Cowboys Like Us (14 page)

“That’s not what Beckett is looking—”

“You don’t really know what he wants from you, because you didn’t give him a chance to discuss it.”

“He said he wanted someone the kids could look up to, a role model. I don’t see how I can be that when I’m essentially out of work.”

“Logan, don’t you see? Those kids don’t need some supersuccessful dude who’s never had a real problem telling them how to live. I’m sure they’d prefer somebody they can relate to. You’re coming back from a hard knock. They’ll understand that. They might even teach
you
something about how to recover.”

“Ah.” Logan stared out the windshield, but he still wasn’t
seeing the Wyoming countryside. Instead he saw his dad’s face as he’d crouched down in front of him during a Little League game when Logan had just struck out, ending any hopes for the team’s victory. He’d been eight years old, and close to tears.

His father had taken him firmly by the shoulders.
Never let them see you sweat, son.
His father’s words had shaped Logan’s entire career, his entire life, come to think of it. He’d had highs and lows during the past twenty-five years, but nobody, by God, had ever seen him sweat.

In effect, Caro was suggesting a complete one-eighty. She was asking him to show the world, or at least these teenagers, that he was vulnerable, that he could be hurt, that he
had
been hurt. He wasn’t sure he could do that.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t like it,” she said.

“It’s not that.” He glanced over at her. “What you’re saying might be great advice for somebody else. I don’t know that it would work for me.”

She shrugged. “No biggie. It was just an idea.”

But he thought it was more than that. It was a way that he could be with her. Although she would never point it out, any idiot could see how taking Beckett’s offer would mean Caro could be part of his life. But unfortunately, she had the wrong man for the job.

C
ARO DROPPED THE SUBJECT
of Peter Beckett’s project after that and spent the rest of the drive pointing out places of interest. At last they pulled into the parking area beside the assisted living facility, only a few minutes later than Caro normally arrived there.

“Looks like a nice place,” Logan said.

“It’s a beautiful place. As you can see, they nestled it in among some tall pines, without clear-cutting the property. There are shady walking paths for the residents who are ambulatory, and bird feeders by the windows of those who aren’t. The décor is cheerful and the food’s good. I just wish my grandmother liked it.”

“How long has she been here?”

“Six months.”

“And she’s eighty…what?”

“Eighty-three. She lived in her house in Shoshone for almost sixty of those years. She and my grandfather rented it at first, and then scraped together the money for a down payment. He’d died by the time I moved in as a kid, but it was obvious the house contained many memories of him.”

“So it’s not hard to understand why she’s resistant to this place.”

“No.” Caro gazed at the one-story building with its hanging
pots of petunias and rockers on the front porch. “I get it, which is why I come to visit her every day. I know physically she’s much better off here, but mentally…” Caro sighed.

“What are her health issues?”

“Osteoporosis, for one. She’s already had several small fractures and she has to use a walker because her balance is bad. And she’s diabetic, and arthritic, and has a heart condition. You know. The usual.”

“I don’t know. My grandparents on both sides are doing pretty well, judging by that laundry list.”

“Then you’re lucky.” She wasn’t surprised that his relatives would be healthy, considering what a fine specimen he was. She’d bet that poor health was considered a weakness in his family. “We’d better go in. I’m sure she’s sitting there waiting impatiently for me.”

Caro opened her door, but Logan, despite his bum knee, managed to round the hood of the truck in record time. “Nice manners, Mr. Carswell.”

“Good thing I have them, too. I learned right away that Sarah Chance is a stickler for manners. I wouldn’t have lasted long in her house acting like a clod, no matter how famous I am.”

Caro accepted his guiding hand as she climbed down from the truck. Touching him was such a pleasure. She would miss that. “Do you think Sarah has a little bit of a crush on Peter Beckett?”

“Looked like it to me.” Logan gave her hand a squeeze before releasing it. Then he closed the driver’s side door. “I wonder if anybody else picked up on it.”

“Oh, I’m sure they did. Sarah might not be ready to admit it to herself, though. Jonathan Chance cast a long shadow in this area. She might think a romance would be disloyal to his memory.”

“That would be too bad, especially if she’s attracted to Beckett.”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.” Or Caro would. Logan’s interest in the matter would probably disappear once he returned to Chicago.

She walked with him up to the glass double doors that opened onto the visitor’s lounge. Sure enough, Grandma Bonnie sat in a wingback chair facing the entrance, her walker at her side. Her short white hair was perfectly styled, her makeup carefully applied, and her slacks and white blouse spotless. She’d always been fastidious.

Several other residents sat in the lounge, too. More casually dressed and quite chatty, they were gathered around a couple of card tables playing games. Grandma Bonnie had never shown any interest in joining them.

