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Epilogue

Huck

“We’ve got a real treat for you this morning, folks,” the host says. “He’s the bestselling author of The Fortune Files , and she’s the world’s most famous modern treasure hunter. Huck Sullivan and Stella Moore.”

The audience applause is thunderous, and I swallow hard. I glance over at Stella. She must sense the panic that’s rising like the tide inside of me, because she squeezes my hand gently and smiles. You’ve got this , she mouths.

I shake my head. But she only kisses me. “Listen, if you want to run, I’m wearing sneakers under this dress.”

This calms me instantly, and we stride onto the stage together and take our seats.

“This is so exciting,” the host says. “Huck, I’m told that this is your first interview in years.”

“It is.”

“Well, we’re delighted that you are joining us here on Good Morning America to talk about your newest book, The Diamond Heart .

And you’ve brought your subject-matter expert, Stella Moore, who is a legend in her own right after finding the San Miguel treasure ship last year.

Now, we’re told that this book features our two favorite heartthrobs, Lucky and Finn, on another adventure to find a fabled red diamond that’s bigger than an elephant’s heart.

I’m dying to know if this is based on a true story. ”

Stella laughs.

“There’s some element of truth in all of my books. I have been lucky enough to go on a couple of searches with Stella and her crew and learned so much from them; not just technical terms, but about history and tenacity and the spirit of treasure hunting. I pull all of it into my writing.”

“Are you saying that you didn’t find the Elephant’s Heart?”

Stella and I glance at each other. I clear my throat. “ The Diamond Heart is absolutely a work of fiction.”

“What about your relationship? We recently heard a rumor that you two bought a sheep ranch on an island together.”

“Our relationship is anything but fictional. We’re very happy,” Stella says.

I don’t know if she knows what I have planned as soon as the show is over and our plane takes us back home when she says this, but she must know it’s coming.

We’ve been on this course since the moment we met.

Ted should already be there with his girlfriend, Molly.

He met her a few months ago at a cookie shop down the street from the church where he’s been attending AA meetings once a week for the last year and a half.

They bonded over a shared love of dance and the sea and have been inseparable since. She’s good for him.

Zoe and Gus might be a little late since they are now wrangling Miguel, who started walking a few weeks ago and is already zooming everywhere at top speed.

The kid is magnificent. Strong, with a booming voice and fantastic laugh like his dad, and bright-eyed and brilliant like his mom.

I’ve spent the past few weeks shut up in my office at my desk planning the whole thing with all of them on the phone and via email, the row of sheep figurines across my desk, all shapes and sizes (including the one whose head we had to glue back on) watching, overseeing everything.

Before we’d left for this interview, taking a boat and a plane to get to the city, I’d gotten up at sunrise while Stella, Lord Whiskerpants, Mewowzer, and our newest tabby kitten, Sam, purred away in the darkness.

I snuck down to the beach and buried the treasure in a hidden spot that matched the one on the map an illustrator friend of mine and Jim’s had drawn just for the occasion.

It’s a quintessential ancient treasure map, with aged edges, beautiful calligraphy, and a heart marking the spot instead of an X.

“I have to ask you, Huck,” the host says, “where do you get your inspiration for these stories and these characters?”

I turn to Stella and take her hand, my smile deepening.

“The very first idea I ever had came to me and my best friend, Ted, when we were teenagers at school together. That was Clark Casablanca. I didn’t have another good idea for a long time after that.

I’d honestly given up on writing or ever being inspired again.

And then she walked up to me at a bar in Iceland, and the rest is history. ”

“By she , I’m assuming you mean Stella?”

“Absolutely.”

“And do you plan to write more?”

“I think so. Time will tell. We’re actually working on a secret project together that might keep us both pretty occupied for a while.”

“How about you, Stella? You became the most famous treasure hunter in recent history after you found the San Miguel . The gold and uncut gems were worth substantially more than the Atocha and the rest of the 1715 treasure fleet. Do you plan to keep searching for new treasures?”

