explained. “Maybe I’ve just been staring at it too long and the answer is right there.”
“It’s just a bunch of numbers.”
“Yeah, and I don’t know if they’re phone numbers or what they are.”
“Code for something, maybe? There are a lot of numbers, but also names.”
“Some of it is financial stuff that makes sense to me. The numbers don’t.”
“Mathias? You’re a numbers guy,” I said, laughing.
He waved his hand in the air. “I know, and if it were written in financial terms, I’d understand it, but it wasn’t. See, Danish numbers are astronomically different from most countries. I knew by looking at it before it was even translated that the numbers didn’t indicate money. It’s something else. Maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s code.”
“I’ll do my best to sort it out tomorrow, okay? Maybe it just needs a fresh set of eyes.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” he agreed, putting the car into park and climbing out.
“Have you heard what they’re going to do with the boat yet?” I asked once we were in the house.
“The detectives called and told me it would be released back to me on Wednesday.”
“Really? That was fast.”
We kicked our shoes off and stood by the stairs. “They ruled his death an accident. There was no reason for them to keep the boat.”
“What are you going to do with it now?”
“I don’t know.” He gave me the palms up and shook his head. “I’ll have to call his brother Emil back and find out if he wants it. If not, I’ll probably scrap it. No one wants a boat with that kind of bad mojo.”
