“No,” she said, though part of her did. “I mean, my mother said I can’t make you leave. That she’s asked you to watch the house and tend to it until they come home, and just because I’m home for a few weeks doesn’t mean I can displace you.”
Cash nodded and moved down the seasonal aisle where he put a few bags of candy and licorice in the cart. It really did seem like they would be going up and down every aisle as he rounded the end and continued down the aisle now filled with bottled water, soda, V-8 juice, and other drinks.
“How long is the break between semesters?” he asked.
“Almost a month,” Lark said. “And I could stay in Idaho.”
“You don’t have a job there?” he asked.
Lark shook her head. “I work in a campus department, and they’ll be closed once the semester ends.”
That lip twitch again, and Lark was starting to realize it meant he wasn’t exactly pleased with what he was hearing. She forged on, because her mother had told her to talk to Cash over a month ago, and she’d put it off. She’d been so irritated that he’d invaded her safe space, and she didn’t understand why her parents needed a house sitter at all. She missed her mother fiercely, and she reminded herself why shewantedto be in Coral Canyon over the holiday break.
“My grandmother needs someone to watch after her,” she said. “So I could probably stay with her too, and I might for some of the time.”
“When will you be back?” Cash asked, once again rounding the top of the aisle and heading down the next one. This one held the freezer foods he needed, and he started opening various doors to get the frozen corn, and then the peas and carrots, a box of spinach, and more. She’d expected him to act like a child in the grocery store, maybe pushing the cart fast with one foot and then riding on it like a scooter, but he simply pushed it like a normal human being and glanced over to her. “You don’t know when you’re gonna come back?”
“Yeah,” she said, giving herself a mental shake. “I was thinking the thirteenth. It’s a Saturday after the last day of finals. School doesn’t start again until the eighth of January.”
“Yeah, that’s almost a month,” he said. He stopped examining the ice creams in the freezer case and turned his full attention to her.
Lark almost wilted under it, because Cash had deep, dark, gorgeous eyes that saw way more than Lark wanted him to see.
“Look, I think we should just be honest here,” he said.
“All right,” she said.
When he didn’t immediately go on, he reached up and rubbed the back of his head, pushing his cowboy hat forward slightly. He reseated it where he wanted it, his eyes roaming the aisle around them as a woman her mother’s age walked by. He nodded at her and said, “Howdy, Mrs. Langley.”
She smiled at him with all the charm of a woman a generation older than them. “Good afternoon, Cash. Are you trying to decide what ice cream will go with your Thanksgiving Day doughnuts?”
He sighed and faced the ice-cream display again. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m making a fruit-filled one. What do you think?”
Mrs. Langley joined them, and Lark felt very out of place, though she definitely had more intel now as to what Cash wanted to surprise her with. Fruit-filled doughnuts. She had noidea how to even go about making one of those and honestly assumed only master pastry chefs could even do it.
“Maybe just vanilla,” he said. “That way it won’t compete with the toppings or anything.”
“Vanilla is always a good choice,” Mrs. Langley said. “And if you end up making something different, it won’t matter.” She opened the case door and pulled out a half-gallon tub in a shiny black cardboard container. “This Black Velvet brand is my favorite.” She handed it to Cash with a smile, and he took it and put it in the cart.
“Thanks, Mrs. Langley,” he said. “Oh, do you know Lark McClellan?”
Mrs. Langley’s eyes came to Lark, and she suddenly felt like she was under a microscope.
“No, I don’t,” she said, her ruby-red lips widening into a smile. “Are you from here in Coral Canyon?”
“Dog Valley, ma’am,” Lark said.
“Oh, of course. You’re living in the McClellans’ house.” Mrs. Langley’s eyes lit up as she put the dots together. “You must be home from college. Cash has told me about you.”
Surprise darted through Lark yet again, though practically everything Cash did sent a shock through her.
“Yes,” Lark said. “Just home for the holidays.”
“Well, it’s lovely to meet you,” she said. “I’ve got to get going, because I left Harold at the hardware store, and we all know how dangerous that can be.”
Cash laughed and gave Mrs. Langley a quick hug before she continued down the aisle. Lark stood there and stared, as did Cash, and then finally the moment broke between them. She turned toward him. “You’re making a fruit-filled doughnut?”
His gaze hardened. “Yes, and don’t think you’re getting another clue out of me.”
