“Can I have a Bismarck?” Celeste asked, climbing up onto a barstool. “Look, Cash. Momma’s teaching me how to sew.” She pushed a scrap of fabric toward him, and Cash picked it up, his mind working fast as he tried to figure out what it was. It was a couple inches across and about three times that long, with a dark blue fabric with stars on one side and an autumnal floral pattern on the other. It had been sewn together with a crisscross stitch.
“Wow,” he said. “This is great. What are you going to do with it?”
“It’s a bookmark,” she said. “I’m going to put it in my books.”
“Cash, look at this picture I drew,” Grace said.
“Grace, be kind,” Faith said.
“I am being kind,” she shot back. “I just want to show him what I drew.”
“You don’t need to show up your sister,” Daddy said.
“I’m not showing her up,” Grace said.
“Yeah, you are.” Daddy put his hand on her back and gently nudged her toward the living room. “You spent twenty minutes in your bedroom trying to find something to show him after Celeste said she wanted to show him what she and Momma had been working on this week.”
Grace started to complain, and Cash let his parents deal with her while he got doughnuts for Celeste and Tyrone.
“What about Harmony?” Lark asked. “Can she have one?”
“She can share with me,” Faith said from the living room. “I’ll be right over.”
Grace sniffled on the couch while Momma spoke quietly to her, and Daddy joined Cash in the kitchen. “So, Lark, what are you doing?”
“I go to school in Pocatello,” she said. “I’m studying animal science at Idaho State University.”
“You’ve got to almost be done for the semester,” he said.
“Yes,” Lark said. “Only one more week and then finals, and then I’ll be back in town.”
Daddy’s eyes flew to Cash’s. “Back in the house where Cash lives?”
“Daddy,” Cash warned.
Lark looked between the two of them. “Yes,” she said slowly. “I work for the Agricultural Department, and they’re not open over the break…and I don’t really have anywhere else to go.”
“It’s her parents’ house,” Cash said. “I’m fine if she’s there.”
“Oh, I’m sure you are,” Daddy said.
“She has her own bedroom,” Cash said.
“Will your brothers be there for Christmas?” he asked.
“I don’t think so,” Lark said. “Honestly, they don’t come back to Wyoming very often.” Her voice took on a guarded tone. “We’re lucky they’re coming for Thanksgiving.”
“So it’ll just be you and Cash in that house, huh?” Daddy asked. “He certainly has somewhere else he could go.”
“Daddy, I’m not living in the basement,” he said. “The McClellans have asked me to take care of the house, and that’s what I’m going to do.” He plunked a Long John onto a paper plate and handed it to his father. “Besides, I’m an adult, and so is Lark, and we don’t need you bossing us around.”
“Who’s bossing who around?” Faith asked as she joined them.
“Daddy’s lecturing me about Lark,” Cash said.
Faith looked between the two of them, as she had often played the go-between. “Do you need to be lectured about Lark?”
“Yes, he does.”
