Cash immediately abandoned his post in the kitchen and hurried toward her. “You stayed in too long,” he said. “Come sit down.” He arrived in front of her, noting how red her face was. “Do you feel hot or cold?”
“Too hot,” she said. “And I wasn’t out that long. Two cycles.”
“Yeah, but we only did one last night.” He managed to keepsweetheartoff the end of his sentence, remembering that he and Lark were not alone in the house anymore.
He managed to get her to the couch, and she sank onto it. “I’m all wet,” she said.
“It’s fine,” Cash said. “It’ll dry. Stay here, and I’ll get you something cold to drink.” He returned to the kitchen, where he got her a glass of ice water at the same time the microwave beeped for Jet’s meal.
“I got it, Brother,” he said.
Cash nodded at him gratefully before he hurried back into the living room with the drink for Lark. “Small sips,” he said, handing it to her. “When you start to feel hot, you have to come in.”
“I didn’t realize until right at the end.” She glared at him but took the glass and then took a drink.
“Did you cut these meatballs in half?” Jet called.
Cash twisted and looked at him over his shoulder. “Yeah,” he said. “And then thirty more seconds.”
Lark leaned back against the cushion and closed her eyes. “I don’t feel lightheaded anymore.”
“Another drink,” Cash said, and he crouched down in front of Lark. He’d been out of the hot tub long enough that his swim trunks wouldn’t be dripping, and he could probably take off his towel. He did that, laying it over his knees. As he leaned a little closer, he whispered, “I told them I wanted to be your boyfriend.”
Lark’s eyes flew open, and she searched his face. Cash couldn’t help grinning at the alarm he found there. “What now?”
“Jet seems all for it,” he said. “And Wade said heguessedhe thought it would be okay.”
Lark rolled her eyes. “As if Wade has any say in who I date.”
Cash grinned at her. “He’s just playing the protective older brother.”
Everything about Lark softened, and she lifted the glass to her lips and took another drink.
“Just so you know,” Wade said, his voice rising in volume as he spoke. “We’re still here, and I don’t want any public displays of affection this week. I am not in the mood for that.”
“You will be if you can get Theresa to agree to go out with you,” Jet said.
“Theresa Fletcher?” Lark asked. “You still like her?”
“Helo-ovesher,” Jet teased as he took his container of now-hot food around the island to sit next to his brother.
“Once again, you have no room to talk,” Wade said. “You haven’t been out with anyone in five years.”
“Oh, boy,” Cash said, and he got to his feet. “This is going to be a fun week.”
“Hey, now. I let you brood for months after Jamie broke up with you,” Jet said, looking at Wade with hurt eyes.
“Yeah, and you’ve been brooding foryearssince Allison,” Wade fired back. “I’m just saying Lark’s got the right idea, and I love you, brother, but I’m thinking I’d like to get married.” He shrugged. “That’s all, and Theresa is still single.”
Cash joined his friends in the kitchen, wanting to stay quiet so they’d keep bickering in that brotherly way they had. “Have you been out with Theresa before?” he asked anyway.
“Yeah, we dated in high school,” Wade said, forking up his last bite of meatball. “And then I joined the rodeo, and she went to college.”
“Yeah, but she came back here,” Cash said. “Didn’t you say she teaches school?”
Wade nodded while he chewed and swallowed. “Her daddy died right after she graduated. She had a job in Salt Lake City that she gave up and came back here. Took her a couple years, but she got on at the elementary school here. She’s been teaching for five years.”
Cash nodded. “What grade?”
