The Black Sheep's Inheritance(6)

She was the one who had spent the most time with J.D. in the past few  months. Sage had heard enough about the young, upbeat, efficient nurse  from Marlene and Angie to know that she had become J.D.'s sounding  board. He'd talked to her more than he had to anyone else in the last  months of his life. And maybe that was because it was easier to talk  about your problems to a stranger than it was to family.

But then, J.D. had always been so damned self-sufficient, he'd never  seemed to need anyone around him. Until he got sick. That was the one  thing he and Sage had always shared in common-the need to go it alone.  Maybe that was why they'd never really gotten close. Both of them were  too closed off. Too wrapped up in their own worlds to bother checking in  with others.

He scowled at the thought. Funny, he'd never before considered just how  much he and his adoptive father were alike. Went against the grain  admitting it now, because Sage had spent so much of his life rebelling  against J.D.

Yes, he knew that Colleen was the one person who might help him make  sense of all this. But he hadn't been prepared for that spark of  something hot and undeniable that had leaped up between them when she  touched him. Sure, he had been interested in her the night of the  rehearsal dinner-a beautiful woman, alone, looking uncomfortable in the  crowd. But he hadn't had a chance to talk to her, let alone touch her,  before everything had changed in an instant. Now he thought again of  that flash of heat, the surprise in her eyes, during their confrontation  a little while ago, and had to force himself to shove the memory aside.  It was clear just by looking at her that she wasn't a one-night-stand  kind of woman-but that could change, he assured himself. He couldn't get  the image of her out of his mind. Her wide blue eyes. The sweep of dark  blond hair. A soft smile curving a full mouth that tempted a man. His  body tightened in response to his thoughts. The attraction between them  was hot and strong enough that he couldn't simply ignore it.                       
       
           



       

"So what were you talking to Colleen about?"

"What?" He snapped his gaze up to meet Dylan's, shoving unsettling  thoughts aside. "I...uh..." Uncomfortable with the memory of his botched  attempt at getting close to the woman, Sage scrubbed one hand across  the back of his neck.

"I know that look," his brother said. "What did you do?"

"Might have gotten off on the wrong foot," he admitted, remembering the  look of shock on Colleen's face when he'd practically accused her of  stealing from J.D. Was she innocent? Or a good actress?

"Why'd you hunt her down in the first place?"

"Damn it, Dylan," he said, leaning across the table and lowering his  voice just to be sure no one could overhear them. "She's got to know  something. She spent the most time with J.D. Hell, he left her three  million dollars."

"And?"

"And," he admitted, "I want to know what she knows. Maybe there's  something there. Maybe J.D. bounced ideas off of her and she knew about  the changes to the will."

"And maybe it'll snow in this bar." Dylan shook his head. "You know as  well as I do that J.D. was never influenced by anyone in his life.  Hell," he added with a short laugh, "you're so much like him in that  it's ridiculous. J.D. made up his own mind, right or wrong. No way did  his nurse have any information that we don't."

He had to admit, at least to himself, that Dylan had a point. But that  wasn't taking into consideration that the old man had known he was  getting up there in years and he hadn't been feeling well. Maybe he  started thinking about the pearly gates and what he should do before he  went. That had to change things. If it did, who better to share things  with than your nurse?

No, Sage told himself, he couldn't risk thinking Dylan was right. He  had to know for sure if Colleen Falkner knew more than she was saying.  "I'm not letting this go, Dylan. But it's going to be harder to talk to  her now, though, since I probably offended the hell out of her when I  suggested that maybe she'd tricked J.D. into leaving her that much  money."

"You what?" Dylan just stared at him, then shook his head. "Have you ever known our father to be tricked into anything?"

"No."

Still shaking his head, Dylan demanded, "Does Colleen seem like the deadly femme fatale type to you?"

"No," he admitted grudgingly. At least she hadn't today, bundled up in  baggy slacks and a pullover sweater. But he remembered what she'd looked  like the night of the party. When her amazing curves had been on  display in a red dress that practically screamed look at me!

"You've been out on your ranch too long," Dylan was saying. "That's the only explanation."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"You used to know how to charm people. Especially women. Hell, you were the king of schmooze back in the day."

"I think you're thinking of yourself. Not me," Sage said with a half smile. "I don't like people, remember?"

"You used to," Dylan pointed out. "Before you bought that ranch and turned yourself into a yeti."

"Now I'm Sasquatch?" Sage laughed shortly and sipped at his scotch.

"Exactly right," Dylan told him. "You're practically a legend to your  own family. You're never around. You spend more time with your horses  than you do people. You're a damn hermit, Sage. You never come off the  mountain if you don't have to, and the only people you talk to are the  ones who work for you."

"I'm here now."

"Yeah, and it took Dad's death to get you here."

He didn't like admitting, even to himself, that his brother was right.  But being in the city wasn't something he enjoyed. Oh, he'd come in  occasionally to meet a woman, take her to dinner, then finish the  evening at her place. But the ranch was where he lived. Where he most  wanted to be.

He shifted in his chair, glanced uneasily around the room, then slid  his gaze back to his brother's. "I'm not a hermit. I just like being on  the ranch. I never was much for the city life that you love so much."

"Well, maybe if you spent more time with people instead of those horses  you're so nuts about, you'd have done a better job of talking to  Colleen."

"Yeah, all right. You have a point." Shaking his head, he idly spun the  tumbler of scotch on the tabletop. He studied the flash of the overhead  lights in the amber liquid as if he could find the answers he needed.  Finally, he lifted his gaze to his brother's and said, "Swear to God,  don't know why I started in on her like that."                       
       
           



       

Dylan snorted, picked up his beer and took a drink. "Let's hear it."

So he told his brother everything he'd said and how Colleen had reacted. Reliving it didn't make him feel any better.

When he was finished, a couple of seconds ticked past before Dylan  whistled and took another sip of his beer. "Man, anybody else probably  would have punched you for all of that. I know I would have. Lucky for  you Colleen's so damn nice."

"Is she?"

"Marlene loves her," Dylan pointed out. "Angie thinks she's great.  Heck, even Chance has had nothing but good things to say about her, and  you know he doesn't hand out compliments easy."

"All true," Sage agreed.

And yet...Sage's instincts told him she was exactly what she appeared  to be. A private nurse with a tantalizing smile and blue eyes the color  of a lake in summer. But he couldn't overlook what had happened. What  J.D. had done in his will. And the only person around who might have  influenced the old man was the one woman who had spent the most time  with him. He had to know. Had to find out what, if anything, she knew  about the changes to J.D.'s will.

And if she had had something to do with any of this, he would find a way to make her pay.





     Three

The Big Blue ranch seemed empty without the larger-than-life presence  of J.D. Lassiter. Colleen glanced out the window of the bedroom that had  been hers for the past several weeks and smiled sadly. She was going to  miss this place almost as much as she would miss J.D. himself.

But it was always like this for her, she thought sadly. As a private  nurse, she slipped into the fabric of families-sometimes at their  darkest hours. And when her job was done, she left, moving on to the  next client. The next family.

She tugged on the zipper of her suitcase, flipped the lid open and then  sighed. Colleen hated this part of her assignments. The packing up of  all her things, the saying goodbye to another chapter in her life.  Positioning these memories onto a high shelf at the back of her mind,  where they could be looked at later but would be out of the way, making  room for the next patient.