Page 136 of Boston
“If you want some, have it,” she said, and she moved to the right to get away from him. She went over to the dining room table and pulled out the chair closest to the paintball gun. She sat down, well-aware of the weight of Cash’s gaze on her.
“It smells good,” he said.
“Did you eat with your pills?” she asked. “Because you’re supposed to eat when you take stuff like that.”
“I had a couple of crackers with peanut butter. I think.” He picked up the bowl and the tongs and dished himself a healthy serving of spaghetti. He joined her at the table, but he sat way down at the other end.
They ate in silence for a few minutes, and then Cash said, “You know, I’m never gonna take a woman seriously who says she has a gun now.” He nodded to the paintball gun. “Is that thing even loaded? What color you got in there?”
Lark looked at the gun too. “I don’t know,” she said. “It’s Jet’s.”
Cash grinned. “Probably orange, then. That man loves UT.”
“Yeah, he does.” Lark said. Both of her brothers were several years older than her, and Lark had been left out of plenty of their life. She’d only been twelve when they’d left home, first Wade and then Jet the next year. They were Irish twins, only eleven months apart, and then she’d come along six and a half years later. She felt like an only child, as she was the only girlandthe only one at home during her teenage years.
“So do you live here?” Cash asked, barely looking at her from underneath his eyelashes.
“No,” she said. “Well, at least not anymore.”
“You going to school?” he asked. “Seems like Jet told me you were going to school.”
“Yep,” she said. “I’m at the University of Idaho. It’s my senior year.”
“Oh, good for you,” he said, and he sounded like he meant it.
“Why aren’t you riding the circuit this summer?” she asked.
That brought his head up, and oh, those dark eyes couldblazewith bright fire.
“I’m taking some time off,” he said vaguely, his tone definitely cooler.
Lark finished her spaghetti and got up to rinse the bowl. “I’ll leave this for you, okay?” she said. “There’s no other food in the house.” She washed her hands and faced him. “You know you can’t get food delivery up here, right? You have to be down in Coral Canyon for that.”
“I’m a grown man,” he said. “I know how to take care of myself.”
“All right,” Lark said. “I’m just saying there’s not much to eat here. My mother eats like a bird.”
“Well, thank you for leaving the spaghetti, then.” He took another bite, the noodle whipping against his chin. He used his napkin to wipe his face, and why did Lark find that such a sexymove? Why couldn’t she look away? Why didn’t she get her textbooks and go?
Cash finished eating too, and he brought his bowl over to the sink. Lark barely made room for him, and he looked at her out of the corner of his eye as he, too, rinsed his bowl and stacked it in hers.
“You got roommates waiting for you in Idaho?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, the word barely falling out of her mouth.
He nodded. “So someone will know you’ve made it safely.”
“Yes,” she said again.
Cash leaned his hip against the counter and gave her a devastating smile. Oh, that man knew exactly what he did to the female species, and Lark found him as attractive as she did irritating.
“Maybe you should give me your number,” he said. “And text me when you get there, soIknow you’re safe.”
Lark scoffed and shook her head. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
He chuckled, and she turned her back on him and strode into the living room where she had put her stack of books. She’d never get that chuckle out of her head now, blast him.
“Besides, I have a boyfriend, and if I’m going to text anyone, it’ll be him.”
