The Black Sheep's Inheritance

His sister had been crushed by their father’s will. His aunt Marlene was happy with her bequest but naturally worried for Angie. Chance was good, of course. Big Blue ranch was his heart and soul. Evan had looked as though he’d been hit in the head with a two-by-four, but once the shock eased, Sage couldn’t imagine the man complaining about the inheritance. Except for how it was affecting Angie.

There was going to be tension between Evan and her. But Sage hoped to hell they could work it out and find their way past all of this. But for now, their wedding was still postponed and after the will reading, Sage had no idea how long that postponement was going to last.

As for himself, Sage was still staggered by his bequest from J.D. Hell, he’d gotten a bigger share of Lassiter Media than Angie had—and that just wasn’t right. Every time he thought about this, he came back to one question: What the hell had J.D. been thinking? And the only way he had even the slightest chance of figuring that out was by getting close to Colleen.

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.

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.