Chapter 48
ABBY STOOD WITH SAM ON THE BLUFF ABOVE THE SMALL COVE. Sam was on his phone. Newton was exploring some nearby rocks.
Sam concluded the call and slipped the phone into the pocket of his leather jacket. “That was the lawyer I had looking into the status of Thaddeus Webber’s estate. Turns out there is a will.”
“So Thaddeus did take steps to make sure his most valuable books went to a library?” Abby smiled. “That’s great.”
“He didn’t leave his collection to a library. He left everything, including the contents of his book vault, to a single individual.”
“He had some family after all?”
“According to his will, he left his collection to the person he looked upon as a daughter, although, given the age difference, maybe he should have said granddaughter. He left it all to you, Abby.”
“What?”
Sam smiled.
It took her a few seconds to find her tongue. “But some of the volumes in that collection are worth a fortune.”
“They’re all yours now. The lawyer is making certain that the collection is guarded until it can be packed up and transported here to Copper Beach. You’ll have to open Webber’s vault, though. You’re the only one who knows the code.”
“This is amazing. I can’t believe it. First your mother and Dawson track down the bulk of the Strickland fortune in that offshore bank and arrange to get it back. Then one of your fancy lawyers manages to spring Grady Hastings, who is scheduled to start work in the Black Box facility on Monday.”
“Good talent is hard to come by,” Sam said. “Don’t like to see it wasted.”
“And now I find out I’m inheriting all of Thaddeus’s books. On top of everything else, I actually got a phone call from Orinda Strickland today, informing me that she intended to make provision for me in the Strickland family trust.”
“You told her you didn’t want to be named in the trust, didn’t you?”
“How did you guess?”
“I know you, Abby. The money isn’t important to you. All you’ve ever wanted was to be part of the family. Don’t worry, when you marry me, you’re going to have all the family you can handle.”
The late summer sun was setting, streaking the clouds with fiery light and turning the water to a sheet of hammered copper. Abby watched the spectacular sunset, aware of a glorious sense of happiness and cer-tainty.
“Now I know why they call this place Copper Beach,” she said.
Sam drew her into his arms. His eyes heated. “I told you that you would understand one of these days. Think you can call this island home?”
“Home is wherever you and I are together,” she said. “Well, and Newton, too, of course.”
“Newton, too,” Sam agreed.
He kissed her there in the warm copper light of the summer evening. Abby opened her senses to the powerful energy of the love that she knew would bind them for a lifetime.
The Phoenix crystal burned.