Jacy rode Braids out to the Bartlett Lumber Mill. Drucilla saw her from the window and came out to meet her. They discussed a fair price for some lumber that Jacy was thinking about purchasing.

Jacy and Melissa hadn�t really came to an agreement yet about a home. Melissa thought it would be great if they built a house that way they could get Jimmy to help build it. She knew that the Pony Express riders were helping Kathleen build her barn. Why not help them build a house?

Jacy had thought about it a lot, and her thoughts kept drifting to what it would be like to watch Cody building a house preferably without a shirt with sweat glistening on his bare chest. It enticed her to say the least.

But one factor that kept cropping up was that Jacy was having a hard time sleeping at night, so she wanted to have a home as soon as possible. She blamed her restless nights on the saloon next door, but subconsciously it really had to do with Cody. She hated that the guy she truly wanted to like her had made her mad at him instead.

Justin had followed Jacy determined to tell her what he knew about her pa. He wasn�t sure where she was going, and he felt as though he was spying on her, but he was still trying to figure out a way to approach her. He wondered why she would be talking with Drucilla, probably something to do with the newspaper.

UH OH! Joshua had spotted him. Oh well, he could ride in and say he was out for a ride, and thought he would ride by to see how the mill was. He spurred his horse into action and rode up to Joshua.

"Good morning."

"What brings you out here," Joshua asked.

"I haven�t been out this way in a while, and I felt like a ride."

"Well, come on in. I�m sure Drucilla would love to see ya."

As Justin was dismounting, Jacy and Drucilla emerged from the building. "No, I didn�t know that the Pony Express riders were still working on Kathleen�s barn. I thought they would be done by now. Well, maybe I can build our house."

Joshua smiled, "You�re gonna build a house? No offense Miss Hagan but you just don�t look like the building kind."

"Now Joshua, looks can be deceiving." Drucilla felt she had to defend the young girl when she saw the anger in her face.

"I�ll have you know I can do anything I set my mind to do." Though Jacy wasn�t good at fishing, but she had at least tried, and she didn�t know anything about building, but she didn�t want anyone to know that.

To smooth things over Justin said, "I�m sure you can, too. But maybe you would allow me to help. You could tell me what you want the house to look like and I can draw up some blueprints for you . . ." He paused seeing the puzzled frown on her face. "Blueprints are an outline of what the inside of the house should look like. Then I could help you get the frame set up and depending on my work schedule here I might be able to help you some in building your home."

Well, Jacy wasn�t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. "I would like that. Thank you, and of course I will pay you for your work."

"When would you like to get started?" Joshua asked.

"As soon as possible." Jacy replied.

"How about now?"

"Sounds good." So Jacy followed Joshua to his workstation.