“Boston said you’ve got a pretty sweet setup at the lodge.”
“Yeah, it’s nice,” Cash said. “I mean, twice as much as renting an apartment, but it’s nice.” He didn’t want to complain about it, and God had given him the means to pay for it.
“Your Mountain Dew,” Belle said, and she handed it to Harry before sitting down beside them.
Cash ate another piece of his pizza, and by the time he’d finished it, Bryce and Codi had joined them, as had Boston and Cora, Cole and Rachel, and Rosie, Corinne, and Liesl way down on the end.
Cash wanted to talk to Rosie and see how her plans for entering the rodeo next season were going. But he knew Rosie didn’t like talking about it in a big group, and he could text her anytime he wanted. He stayed right where he was in the middle of the action, listening to the conversations around him from his older cousins.
Corinne had been dating a boy in high school for the past year or so, but he heard her mention something about ending the relationship and just going back to being friends. She would graduate this year, and she’d just been awarded a scholarship at Wyoming State University and would be leaving Coral Canyon in the fall.
The party went on, and Cash sat at the table, talking to those who came over to him and noting that all the older cousins sort of stayed in the same area with him. Somehow, he had an empty space next to him when Bailey McAllister arrived, and she smiled down at him and said, “Hi, Cash, can I sit by you?”
“Absolutely, you can,” he said, and he jumped to his feet to pull the chair out for her. “I actually wanted to talk to you.”
“Yeah, I got a message from my daddy about your girlfriend,” she said. “I would love to interview her.”
“She worked as a secretary in the Agricultural Sciences Department at Idaho State University,” Cash said.
“She didn’t graduate?” Bailey lifted her pizza to her mouth.
“Nope.” Cash shook his head. “She’s only got one semester left, though, but she decided not to go back.” He suddenly felt all eyes on him, and he wasn’t sure why.
Bailey chewed and swallowed. “Interesting,” she said. “Why didn’t she want to finish?”
Cash suddenly had no idea how to answer her. “Her, uh, grandma’s here all alone,” he said.
“Oh, come on,” Harry said with a laugh.
“Yeah, you’re not fooling anyone with that,” Bryce said, grinning from ear to ear. “She came back because she and Cash are getting real serious real fast.”
“No,” Cash said quickly. “It’s not like that.”
“Mm, it is too,” Harry said. “It’stotallylike that.”
“When did you meet her?” Bailey asked, smiling.
“Yeah, Cash,” Boston said. “When did you meet her?”
“I thought this was the safe zone in the party,” Cash said.
“It is,” Harry said. “Just tell the truth.”
Cash glared at his cousin. “Well, if you must know, I met her in September.”
“Oh, he’s such a liar.”
“You guys be nice to Cash,” Joey said. “I think it’s sweet that he and Lark like each other so much.” She smiled over to Bailey. “They started dating over Thanksgiving.”
“Oh.” The surprise in Bailey’s voice wasn’t lost on Cash. “And she quit college for you right away, huh?”
“She didnotquit collegefor me,” Cash said, very defensive about this.
“You’re right,” Bryce said. “We shouldn’t tease you about this, Cash.”
“She didn’t think being in Idaho right now was the right thing,” Cash said. “She’s only twenty-two, and there’s plenty of time for her to finish school.”
“Yeah, there sure is,” Bailey said. “But she’ll know a lot if she only had one semester left. That’s what, four classes?”
