Copper Beach

“What?” Elias stopped to glare at her. “You don’t think I know how to deal with con men and scammers?”

“I’m sure you would be a very dangerous man to cross, Mr. Coppersmith,” she said politely.

Elias finally appeared to notice that he was missing something in the conversation.

“Are you laughing at me?” he said with a growl.

“Wouldn’t dream of it. As I told your wife, I accept the fact that tolerating difficult, eccentric, obsessive clients is a necessary aspect of my work, but I should warn you that I have some limits.”

For a couple seconds, Elias looked bewildered. Then comprehension lit his fierce eyes. “Are you calling me difficult, eccentric and obsessive?”

Sam appeared in the doorway. “Take it easy, Dad. You get used to her after a while.” He looked at Abby. “Bill, the lawyer, tracked down the name and address of the psychiatric hospital where Grady Hastings is undergoing observation. We have to go into Seattle tonight for your father’s book-launch event. We’ll stay the night at your place and interview Hastings first thing in the morning.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Abby said.

“Any coffee left?”

“Yep,” Abby said. She picked up the pot.

Elias rounded on Sam. “She thinks we’re both wackos.”

“I never said anything of the kind.” Abby frowned. “If I thought you were both out-and-out crazies, I would not have taken you on as clients. And I definitely would not have hired Sam to protect me.”

“What’s the difference between Sam and me and a couple of crazies?” Elias roared.

Abby nearly choked on her laughter. She looked at Sam and knew that he was having a hard time biting back a grin. She cleared her throat.

“An interesting question,” she said. She turned around to pour the coffee. “Let’s just say I know it when I see it.”

“Are you sure you got the right Abigail Radwell?” Elias asked Sam.

“Oh, yeah,” Sam said, with deep feeling. “No way there could be two of them, trust me.”

The wicked, intimate certainty in his words thrilled Abby’s senses. The pot in her hand trembled ever so slightly when she poured the coffee.

“I don’t get it,” Elias grumbled. “If you think Sam and I are such difficult clients, why did you agree to work for us?”

“You and your son certainly top my personal list of demanding clients,” Abby said. She put the pot back on the burner and turned around to face the men. “Furthermore, I am convinced that either one of you would cheerfully commit murder if you felt the circumstances warranted it.”

“What circumstances?” Elias thundered.

“If you thought it was necessary to protect someone in your family, for example,” Abby said.

“Hell, yes,” Elias said.

“Sure,” Sam said. “So what?”

“I like that in a man,” Abby said.

28

“…TO SUMMARIZE, THE MODERN SO–CALLED BLENDED FAMILY, the family by choice, is nothing new.” Dr. Brandon C. Radwell surveyed his audience from the lectern. “There have always been families consisting of children and adults who are related not necessarily by blood but by a complex web of social connections. The major difference today is that while old-fashioned blended families came into existence out of necessity, today’s blended families are formed by deliberate choices of the individuals involved.”

“The adult individuals involved,” Abby whispered to Sam. “The kids rarely have any say in the matter. It’s Mom and Dad who decide to get divorced and start over with another spouse.”

“Take it easy,” Sam said. He patted her knee.

A couple of heads turned to glare at Abby. Someone shushed her.

Abby glanced at her watch. Not much longer, she thought, relieved.

The small auditorium was full. She and Sam were seated in the last row. From her position, she could see her stepmother, Diana; the twins, Jessica and Laura; and Dawson in the front row. The room was packed with her father’s adoring fans. Each one clutched a copy of Families by Choice. A video crew was busy filming the scene.

Her father might be a serial monogamist, Abby thought, but he did have a way with a crowd. No wonder his publisher was delighted to send him out on tour. The man could sell books. With his good looks, charisma and a knack for the thirty-second sound bite, he was the ideal talk-show guest.

A burst of applause went up from the audience. Abby clapped dutifully and leaned closer to Sam.

“Told you he was good,” she said.

“You were right,” Sam said. “The man’s a natural for television.”

At the front of the room, Brandon bestowed a beatific smile on his audience. “Before I sign those books you all bought at the door, I want to introduce you to my own family by choice. My lovely wife, Diana; my son Dawson; my oldest daughter, Abby; and my two younger daughters, Jessica and Laura. I’d like them to come up here now, so that I can tell them in front of this audience how proud I am of each of them and how grateful I am to have the support of such a warm and loving family.”

“This is the worst part,” Abby confided to Sam. She got to her feet. “But it doesn’t last long. See you in a few minutes.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Sam said.

It was just a casual remark, but for some reason Abby suddenly felt a little more cheerful. She pasted on her best professional smile. Under cover of another round of applause, she went down the aisle. By the time she reached the front of the room, the others had already joined her father on the stage. She climbed the three steps and took up a position next to Jessica and Laura. Dawson studiously ignored her.

Jessica leaned closer to Abby. “Mom said you probably wouldn’t show. But I knew you would.”

“Not like I had anything better to do tonight,” Abby whispered back.

Laura and Jessica giggled. Abby smiled. She hadn’t spent much time with the twins. She had been packed off to the Summerlight Academy shortly after they were born. The difference in their ages and the long separation had put a lot of distance into the relationship. Nevertheless, Abby was fond of the pair. For their part, Laura and Jessica treated her like an aunt rather than a sister, but the arrangement worked for all three of them. Abby suspected that the twins secretly admired her because she held the role of the proverbial black sheep of the family.

At the lectern, Brandon clasped Diana’s hand and raised it upward so that their wedding rings glinted in the light. He smiled again, an icon of Perfect Father and Ideal Husband. Abby and the others smiled dutifully and did their best to look like a happy family.

“This is what the modern family by choice looks like, my friends,” Brandon said. “It functions the way family is supposed to function. Sure, there are the occasional conflicts and arguments. Building a family by choice can be hard work. But anything in life that is worthwhile requires hard work. The Radwells have done it, and so can you.”

Another round of applause swept through the room. Abby and the others kept their smiles fixed in place.

Under cover of the applause, Laura edged closer to Abby.

“Mom and Grandma and Dawson are really pissed at you,” Laura warned.

“I know,” Abby said out of the side of her mouth. “But Dad made it clear that this was one of those command-performance gigs.”

Jessica wrinkled her nose. “Not sure what’s going on, but we think Dawson screwed up big-time. I heard Grandma telling Mom that he’s trying to close a really important deal. She said that you could help him, but you won’t on account of you’re jealous because you didn’t inherit any of her money. Is that true?”