Cowboy Unwrapped. Vicki Lewis Thompson

want to race through this landscape and create a wind chill effect, but a trot was invigorating. He’d picked up a second job at a stable in Jackson Hole because they were willing to work around his shifts, but he wasn’t there to ride. Mostly he mucked out stalls and groomed the horses.

      As they approached the Emerson ranch, he could see the sleigh sitting out in front of the barn. From here it didn’t look too bad. The red paint job had faded and the runners were dull and rusted in spots, but the sleigh might be salvageable.

      He glanced at Cade. “What’s that luggage rack thing hanging off the back?”

      “I guess that’s where you put your picnic basket. If you’re going for a sleigh ride you might take along hot cocoa, some cookies, maybe.”

      “I would do that,” Finn said. “Sounds cozy.”

      Jake didn’t think the rack looked sturdy enough to hold anything. “So what do you think of the sleigh itself?”

      “A new coat of paint and some rust remover and it’ll be a beauty,” Cade said.

      “I wouldn’t know,” Finn said. “Sleighs are not my area of expertise.”

      “Not mine, either,” Cade said, “but—”

      “Hold it.” Jake brought Navarre to a halt. “I thought you knew something about sleighs.”

      Cade shrugged. “What’s to know? It’s a wagon on skis.”

      “Yeah, well, that would be the critical difference, wouldn’t it? What if those runners are all messed up? What if they somehow malfunction and throw Amethyst into a ditch where she breaks something important like her neck?”

      “Settle down, Fireman Jake. I would hope you’re not planning to charge down the Forest Service road like you’re running the Iditarod.”

      “Well, no, but—”

      “Then we don’t have a problem. All you need is a sleigh that will take you at a sedate pace from the ranch to the Forest Service road and from there to a little side lane where you can drink hot cocoa and make out. Am I right?”

      Jake sighed. “Yeah.”

      “Then no worries. That fifty-buck sleigh will fulfill that mission. Let’s find Emerson and close the deal.”

      Twenty minutes later Jake sat on the hard bench seat with the reins in his hands and Navarre hitched to the sleigh. He suspected there was no upholstery because the mice had actually made a nest in it and Emerson had ripped it out before they arrived. The red paint on the seat hadn’t faded at all.

      The rest was more pink than red. The sleigh looked a lot shabbier up close and he heartily wished he’d suggested a different entertainment to Amethyst, but it was too late, now. Cade had paid the rancher fifty dollars and the sleigh now belonged to Thunder Mountain.

      Cade lifted his hand like the leader of a wagon train. “Move ’em out!”

      “Oh, for God’s sake.” But Jake slapped the reins against Navarre’s rump and the sleigh went forward, creaking in protest. “Hey, wagon master, this thing is wobbling.”

      “Of course it’s wobbling.” Cade seemed unconcerned. “It hasn’t had an outing in ten years.”

      “Ten?” Jake bid goodbye to his fantasy of a romantic sleigh ride. “I didn’t hear that part.”

      “I pinned him down before I gave him the money and he admitted it hadn’t been used in ten years, maybe twelve. Actually, I’m guessing it’s more like twenty.”

      The sleigh shuddered as Jake drove it away from the barn. “Why didn’t you cancel the sale?”

      “Because I really want a sleigh and this one has good bones.”

      Finn snorted at that. “You know zip about sleighs and you’re able to tell this one has good bones?”

      “I predict it has broken bones,” Jake said. “We’ll be lucky to get it back to the ranch in one piece. We might have to leave it by the side of the road like the pioneers had to dump their pianos.”

      “We can’t do that,” Finn said. “Littering is against the law in Wyoming. Which means we’d have to figure out how to haul the carcass back to the ranch so we could use it for firewood.”

      Cade shook his head. “Boys, boys, boys. Where’s your faith in the goodness of the universe? Once we get this sleigh back to Thunder Mountain, and we will, then all it needs is a little TLC and it’ll shine like a new penny.”

      “Or disintegrate like an old newspaper,” Jake said. “We’re going over this thing with a fine-tooth comb before I put Amethyst in it. It either passes muster or...” He couldn’t come up with an alternative.

      “Or the toboggan?” Finn asked.

      “No, not that.” Jake balked at the idea of leading Amethyst down to the barn where she’d find Navarre hitched to a toboggan. “It was one thing when we were kids goofing around but I’d feel dumb using it now.”

      “See, the sleigh has to work,” Cade said. “It’ll provide a romantic touch for you and then later on for me and Lexi. This baby could be the final touch, the gesture that puts Lexi over the top.”

      Jake exchanged a glance with Finn. No doubt they were both thinking the same thing—Lexi needed to put this poor cowboy out of his misery. But Jake could see Lexi’s side. Six years ago Cade had left town, apparently spooked by Lexi’s urge to get married. When he’d finally showed up ready to tie the knot, Lexi had become her own woman and wasn’t so sure she wanted that arrangement anymore.

      Jake didn’t understand why Cade couldn’t simply enjoy the loving relationship and good sex without insisting on a document legalizing the whole thing. But Cade and Finn were both turning thirty next year, so maybe their itch to get hitched made sense. At twenty-seven, Jake hadn’t felt it.

      Once they were off the ranch property and moving over uneven hillocks of snow, the sleigh rattled and creaked so much that the guys gave up on conversation. They’d made it nearly halfway back when the runners hit something under the snow and the sleigh lurched to one side. It righted itself, but one of the rattles was now a lot worse.

      Jake figured it was the luggage rack. “Hey, Cade,” he called out. “Can you drop back and see if we’re about to lose a piece of this contraption?”

      “Sure.” He pulled Hematite to a stop and waited while Jake passed him. Then he dropped in behind the sleigh. “Yeah, I see a few screws missing on the rack. Matter of fact, the whole thing could go, now that I look at the way it’s leaning. You’d better hold up so we can evaluate the situation.”

      “But it’s got good bones, right, Gallagher?” Finn wheeled Isabeau around and rode to the back of the sleigh. “Crap, that doesn’t look good.”

      Jake climbed down and trudged through the snow to where his brothers had dismounted to assess the damage. The metal rack dangled, held in place by a couple of screws. The rest were AWOL. “We need to take it off before it falls off.”

      “With what?” Cade looked at him. “You packing a screwdriver?”

      “No. Anybody got a penny? I don’t like carrying change so I don’t.”

      “I’m the same about change in my pockets,” Finn said. “Bugs me.”

      Cade shrugged. “I don’t have any, either. Maybe we should just keep going and let it fall. It’s not like we won’t hear it.”

      “You don’t want to do that.” Finn pointed to a crack in the wood next to one of the screws. “There’s a lot of stress being put on the section where the remaining screws are. Once it goes, it could take a chunk of this back section with it. Then this thing will look like hell.”

      “Then I have a suggestion.” Jake thought the sleigh already looked