But she was certainly interested in Caro’s companion. Her eyes widened behind her rimless glasses and she gave Logan the once-over. Then she glanced at Caro, her expression alarmed. She obviously thought this man represented a threat to her routine.

Caro hurried over, Logan by her side. “Grandma, I’d like to introduce Alex Keller’s friend, Logan Carswell. He came from Chicago for the wedding.” She hadn’t rehearsed what to say after that.

“But why did he come to Pine Grove with you?” Bonnie immediately asked.

Logan stepped forward. “Until a few months ago, I was a catcher for the Chicago Cubs,” he said in a voice loud enough to carry to the other residents. “Caro thought some of the folks here would like to talk a little baseball.” “You mean
Carolyn.
I hate that nickname she uses now.”

“I’d like to talk baseball!” A bald guy with black-framed glasses left the table where he’d been playing cards. “Are you Logan Carswell, the guy who got hurt last season?”

“That’s me.”

“Logan Carswell!” A portly man hobbled over with the help of his cane. “Right here at Pine Grove! I need to find me something you can autograph! My grandson will be over the moon. Hell,
I’ll
be over the moon. I need two things you can autograph. Wait here. I’ll be back.”

Caro watched in fascination as a crowd gathered around Logan. In addition to asking for autographs, they plied him with coffee and doughnuts.

“Here.” A stout little lady shoved a paperback at him. “You can autograph this.”

Logan looked perplexed. “But I didn’t write it.”

“Doesn’t matter. You can still autograph it.”

“But—it’s a romance novel.”

“And you look like a romance hero to me, so…” She waved a ballpoint pen in his direction. “Just put your John Henry on the inside. I don’t know who you are, but everybody else seems to think you’re important, so what the hey. You’re cute, which is what I like about you.”

Logan sent Caro a helpless look before signing the inside of the paperback.

Caro worked hard not to laugh. At least her grandmother couldn’t be worried that she’d brought Logan here because he was her new boyfriend. She’d brought Pine Grove a trophy, obviously. Everyone was thrilled.

Except Grandma Bonnie.

“I still don’t understand what he’s doing here,” she murmured to Caro. “The wedding’s over, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s over. Alex and Tyler have left on their honeymoon.”

“I’ll bet they had the reception at the Spirits and Spurs. If I still lived in Shoshone, I could have gone to it.”

Caro didn’t want to let her get started down that conver
sational path. “Let me get some coffee and doughnuts for us, too.”

“Okay, I guess.”

Caro used her waitressing skills to balance the coffee, napkins and a couple of doughnuts. She set everything on a small table next to her grandmother’s chair. “Exciting news, Grandma. A guy named Peter Beckett wants to set up a summer camp for troubled teens at the Last Chance Ranch.”

“That’s nice.” Her grandmother seemed more interested in the doughnut selection.

“If they do it, they’ll build bunks in the upstairs bedrooms, so I was thinking I might make some quilts this winter for the beds and donate them to the effort.”

Grandma Bonnie frowned. “I don’t know how you’ll have time, what with your job and coming to see me.”

“I may not, but I’d like to do it. I think it would be so homey and comforting for them to walk in and see those handmade quilts on the beds, don’t you?”

Her grandmother’s face softened. “There’s nothing quite like the look of a handmade quilt on a bed.”

“No.” Caro waited to see if the seed she’d planted would take root. “There isn’t.”

“I might be able to make a quilt or two this winter.”

Caro wanted to shout for joy. “Could you? That would be wonderful, Grandma.”

“What you really need to do for those poor children is let them take the quilt home when they leave. Now
that
would be something special. Of course, then you’d need a lot more quilts….”

“I suppose so.” Caro wasn’t sure where this was going, but she let her grandmother take the lead.

“You know, there’s a lot of card playing around here.”

For one terrible moment, Caro thought Grandma Bonnie
was slipping into dementia, because the comment had no connection to the topic.

“When what these people could be doing, instead, is cutting out quilt squares. In fact, some of the ladies might know a thing or two about making quilts, and if they don’t, I’ll teach them.” Bonnie glanced up at Caro, and for the first time in six months, there was a gleam in her eyes. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s brilliant. I have to make sure this project is on, for sure, and the minute I know, we’ll get started.”

“You mean it might not happen?” Her grandmother’s sparkle disappeared.

“I’m virtually sure it will happen.” Caro mentally crossed her fingers behind her back. “In fact, I’m so sure, I’ll bring in some supplies tomorrow when I come, and a few extra pairs of scissors, so you can get this show on the road.”

“But if it might not be needed, then—”

“It will be. I’m positive. We’ll get started tomorrow morning. You can alert whoever is going to help. Even the guys.”

“Of course I’ll tell those men! Why, your grandpa used to cut out squares for me all the time. He was good at it, too.”

