“I hope it didn’t freak you out,” Cash said. “I’m really not trying to pressure you.”
“It doesn’t freak me out,” Lark said.
“Maybe we should talk about getting married,” he said, and that did send a little shiver of fear through Lark.
“Yeah, we should,” she said anyway. She’d already thought about marrying Cash—several times in the past, in fact. She fell silent and rolled to face the TV. Neither one of them spoke, so apparently they weren’t going to talk about marriage that day, or perhaps Cash simply needed a little more time for it to settle in his mind the way Lark did.
After a few minutes of staring at a TV she wasn’t watching, Lark sat up again and looked at him. “I know you’ve got one cousin getting married in March and another in April. Both of those could be snowed out, and I think with how big your family is, it might be kind of nice to have an outdoor wedding.”
“Sure,” Cash said. “I’ll do whatever you want, Lark. I just want you wearing my diamond and saying ‘I do’ to me as fast as possible.”
Lark stared at him. “Cash, you are impossible.”
He blinked, clearly surprised. “What do you mean?”
“Why do you just say such wonderful things? I didn’t even tell you I loved you back.”
“Not yet.” He reached up and tucked one of her wild curls behind her ear. “But you will when you’re ready. What are you thinking? July?”
“It’s the warmest month in Wyoming,” Lark said. “My parents will be home, and I’ll have time to work with my momma on the wedding.”
Cash grinned at her. “I suppose I can wait until July.”
Lark nodded and lay back down in his arms, her mind buzzing now. Cash fell asleep a few minutes later, but Lark had so many thoughts going through her mind that she wasn’t able to join him.
New Year’s Eve arrived,and Lark spent most of the afternoon with Cash in her parents’ kitchen as they made a few snacks to take to the Young family party happening at the furniture store that evening. Cash had told her it was the only place big enough to hold all of them without renting a facility, and his aunt owned the furniture store.
They arrived, and Lark carried in the tray of deviled eggs and plastic container of apricot kielbasa, while Cash grabbed the sweet items: oatmeal cookies and raisin-filled sandwich cookies. The front doors of the store were unlocked, and Cash opened one of them and held it for Lark. The moment she made it through the foyer and through the second set of doors, the sound of lively party music met her ears.
“To the left,” Cash said. “Aunt Hilde always sets up a living room area for us.”
Lark went the way he said, and in the back corner of the store, she found at least ten couches set out in an arrangement where they could look at one another and converse. Four longrows of tables had also been set up in front of the Guest Services area, one of which held all the food. Lark moved in that direction to put her and Cash’s offerings on the table. She’d no sooner set down the tray of deviled eggs when she saw the mechanical bull.
“What is happening?” she asked.
Down the table, Cash set out the cookies. “I told you, Uncle Luke gets a bull every year.”
“I thought you meant abowl,” Lark said, staring at the big plastic area surrounding the mechanical contraption. “Like a bowl of salsa.”
Cash laughed. “So when I said, ‘My uncle Luke brings a bull every year,’ you thought he was going to bring a bowl of salsa?”
“Who brought salsa?” one of his uncles asked. It was one of the twins, Gabe or Morris.
“No one, Uncle Gabe,” Cash said. “Though I guess it’s entirely possible that someone did, and I just don’t know about it.”
Gabe smiled at Lark. “Howdy, Lark. How are you on this last day of the year?”
“Just fine, sir,” she said. “And you?”
“I’m great,” he said.
Cash came to her side. “Why are you smiling so wide?” he asked his uncle.
“Because you’re here this year,” Gabe said. “And that means my boys aren’t going to beg me to ride that bull.”
Cash looked like his uncle had hit him with the mechanical bull, and Lark couldn’t help grinning about it. Then his uncle said, “Here they come. I hope you’re ready for this.”
“Ready for what?” Cash asked, and he sounded a tiny bit exasperated.
