CHAPTER
ONE
Cash Young finished ordering pizza from the only place in Dog Valley that would deliver it to him. He’d been living in the McClellan mansion for three months now. The furnace worked great and had protected him against two snowstorms already this season. He and Boston had spent countless hours and evenings at Cousins Creek Ranch across the valley, and Cash had already started praying nightly that the two-story farmhouse that he’d chosen would be ready for him by March.
Boston didn’t want to move in until he and Cora got married in the spring, as he wanted all the roads to be leveled and fixed, as well as the house to be done, before he stepped foot on the property. Cash understood, because that north side definitely hadn’t weathered as well as the west, where his house sat.
He’d been working with a man named Owen Pearson at one of the top cutting horse operations in Texas, and right after the New Year, he’d be flying down there to meet with him. He knew Owen from his days in the rodeo, and he wanted to see the facilities that he would need to build to establish his own cutting horse operation.
Excitement vibrated within Cash whenever he thought about his life at Cousins Creek, with a brand new house, and land that someone loved and looked after, and his family so nearby. It seemed hard to believe that half a year ago, he’d been so angry and had no idea where God wanted him. The Lord truly could work miracles, and all anyone needed to do was look in Cash’s direction to see it.
Since he didn’t have easy access to home delivery, Cash had been going home once a week to take a cooking lesson from Faith. She’d taught him how to make all kinds of things growing up, but he’d put those skills on the back burner while he rode the circuit.
Thankfully, they’d come roaring back, and while Cash waited for his pizza to arrive, he moved into the kitchen to put together a simple roasted vegetable platter. He’d maintained a rigorous workout schedule while on the circuit, and he’d picked that back up once he’d moved into the McClellan’s house. It was easy to work out when a whole home gym waited for him in the basement.
Cash whistled to himself as he cut zucchini in half and then quarters and tossed the spears into a bowl with a swirl of olive oil and salt and pepper. He broke off cauliflower florets and did the same with broccoli, and mixed everything together with his bare hands. He then spread the vegetables out on a cooking sheet and slid it into the oven and set it to four hundred.
He checked the pizza app, seeing that his pie would be there in twenty-five minutes, and the veggies would be done at that same time. He disliked mushrooms greatly, as well as olives, so he ordered the all-meat pizza and put his roasted vegetables on top. No plates and no utensils needed.
Cash could also make doughnuts, and he reached up to the cupboard above the microwave to pull down the binder he’d taken from his parents’ house a month ago. Faith had startedteaching him when she and Daddy were dating, and Cash let the fond memories of working with her in the kitchen flow through him as he flipped from page to page and studied the recipes.
The McClellan children were coming home for Thanksgiving, though their parents would remain in Costa Rica. Jet had first proposed the idea, claiming that he and Wade wanted to experience winter again, but Cash suspected thatLarkwanted to come home and didn’t want to be there alone with him.
That had only happened one other time, and while it made Cash’s blood burn through his veins in almost a painful way, he didn’t think she’d enjoyed the experience as much as he had.
He found her to be captivating, the sound of her voice following him everywhere, even after she’d gone, and literally the prettiest woman he’d ever met. She had a sharp tongue, though, and quick wit, and she sure didn’t seem to like him at all.
That only made Cash tease her more, and he grinned to himself about the fact that he’d asked her for her phone number at least a dozen times in the forty-eight hours she’d been here last month.
Then, of course, he had quiet moments where he felt guilty about irritating her so much. It was justso easy,as his very existence had never annoyed another person quite the way it did Lark McClellan.
He flipped the page in the recipe book and landed on the raspberry jam-filled chocolate Long Johns. The center of his chest turned warm.
These were the doughnuts for the holiday.
He thumped the page with his fingers and pulled out his phone to start making an ingredient list. Jet and Wade would arrive tomorrow night, which meant Cash needed to go grocery shopping tomorrow after church or Monday.
“Monday would probably be best,” he muttered to himself.
He could roast a turkey and mash potatoes and whip up gravy, and he’d just asked Faith to show him her green bean casserole and her stuffing-covered veggies.
He was still trying to decide which one of those he would make for the Thanksgiving meal, but he figured he could eat any leftover broccoli or cauliflower he didn’t use. Along with that, he wanted to have doughnuts for the morning of, and fresh bread for their evening meal. He would definitely need a lot of yeast, and he added that to his grocery list.
He knew Lark was coming home too, but he didn’t know when. She had a room that they’d kept made up for her, of course, but it sat on the same level as Cash’s—right down the hall, in fact.
Jet and Wade had bedrooms upstairs in the mansion, and Cash told himself that Lark could have chosen to stay in one of their bedrooms—or either of the two guest bedrooms that also stood ready twenty-four-seven.
Boston had stayed with him several times, as had Cole. Rachel Walker, Cole’s girlfriend, ran a ranch up here in Dog Valley, and when he left her place too late, he crashed with Cash.
He’d expected Cole and Rachel to be engaged by now, but they weren’t. Rumors around the Young family had circulated that they might have a Christmas wedding, but Cash couldn’t imagine that coming to fruition now, not with Christmas only five weeks away.
Cash liked Rachel a whole lot, and she seemed to bring out the more personable side of Cole, who had inherited his daddy’s quieter tendencies.
Cash himself had gone out with a couple of women as he doubled with Boston and Cora, and then Cole and Rachel, but no one intrigued him or tickled his attraction nearly as much as…Lark.
He jotted down a few more things that he needed, including butter, milk, cream and his favorite toffee-almond chocolate bars. He reasoned that he ran twenty miles a week and lifted weights to go with his cardio. He could have a chocolate bar if he wanted one.
Behind him, the oven clicked, but Cash ignored it. A moment later, it beeped, signaling to him that it had come to temperature. He glanced at it and back to the recipe. “Should I try to make my own jam?” he wondered aloud.
