The Black Sheep's Inheritance(7)

Only this time...maybe there wouldn't be another family.

She shook her head and realized that the silence of the big house was  pressing down on her. The only other people at Big Blue right now were  the housekeeper and the cook, and it was as if the big house  was...lonely. It wouldn't be for long, though. Soon, Marlene, Angelica  and Chance would be returning, and she wanted to be gone before they got  home. They didn't need her here anymore. By rights, she should have  left two weeks ago after J.D.'s death, but she'd stayed on at Marlene's  request, to help them all through this hard time.

Colleen walked to the closet and gathered an armful of clothes,  carrying them back to the bed. On autopilot, she folded and then stacked  her clothing neatly in the suitcase and then went back for more. It  wouldn't take long to empty the closet and the dresser she had been  using. She'd only brought a few things with her when she moved into the  guest room.

Normally, she didn't live in when she took a private client. But J.D.  had wanted her close by and had been willing to pay for the extra care,  to spare his family having to meet all of his needs. In the past couple  of months, Colleen had grown to love this place. The ranch house was  big, elegant and yet still so cozy that it wasn't hard to remember that  it was, at its heart, a family home.

At that thought, Sage crept back into her mind. He, his brother and  sister had all grown up here on this ranch, and if she listened hard  enough, she was willing to bet she would be able to hear the long-silent  echoes of children playing.

And strange, wasn't it, how her mind continually drifted back to  thoughts of Sage? To be honest, he had been on her mind since the  rehearsal dinner. He starred nightly in her dreams and even his coldly  furious outburst that morning hadn't changed anything. In fact, it had  only made her like him more. That outburst had shown her just how much  he had cared for his father, despite their estrangement. And the  sympathy she felt for the loss he'd suffered was enough to color his  accusations in a softer light.

Her brief conversation with Sage Lassiter had left Colleen more shaken  than the news that she was now a millionaire. Maybe because the thought  of so much money was so foreign to her that her brain simply couldn't  process it. But having the man of her dreams actually speak to her was  so startling, she couldn't seem to think of anything but him. Even  though he'd insulted her.                       
       
           



       

"Not his fault," she assured herself again as she folded her clothes  and stuffed them into the suitcase. "Of course he'd be suspicious. He  doesn't know me. He just lost his father. Why should he trust me?"

All very logical.

And yet the sting of his words still resonated with her. Because she  couldn't get past the thought that everyone else would believe what he'd  blurted out. That somehow she had tricked a sick old man into leaving  her money. Maybe she should turn it down. Go back to the lawyer, tell  him to donate the money to charity or something.

Releasing a breath, she stopped packing and lifted her gaze to the  window of the room that had been home for the past three months. The  view outside was mesmerizing, as always.

There were no curtains on the windows at Big Blue. In the many talks  Colleen and J.D. had had, she'd learned that was a decree from J.D.'s  late wife, Ellie. She'd wanted nothing to stand between her and the  amazing sweep of sky. There were trees, too-all kinds of trees. Pines,  oaks, maples, aspen. There was a silence in the forest that was almost  breathtaking. She loved being here in the mountains and wasn't looking  forward to going back to her small condo in a suburb of Cheyenne.

But, a tantalizing voice in her mind whispered, with your inheritance,  you could buy a small place somewhere out here. Away from crowds. Where  you could have a garden and trees of your own and even a dog. A dog.  She'd wanted one for years. But she hadn't gotten one because first, her  father had been sick, and then when she and her mother moved to  Cheyenne, they'd lived in apartments or condos. It hadn't seemed fair to  her to leave an animal cooped up all day while she and her mom were at  work.

Now, though...her mind tempted her with the possibilities that had  opened up to her because of J.D. She could quit her job, focus on  getting her nurse practitioner's license and start living the dream that  had been fueling her for years. More than that, she could help her mom,  make her life easier for a change. That thought simmered in her mind,  conjuring up images that made her smile in spite of everything.

The winters in Cheyenne were beginning to get to Colleen's mother.  Laura Falkner was always talking about moving to Florida to live with  her widowed sister and maybe the two of them taking cruises together.  Seeing the world before she was too old to enjoy it all.

With this inheritance, Colleen could make not only her own dreams come  true, but her mother's, as well. Her hands fisted on the blue cotton  T-shirt she held. Should she take the money as the gift it had been  meant to be? Or should she reject it because she was afraid what  small-minded people might say?

"Wouldn't that be like a slap in the face to J.D.?" she asked aloud, not really expecting an answer.

"Lots of people wanted to slap J.D. over the years."

She whirled around to face Sage, who stood in the open doorway, one  shoulder braced against the doorjamb. He leaned there casually, looking  taller and stronger and somehow more intimidating than he had in the  parking lot. And that was saying something. His cool blue gaze was  locked on hers and Colleen felt the slam of that stare from all the way  across the room.

Her heartbeat jumped into a gallop, her mind went blessedly blank for a  second or two and her mouth dried up completely. There was a buzzing  sensation going on inside her, too, and it was tingling long-comatose  parts of her body back into life. What was it about this man that could  turn her into such a hormonal wreck just by showing up?

"What? I mean," she muttered, irritated that once again she felt  tongue-tied around him. She'd always thought of herself as a simple,  forthright kind of woman. Before now, she had never had trouble talking  to anyone. But all Sage had to do was show up and her mouth was so busy  thinking of doing other more interesting things that it couldn't seem to  talk. "I didn't know you were there."

"Yeah," he said, pushing away from the wall and strolling confidently  into the room. "You seemed a little...distracted." He glanced around the  sumptuous room, taking in the pale blue quilt, the dozen or more  pillows stacked against a gleaming brass headboard and the brightly  colored throw rugs covering the polished wood floor. "This place has  changed some."

"It's a lovely room," she said, again feeling a pang about leaving.

He glanced at her and shrugged. "When I was a kid, this was my room."

His room. Oh, my. A rush of heat swept through her system so  completely, she felt as if she'd gotten a sudden fever. She'd been  living in Sage's room for the past few months. If she'd known that  before, she might not have been able to sleep at all.                       
       
           



       

She smiled hesitantly. "I'm guessing it looks a lot different to you, then."

"It does." He walked to the window, looked out, and then turned back to  her with a quick grin. "The trellis is still there, though. You ever  climb down it in the middle of the night?"

"No, but you did?"

"As often as possible," he admitted. "Especially when I was a teenager.  J.D. and I..." His voice trailed off. Then he cleared his throat and  said, "Sometimes I just needed to get out of the house for a while."

Colleen tried to imagine Sage as an unhappy boy, escaping out a window  to claim some independence. But with the image of the strong, dynamic  man he was now, standing right in front of her, it wasn't easy.

"So," he said abruptly, "what do you want to slap J.D. for?"

The sudden shift in conversation threw her for a second until she  remembered that he'd been listening when she was talking to herself.

"I don't. I mean..." She blew out a breath and said, "It's nothing."

"Didn't sound like nothing to me," he mused, turning his back on the window and the view beyond to look at her again.

Backlit against the window, he looked more broad shouldered, more  powerful...just, more. The bedroom suddenly seemed way smaller than it  had just a few minutes ago, too. Sage Lassiter was the kind of man who  overtook a room once he was in it, making everyone and everything  somehow diminished just with his presence. A little intimidating. And if  she was going to be honest with herself, a lot exciting.