Did he really not see what it would be like? Were the rich really so different from everyone else? “You probably don’t understand because you’re used to people talking about you. I mean, the Lassiters are always in the papers for something or other.”
“True,” he acknowledged.
“And as for you, the press loves following you around. They’re always printing stories about the black sheep billionaire.” She stopped abruptly when she caught his sudden frown. “I’m sorry, it’s just—”
“You seem to keep up with reports about me,” he said softly.
“It’s hard not to,” she lied, not wanting him to know that she really did look for stories about him in the paper and magazines—not to mention online. God, she was practically a stalker! “The Lassiter family is big news in Cheyenne.” She covered for herself nicely. “The local papers are always reporting about you and your family.”
He snorted. “Yeah, and I’m guessing the will is going to be front-page news as soon as someone leaks the details.”
Surprised, she asked, “Who would do that?”
“Any number of clerks in the law offices, I should think,” he said. “The right amount of money and people will do or say anything.”
“Wow...that’s cynical.”
“Just a dose of reality,” he said, his hand tightening around the brass rail until his knuckles whitened. “I used to think most people were loyal, with a sense of integrity. Then I found out differently.”
“What happened?” she asked, caught up in the glimmer of old pain and distant memories glittering in his eyes. The house was quiet, sunlight drifting in through the bedroom window, and it felt as though they were the only two people on the planet. Maybe that’s why she overstepped. Maybe that’s why she allowed herself to wonder about him aloud rather than just in her mind.
He almost looked as though he would tell her, then in an instant, the moment was gone. His features were once again schooled in pokerlike stillness and his eyes were shuttered. “Doesn’t matter. The point is, you shouldn’t let gossips rule your decisions.”
Colleen was sorry their all-too-brief closeness was gone, but it was just as well. “It sounds so simple when you say it like that, but I don’t like being gossiped about.”
“Neither do I,” he said, glancing down at her suitcase, then lifting his gaze to hers again. “Doesn’t mean I can stop it.”
He was right and she knew it. Still, he was a Lassiter and rumors and prying questions came with the territory. She was a nobody and she preferred it that way. “Maybe if I don’t accept the inheritance, they won’t bother because there would be nothing to talk about.”
He smiled, but it wasn’t a comforting expression. “Colleen, people are going to gossip. Whether you take the money or not, people will talk. Besides, trust me, a beautiful woman like you taking care of J.D. all these months...there’s gossip already.”
Beautiful? He thought she was beautiful? Then what he said struck home. A flush of embarrassment washed over her as she realized he was probably right. There was no doubt talk already, and with her living here at the ranch, she had fed the flames of the gossip.
“That’s just awful. I was his nurse.”
“A young, pretty nurse with a sick old man. Doesn’t take much more than that to get tongues wagging.”
She argued that because she had to. For her own peace of mind. Colleen hated to think that people were making ugly accusations about a sweet old man. And oh, God, had her mother heard the talk? No. If she had, she would have said something, wouldn’t she?
Shaking her head, Colleen said, “But J.D. wasn’t my first patient. This has never happened to me before.”
He shrugged the argument aside. “You’d never worked for a Lassiter before, either. I’m only surprised you haven’t already heard the speculation.”
She plopped down onto the edge of her mattress, her mind racing as images from the past few months flashed across her brain. She hadn’t really paid attention before, but now that she was looking at things in a new light, she realized he was right. The gossip had already started. She remembered knowing winks, slow smiles and whispered conversations cut short when she entered any of the local shops.
“Oh, my God. They really think that I—that J.D.—oh, this is humiliating.”
“Only if you let them win,” he said quietly and she looked up at him, waiting for him to continue. “Small minds are always looking for something to occupy them. If you live your life worried about what they’re saying, you won’t do anything. Then they win.”
“I really hate this,” she murmured. He did have a point, but this was the first time in her life that she was the subject of gossip. She’d led a fairly quiet existence until she’d taken the job with J.D.
Sage was looking at this from an entirely different angle. The truth was, as a Lassiter, he was insulated from the nastiest rumors and innuendos. He didn’t have to worry about what people were saying about him, because his career was already made, and he had a powerful family name behind him. Besides, how bad was it to have people discussing how incredibly gorgeous you were?
No, this was different. If people were talking about her, it could affect her work. Her life. If the nursing agency she worked for got wind of any of this, they might be reluctant to send her out on other assignments—and that made her cringe. On the other hand, if she simply accepted J.D.’s generosity, she could make her own way. Though she would still, as a nurse practitioner, have to work through local doctors and hospitals.
“My head hurts,” she muttered.
He laughed and it was such a rich, surprising sound, it startled her. Looking up at him, she saw that his eyes were shining and the wide smile on his face displayed a dimple she was fairly certain didn’t show up very often.
“You’re thinking about this too much.”
“It’s very hard not to,” she told him, shaking her head. “I’ve never been in this position before and I’m not really sure what to do about it.”
“Do what you want to do,” he advised.
Want was a big word. She wanted a lot of things. World peace. Calorie-free chocolate. Smaller feet. Her gaze drifted to Sage’s mouth and locked there. And she really wanted to kiss him.
As that thought settled into the forefront of her mind, Colleen cleared her throat and tried for heaven’s sake to get a grip. Honestly, she’d been alone so long, was it really so surprising that a man like Sage Lassiter would tangle her up into knots without even trying?
“Everything okay?” He was frowning now.
“Fine. Fine.” She breathed deeply and repeated, “What I want. Do what I want.”
“Not so hard, is it?”
“You wouldn’t think so...” But she’d been raised to consider more than her wants. There was doing the right thing, and in this case, she just didn’t know what that was.
“You know,” he murmured, “once you show people you don’t care what they think, they usually stop talking about you.”
Wryly, she asked, “And if you do care what they’re saying?”
His lips quirked into a quick half smile that tugged at something inside her. “Well, that’s a different story, isn’t it? But why would you care?”
“Because I have to work here. Live here. If people think—” She swallowed hard. Everything she’d worked toward, everything she’d built in the past five years. Her reputation...her hopes and dreams. It could all disappear.
Suddenly,