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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?”
