She nodded. “I trust you.”
She rested her hand on his thigh as they returned to his home. “When do we go back to LA?” she asked. “I know we have to go to London, to the Tribunal. But after that, what then?”
“I wanted to talk to you about that.”
“What?”
He glanced at her. “Would you mind staying here? Live here in Florida?”
“But you live in LA.”
“No. I was only out there to be close to you. I prefer it here. This is my home. If you want to live out there, we will. I will follow you wherever you wish to go.”
She watched the scenery through the windshield. It was different here in Florida than in California. She’d only been here a few times before this. And that was to Miami, which she heard was as different from most of Florida as LA was from California. It wasn’t like she had family or a bunch of friends tying her to the West Coast. Robertson was here. Matthias was here.
“If I don’t like it here?”
“Then we’ll be on the jet as soon as it takes us to pack.”
She considered it. “Okay. I’d like to see what it’s like then. Let’s stay here.”
He smiled. She knew he was happy but sensed he would do anything she asked no matter what it was. That scared and thrilled her.
That night in bed, she snuggled close to him. “I’ve wanted to ask about your family, your parents.” She didn’t want to ask about his wife or children yet.
Did he tense a little?
“I had no siblings. My father was killed early in the Spanish Inquisition. My mother was killed years before, when I was a baby, during a fire. I don’t even remember her.”
“Were they both…”
“Of the line? Yes. I’ve often thought my father’s heart and soul died long before his body did, when he lost my mother.”
“Your grandparents?
“My mother’s parents died before I was born. I don’t remember much of what my father said about them. My father’s mother didn’t have as much of the line in her. She died from the Plague a few hundred years ago.”
“And your grandfather? How did he die?”
Matthias looked at her and swallowed hard. “I meant to tell you, but with all the confusion I forgot. He’s coming for a visit next week.”
THE END
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