“I think I’ve found what I was looking for,” Stella says. “I wouldn’t rule it out completely, but for now my search has ended. It had always been my parents’ dream, and I’m finally ready to find my own dream. Whether that’s treasure or something else—”

“Sheep farming, maybe?”

“Maybe.” She smiles, and my heart flips in my chest.

When the interview is over, we head home, resting in each other’s arms during the journey back to the island. “You did so well,” Stella says to me as she plays with my hair.

“I didn’t think she’d come right out and ask about the Heart.”

“Me either. I think we struck a very nice balance of bullshit.” Her laugh sparkles, and I can’t help but press my lips to her freckles.

After Ted recovered and we returned to the Lucky Strike to finish the salvage, Zoe and Gus and Ted went back to their normal lives.

Stella and I stayed in that little house in Truman Annex and dedicated our days to relearning each other, writing our story, and finishing the search.

It took us eight months to find the Heart diamond.

Hundreds of strolls from our front porch to the wharf, where we got on a smaller boat, zipped up each other’s wetsuits, and navigated out to the San Miguel treasure field to dive.

We marveled at the blue tangs and learned how to redirect sharks to keep each other safe.

Sometimes we’d find another bit of the ancient Stolen Treasure that we’d missed during the original salvage and we’d call Gus to give him an update about the discovery that he could add to the museum display.

We’d return to the boat to watch the sunset while we enjoyed a slice of Key lime pie.

And then one day after a late spring storm, Stella got that tingling sensation in her hands and the Elephant’s Heart revealed itself to us.

We vowed not to tell anyone outside our group until we found its rightful home.

“You’re a real trooper for making the trip, Stella. Jim’s going to be elated. I told him he could send Key lime pie as a thank-you.”

Our home comes into view and Stella and I buckle our seatbelts for the landing. She sequeezes my hand. “I’ll take the pie, but it’s not necessary. I never would’ve sent you on an interview alone. You’re stuck with me.”

It turns out we didn’t need the Heart for the island and the sheep.

Between the books, movie, and our finders’ fees, we had more than enough.

Enough to buy Hulla and start our little ranch.

We wake most mornings and stroll the fields, checking on our little charges, picking wildflowers that Stella pushes into their wool before booping her nose to theirs.

We eat fresh fruit and take the boat out and dive and make love on secluded beaches.

I couldn’t have imagined a better ending to our story, and this is only the beginning.

The one-of-a-kind engagement ring I had made might look similar to the massive red diamond we tucked away for safekeeping, but it definitely isn’t cursed.

It’s waiting on the beach in front of our home, buried in a replica of Gunnarsson’s treasure box for her to find.

Then I’ll promise her forever in front of our best friends, the people we love, the family we found and cherish, who cherish us too, who never leave, who know our flaws and love us anyway.

The island jasmine is blooming, perfuming the ocean air with its scent.

Ted, Zoe, and Gus have lit the candles for us on the beach, and when Stella and I wander out there and I hand her the map, she already knows.

Of course she does. This is Stella. When she’s about to find something important, she feels it in her hands.

She humors me, racing around, figuring out the clues, using her fingers to dig the box out of the soft white sand.

After she says yes, our friends come out to join us. Ted surprises everyone with a live steel drum band and we dance beneath the stars.

“Well done,” Zoe says to me. She throws her arms around us and Gus bops over with Miguel on his hip. “I’m so happy for you both.”

A few feet away, Molly and Teddy are breaking it down with all their worst moves. “Do we need to worry that she might pull a muscle?” Stella asks.

“God, they really are a perfect match,” I say, and twirl the love of my life around in the moonlight. Stella grins at me. She’s never looked so beautiful or so happy.

Zoe stops and stares at us. “Um, hold up just a moment, you two. How many secrets are you keeping right now? Because if I’m not mistaken, Ms. Stella Moore soon-to-be Sullivan…are you rocking a sophisticated muumuu right now?”