His By Any Means. Maureen Child

Colleen wandered around the great room. Oak floorboards shone in the sunlight slanting through the windows. Brightly colored rugs dotted the floor, adding more warmth to a room that rang with comfort. Overstuffed brown leather chairs and sofas were gathered in conversational knots and heavy oak tables were laden with yet more stacks of books. She loved it.

      The house was perfect and she couldn’t wait to explore the rest of it. It was just as she would like her own home to be—on a smaller scale, of course. A comfortable refuge.

      “You don’t understand,” Angie was saying and had Colleen turning around to face the siblings. “Evan is acting as if this is nothing. He keeps offering to let me run the company. But he doesn’t get that him giving me control isn’t the same as having control. He’s trying to take a step back for me at the office, but I don’t want him doing that, so it’s a vicious circle. He thinks I should have control, and I want it, but if Dad didn’t want me to have it, how can I try to claim it? We’re arguing all the time now, and I can’t help wondering why Dad did this. Did he want Evan and I to break up? Or was he really that disappointed in me?”

      Colleen saw the torment on Sage’s face and when he reached for his sister, pulling her in tight and wrapping his arms around her, Colleen felt a pang in her tender heart. He was so kind. So loving. Yet when she’d told him just that, he’d denied it. Why couldn’t he see it?

      “Dad loved you,” he said simply. “Something else is going on here, Angie, and we will find out what it is.”

      His gaze speared into Colleen’s and she felt a quick bolt of ice that snaked along her spine and made her shiver. There was nothing tender in that look. But before she could really wonder what he was thinking, the expression dissolved once again into concern for his sister.

      Angie pulled away, spun around and looked at Colleen. “You’re the one who spent the most time with him toward the end. Did he tell you why he was doing this? Why he cut me out as if I were nothing?”

      With both Lassiters staring at her, Colleen felt completely ill at ease. She didn’t have answers for them, though she wished she had.

      Shaking her head, she could only say, “No, Angie. He didn’t talk about his will with me. I had no idea what he was going to bequeath to everyone.”

      “That’s really not an answer though, is it?” Sage muttered and her gaze locked on his. The shutters were in place, but even with him closing her out, she felt the cold emanating from him. Only minutes ago, he’d given her a look filled with heat, and now it was as if he’d shut that part of himself down.

      “He talked to you, Colleen,” he prodded. “If not about his will, then about how he was feeling. What he was thinking. And you know what he said. So tell us.”

      She blinked at him. “What can I tell you that you don’t already know? He loved you all. He talked about you with such warmth. So much pride...”

      “Then why would he do this?” Angie demanded. “Why?”

      “I just don’t know.” Colleen sighed heavily. “I wish I did.”

      Sage’s features went very still, as if he were considering what she said and wondering if she was holding something back. Finally he muttered, “Angie, she doesn’t know. No one does. Yet. We’ll find out, though, I swear.”

      “For all the good it’ll do,” she said and forced a smile. “I’m really sorry. I don’t mean to dump on you guys. I’m just so torn up about this and so...confused.”

      “Your father loved you, Angie,” Colleen said softly. “He was proud of you.”

      Her eyes glistened with tears, but she blinked them back and lifted her chin. “I want to believe you, Colleen. I really do.”

      “You can.”

      “I hope so.” Nodding, she turned to her brother. “I’m gonna go. I promised Marlene I’d take her into town for a nice dinner, and if I’m going to make it, I’ve got to start back now.”

      “Okay,” Sage said, dropping a kiss on her forehead. “Try not to worry. We’ll work this out.”

      “Sure.” She flashed a smile at Colleen. “And now, I can leave you two alone to do...whatever you were planning before I showed up.”

      Colleen flushed. “Oh, please don’t get the wrong idea. I’m just here so Sage can show me what life in the mountains is like. I want to move up here and—”

      “You’re going to move here?” Angie interrupted.

      “Not here, here,” Colleen corrected with a fast glance at Sage to see what his reaction was to his sister’s teasing. But it was as if he wasn’t listening to Angie at all. His gaze was locked with hers and the heat in his eyes warmed her all the way to her toes. Still, she added for Angie’s benefit, “Just here in the mountains, here.”

      She was babbling and now felt like an idiot. Of course Angie hadn’t meant anything by what she’d said. She knew that there was nothing between Colleen and Sage. Nothing but a lot of chemistry that neither of them had acted on.

      “Right, so you have a place in mind?”

      “I have the addresses of a couple of cabins that are for sale. I was hoping Sage could show me where they are.”

      “Oh, my big brother is so helpful, I’m sure he won’t mind at all.” She smiled at him. “Will you, Sage?”

      “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” he asked pointedly.

      Brother and sister stared at each other for a long minute or two, then finally Angie said, “Yeah. I guess I do. After dinner with Marlene, I’m meeting Evan in town tonight. We both thought it would be better to talk away from the office. It’s just too...hard when we’re there. But we do have to talk about plans for the company.”

      “That’s good, Angie.”

      “In theory,” she said. “We’ll have to see, now that he’s my boss.”

      Colleen winced and wished she knew why J.D. had done this to his daughter. She would love to be able to give Angie a reason. An explanation. Something. But she simply had no idea why he would turn his family on its head like he had. And she couldn’t help but feel guilty every time she thought about what Angelica was going through. She’d been hurt by her father’s will while Colleen had been given a gift for which she was immensely grateful.

      “Anyway,” Angie said, crossing the room to hug Colleen. “You guys have fun or whatever. Don’t let him turn you into Dan’l Boone or something, okay?”

      Colleen laughed. “I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”

      “You never know when the hermit of the mountain’s involved.”

      “’Bye, Angie,” Sage said firmly.

      “Uh-huh.” Angie shifted a sly look between the two of them then flashed a knowing smile at Colleen. “I’m sure Sage will show you everything you’ll ever need to know.”

      And with that loaded insinuation, she left, Sage walking her out. Alone in the great room, Colleen found herself suddenly wondering if the lessons she came to learn weren’t going to be very different than what she’d expected.