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“Mrs. Covert contracted for the management of both. Another grower—Schultz is the name—handles the vineyards as well as wine production and distribution. I can give you their contact information at our meeting tomorrow.”
After closing the door behind him, I returned to the sitting room and found Sam studying the photos on the piano. She was holding the one she thought resembled her.
“How are you managing?” I asked, coming to stand beside her.
“It feels like a strange dream.” She raised the picture. “This looks so much like photos of me around the same age.”
“Beautiful,” I murmured, taking it and studying the image.
“How, though?”
“If you’re speaking of the familial connection, that is a great mystery.”
She pointed to the other photos sitting on the coffee table and shuddered. “Someone took those without my knowledge.”
I hadn’t taken a close look earlier, so I retrieved them. “Can you tell when they were taken?” I laid them out so Sam could view them collectively.
“More than a year ago. Maybe close to two.”
“Odd she didn’t contact you,” I mumbled.
“Everything about this is odd, Beau. More than odd. It’s just…bizarre.”
“By the way, as he was leaving, Mr. Creola said he left several sets of keys in the kitchen. He also said that, by the end of the week, the Lilacs will be yours.”
“I’m sure it will take longer than that.”
I shook my head. “I don’t believe it will.”
When she returned to the sofa I followed.
“I need to call Alex.”
Raising a brow, I asked, “For?”
Sam turned to me. “I understand if you have to leave, but I can’t, Beau. I mean, I justcan’t.” She looked around the room, then back at me. “I hope there are keys to a car included in what you said was in the kitchen.”
With my arm around her, I pulled her close to me. “I’m not leaving, so put that out of your mind.” A sense of utter peace and contentment washed over me when Sam circled my waist and rested her head above my heart. We fit perfectly. Like two pieces of a puzzle, as so many said about how it felt when they found their life’s mate. I’d always thought the phrase annoying, until the moment I felt it myself. I kissed her hair. “Tell me you heard me, Samantha.”
I felt her nod. “I did.”
“And what did I say?”
“You’re not leaving.”
I doubt she realized what the depth of my words meant. After all she’d been through the last few days, though, I wouldn’t tell her that when I said I wasn’t leaving, I meant ever.
“What would you like to do now?” I asked.
“We should get back to Wanda.”
“We should do.”
“And eat.”
I would’ve preferred to do that first, but it wouldn’t take long to check on Sam’s cat. On the other hand, being in the suite, in close proximity to the bedroom, it would be painful to refrain from suggesting we spend the afternoon in it. Perhaps I’d wait for her in the inn’s lobby.
She looked up at me and smiled, once again warming my heart. “Maybe after lunch, we can visit the Five and Dime, then see a movie?”