Caro glanced over to the crowd that still surrounded Logan, and realized he’d likely be busy for the rest of the time they stayed. She’d have to tear him away from his admirers when it was time to leave.

“He seems like a nice young man,” Grandma Bonnie said. “If he didn’t live in Chicago, you might want to date him.”

Covering her astonishment that her grandmother would suggest she get involved with someone, Caro turned back to her. “Well, he does live in Chicago, so that takes care of that.”

“I guess it does. Now, we need to make a list of what you’re bringing tomorrow. I’m sure I gave you my box of fabric scraps, but you might have to buy some material. Look for a sale.”

“If I’m going fabric shopping in the morning, I might have to show up a little later than usual.”

“That’s fine.” Grandma Bonnie waved a hand as if it made no difference, something she never would have done before. “We’ll need extra thread, and needles, and cotton batting.” She glanced at Caro. “Why aren’t you writing this down?”

“Uh, I have no idea.” Maybe because she was too busy gloating over this amazing turnaround. She’d left her purse under the seat of the truck, so she had nothing to write on, either. “Let me find some paper and a pen.” Once she obtained those from one of the attendants, she sat on the floor at Grandma Bonnie’s feet and made the list.

They had so much fun planning the quilting project that she forgot the time, and when she finally looked at her watch, she jumped up. “Logan and I need to go, Grandma, or I’ll be late for my shift.”

“All right.” Bonnie didn’t look nearly as sad to see her leave as she had on past visits. “If I think of anything more for the list, I’ll call you.”

“You do that.” Caro leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “See you tomorrow.” Then she raised her voice. “Logan, I’m afraid we have to leave.”

A chorus of disappointed groans rose from Logan’s new fans, but he extricated himself with a graciousness that he’d probably perfected over the years. Then he walked over to her grandmother and crouched down beside her chair. “I’m glad I got a chance to meet you,” he said. “Sorry we didn’t get to talk more.”

“That’s okay. You can come back tomorrow.” She smiled at him.

“You bet. I’d be glad to. You take care, now.” He touched her hand and walked quickly over to the entrance, where Caro waited for him. “We’re outta here,” he said quietly. Then he waved enthusiastically and called out goodbyes to
the residents before turning and practically pushing Caro out the door.

“Was it terrible, then?” she asked, as they returned to the truck.

“Not terrible.” He opened her door for her and helped her in. “I could use an insulin shot after all those doughnuts, but it was kind of nice to talk with everyone.”

“I’m glad. I’ll get you some proper food when we’re back at the Spirits and Spurs.”

“Fine, but I’m not leaving Jackson without a box of condoms, and by my calculations, we just barely have time to buy some and still get you back to the Spirits and Spurs for the start of your shift. I was getting worried that we hadn’t left yet.”

She laughed. “You really do focus on your stated goal, don’t you?”

“That’s why they used to pay me the big bucks.” He closed her door and jogged around to the passenger side. “I’m not asking you to speed,” he said as he got in and fastened his seat belt. “But I wouldn’t mind having you push the limit a little so we can be assured of that trip to the pharmacy.”

“No worries.” She started the truck and backed out of the parking lot. “I’ve made this run every day for six months. I know exactly where we’ll find a drugstore.”

“Every day for six months is a lot of visits.”

“Yes, but I had a breakthrough today. At least I hope it’ll be a breakthrough. I’m in trouble if Beckett doesn’t set up his summer camp, but I think he will, whether it’s at the Last Chance or not. Anyway, I told my grandmother I wanted to make quilts for the bunk beds, and now she wants to help me with that. She’s planning to rope other residents in, too.”

“Hey, that’s terrific! I saw you two with your heads together. Here I’d come with you intending to offer suggestions
for handling her situation, and then I got swept into the other business. Good thing you didn’t need me to help.”

“Turns out I didn’t, but don’t minimize your contribution. You made a lot of people happy today. They’ll talk about this for months. Oh, and you don’t have to come back tomorrow. You’ve done your stint.”

“You know, I probably do need to come back. Right before we had to leave, a couple of the guys told me about some diehard baseball fans who are bedridden and couldn’t make it out to the visitors’ lounge. I need to go around the building and see those fellows.” He sounded almost eager to do it.

“All right, but you’ll have to hit the fabric store with me beforehand. I’ve promised to come armed with quilting supplies, and tomorrow morning will be my first chance to go shopping for them. You’ll be bored stiff,” Caro warned.

“I doubt it.” He chuckled. “Watching you fondle bolts of fabric may make me stiff, but I won’t be bored.”

“You really do have a one-track mind.” But his teasing was having an effect on her libido, and buying condoms had become a priority with her, too. Putting on the turn signal, she waited for traffic to clear, then swerved into the parking lot of a drugstore. “Here you are, hotshot.”