“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.”