Free Cowboys Like Us by Vicki Lewis Thompson

remembered with fondness the smell of fresh lumber.
    “I’m thinking you could salvage some of it and make a new piece for the parts where the critters, whatever they were, chewed on it,” she told him.
    “I’d rather start over and use this as a pattern.”
    Josie shoved her hands in the back pockets of her jeans while she considered that. “It won’t be the cradle Archie built.”
    “No, but it won’t have bat shit on it, either. And I’m not sure those stains would ever come off.”
    Josie glanced at him. “I don’t want my kid in a cradle with bat shit stains on it.”
    “I don’t blame you.”
    “Could you really build a replica?”
    He crouched down, which made him wince at the pressure on his knee, but he needed to get a closer look. The cradle was finely made, and he hated to think of all that work ending up in the trash. But it was ruined, and he could create something that would look just like it and smell a hell of a lot better. “Yeah, I think so. I’ll need tools.”
    “Let me call Jack.” Pulling her phone from her pocket, she punched in a speed-dial number. “It’s been a trick getting everyone to use cell phones. It’s not the cowboy way, apparently. But I think we’re converting people gradually. Jack loves his phone now.”
    Logan no longer loved his. He’d deliberately left it in his room in the ranch house, because now that he wasn’t a baseball star, nobody called. He used to be on a dozen people’s speed dials, but no more. His lack of calls was so depressing that he tended not to carry it at all.
    While Josie consulted with Jack about the availability of carpenter tools, Logan hunkered down and began to deconstruct the cradle. The more he thought about the project, the more he liked it. When he left the Last Chance in the next week or so, he’d be leaving behind something he’d made,something that might become the heirloom this cradle was supposed to be.
    Josie got off the phone. “Jack says Archie’s old tools are all packed away in a box. He thinks Sarah can locate them. Jonathan didn’t have much aptitude for carpentry, I guess.”
    “Was he Sarah’s husband, the guy who died?”
    “Yes, and the only son of Archie and Nelsie—Eleanor. Jack and his brothers weren’t interested in carpentry, either, so the tools have gone unused ever since Archie died.”
    Logan felt a little as if he might be intruding on Chance family history. “Are you sure it’s okay if I use them?”
    “Positive. Jack said if you can make a replica of that old cradle for our baby, he’ll be eternally grateful, because, to quote him, ‘I sure as hell can’t do it.’”
    “Then let’s go find Sarah and see if she knows where those tools are. I might as well get started.”
    “All right.” Josie headed out of the tack room. “How long do you think it’ll take you?”
    “I have no idea.”
    “Will you be able to stay until you finish it?”
    Logan’s first thought was that this cradle project might give him the excuse he needed to hang around longer. “I think I can manage to stay until it’s done.” And in the process, he’d get to see more of Caro. He wasn’t remotely ready to give her up yet.

7
    A COMBINATION OF ADRENALINE and caffeine fueled Caro’s morning with Grandma Bonnie. More than once her grandmother asked her why she was so perky, and she blamed it on one too many cups of coffee. That was true, as far as it went.
    She’d had enough coffee to float a battleship by the time she drove out to the Last Chance. She was determined not to fall asleep while riding her horse, or worse yet, while in a clinch with Logan.
    Although she didn’t know the ranch well, she’d been there for Josie and Jack’s wedding the previous October. The double ceremony had included Jack’s brother Nick and his bride, Dominique. Technically, Jack and Nick were half brothers, but there was nothing halfway about the relationship.
    Caro knew some of the story from local gossip, but during one