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“I’ll get it for you.”
He leaned on her as she took him down the hall to the last room on the right. It was cooler too, as it sat on the back side of the house.
“No blankets,” he said, and he simply collapsed onto the bed and nestled his face into the softest, most comfortable pillow he’d ever encountered.
“You’re really pretty,” he said.
Lark laughed again. “Go to sleep, cowboy,” she said as she backed out of the room.
Cash had the distinct thought that he would do anything this woman asked him to do, and so he promptly fell asleep.
CHAPTER
FORTY
Lark McClellan busied herself in the kitchen at her parents’ house, putting together a can of spaghetti sauce and browned ground beef to make a meat sauce. She always added fresh garlic, as well as salt and pepper and a pinch of rosemary, to brighten up the canned spaghetti sauce.
She’d been watching the hall for a solid half-hour, and Cash Young had not reappeared. She’d put her brother’s baseball bat back in his room, but the paintball gun still sat on the dining room table. She hadn’t exactly lied to him about having a weapon, but it certainly wouldn’t have incapacitated a man with such broad shoulders and big muscles.
Lark shook herself, because while Cash possessed all the tall and dark genes that she loved, she also had a boyfriend in Idaho.
“Kind of.” She could practically hear Wade and Jet both asking her, “How do you kind of have a boyfriend?”
Lark scoffed, as if they were in the room teasing her. She couldkind ofhave a boyfriend, because while Danny liked her, she’d been putting off going out with him. They’d finally gotten together a couple of times at the end of the winter semester, right before she’d come home for the summer. She’d kissed himthe one time before driving away and spending her days in the apple orchards to save money to go back to school.
She’d packed up everything she needed for college on Saturday and driven her mom to the Jackson airport with the intention to continue on to Idaho State University after that. She’d been texting Danny a lot and knew that he’d moved into his new off-campus apartment over the weekend. They’d actually planned to meet tonight, but Lark had forgotten all of the textbooks she’d ordered online, so she’d turned around and come back to Dog Valley to get them.
Luckily, she’d only been a half-hour past Jackson when she’d realized the mistake, so she’d made the drive back. She’d decided to spend the night here, so she wouldn’t have to drive through the mountains at night. She could have left yesterday, but Grammy had texted and then called, forgetting that Momma had gone to Costa Rica.
Lark’s jaw sat tense, because she had no idea how her parents could leave Grammy here in the condition she was in. She lived in a fifty-five-plus community down in Coral Canyon, and they did have on-site maintenance and medical, but it was for emergencies only, and Grammy had started forgetting more and more and more.
Lark had gone to help her yesterday with the stackable washer and dryer in her unit, which she claimed she needed quarters for, and that a boy with bright red hair had stolen from her. Lark had calmed her down and helped her with her laundry and decided that she could make the drive to Pocatello today. Classes didn’t start until Wednesday, so she had time.
She could have grabbed her books and gone after making sure Cash was safely in bed, but for some reason, she’d been in the house for another few hours, and now she almost had lunch ready.
She kept telling herself that as long as she left by about three, she could make it before dark. She didn’t like driving the winding canyon down to Coral Canyon and then across to Jackson, and then all through the back roads to Swan Valley in the dark.
She only had one year of school left, and then Lark would have to decide what she wanted to do. Veterinary school would be another four years, but she could do it down in Texas, where her brothers lived. Then, she could possibly come back to Coral Canyon and work for a farm or a ranch, or maybe open her own clinic. Lark wasn’t sure what path she wanted to take, and God had been mysteriously quiet about the whole thing.
The timer for the spaghetti went off, and Lark poured the noodles and water into a strainer already set in the sink. She shook the noodles a couple of times and then transferred them into the pan with the meat sauce, turning back to the hall just as she heard the distinct sound of cowboy boots against hardwood that had been covered by a rug.
Cash approached slowly, wiping his big hands down his face. “They’re not kidding when they say not to operate heavy machinery when you take those pills.” He gave her a quick smile, and Lark found herself returning it.
“Are you all right?” she asked. “I thought you were gonna faint there for a second.”
“Me too.” He opened the fridge and looked inside. “I swear I had a drink. A Gatorade or something?” He looked at her as if she had become his personal shopper while he napped, and Lark simply shook her head.
“I don’t know, but I made something to eat.” She picked up the pan of spaghetti and put it on the hot pad she’d already laid on the counter.
He looked at it and then her. “You did? Why?”
Irritation fired through her. “Because I’ve got a long drive in front of me and not a lot of money to buy food.” She rolled her eyes, wondering why she’d stayed and cooked. What did she think she was going to become? Best friends with one of Jet’s rodeo buddies?
Been there, done that. Didn’t happen.
She turned to the cupboard and got down two bowls and then opened the drawer with the tongs and started to dish herself some spaghetti. She looked over to him as he came closer, and dang if electricity didn’t jump from his forearm to hers. She almost flinched away because of it.
Instant foolishness rushed through her. She let some of the spaghetti slop over the side of the bowl, though she was usually pretty meticulous about being clean.
