“I told you to wait to talk to Dave,” Wade said. “Now you’re dealing with this during the holidays.”
“I couldn’t stand working with Dave for another day.” Jet frowned back at him. “It’s fine. I’m calling a couple of guys to come in for interviews next week.”
Cash switched his attention to Lark while Jet and Wade bickered lightly. He reached out and tapped the back of her hand with the tines of his fork. “What about you, Songbird?” He raised his eyebrows, trying not to let his hopes get too high. Her brothers had let him in on a little secret Cash hadn’t known: Lark didn’t enjoy the outdoors.
Cash couldn’t imagine spending his life inside, and he wondered what Lark thought she’d be doing with an animal science degree. He also couldn’t see her working for him in his cutting horse operation, in windy Wyoming, if she didn’t like being outside.
“I’ll warm up the truck before we go,” he said. “It’s about an hour to the lodge, and it’s not as far out into the woods as you think.”
“The woods?”
He grinned at her. “You have winter gear.” He’d actually really like to see her in that pretty cream-colored knit hat again. “And they only let us cut down trees in a specified zone. It might be a quarter-mile out, and then we can pick, and then they have sleds for us to get the tree back. It would be fun.”
Lark started to soften, and Cash suspected he could get her to go with him with a few more incentives. “We can head up the canyon after we get lunch in town,” he said. “And I saw on social media that there’s a pop-up hot cocoa stand happening at the lodge tomorrow afternoon….” He left those invitations there and forked up a bite of ham, tater tot, cheese, and egg.
“Where would we go for lunch?” she asked.
“Wherever you want,” he said. “There’s a pretty great barbecue place I like, if you like pulled pork.”
“I like pulled pork.”
“There’s a good Chinese place too,” Cash said. “Pizza is always good. Oh—there’s a burger joint with incredible sweet potato fries.”
Lark finally rewarded him with a wide smile, a giggle, and a tuck of her hair. He’d learned that was her way of flirting with him in front of her brothers, and yeah—she’d be going tree-cutting with him tomorrow.
“All right,”Cash said several hours later, pushing away from the table where he’d just finished his roast turkey feast. He’d been peeling, buttering, kneading, and multi-tasking for hours, and he couldn’t wait to clean up the leftovers and then drop onto the couch.
With any luck, Wade would leave with Theresa to spend time alone with her, and Jet would wander off to his upstairs bedroom to take his post-turkey-consumption nap, leaving Cash alone with Lark.
“That was so good,” Theresa said, her smile bright. Cash could see why Wade liked her, and he grinned back at her.
“Thanks,” he said. “Did you want to take some leftovers to your sister?”
“She’ll have her own,” Theresa said as she pushed away from the table. “But I’ll help you clean up.”
“We’ll clean it all up,” Wade said as he joined Theresa. They moved into the kitchen, and Cash watched as they started opening cupboards to find plastic containers.
“Yep,” Jet said. “We know how to clean up. You go rest.”
Cash looked over to Lark as she got to her feet and started gathering dishes, including his. “Am I being banished?”
She smiled and nodded to him. “Of course not, but you’ve been working all day. Let us clean this up. You could go take a nap.”
“What if I’m not tired?” He watched her walk into the kitchen and put the dishes in the sink. Wade said something to her in a whisper, and Lark nodded.
She came back toward the table, and Cash got up to help clear it. She took the butter dish from him, though, and replaced it on the table. “We’re banishing you.” She grinned at him and took his hand in hers. “I’ve been tasked with removing you from the kitchen and making sure you get all the way into your bedroom.”
His eyebrows went all the way up. “Removingme from the kitchen?”
“And you’re not cooking for us tomorrow, either,” Wade called from where he rinsed dishes in the sink. “We’ll order food or eat leftovers.”
Cash hadn’t been planning on making another meal while the McClellan’s were here, so he didn’t argue. He could let them think they’d changed his plans, and he squeezed Lark’s hand. “What if I put up a fight?”
“Stop it,” she said sternly, and he let her lead him out of the kitchen, only dragging his feet for theatrical effect. The moment they’d left her brothers’ voices behind, he put more pep in his step and swept his hand up Lark’s arm and then around her waist.
“Are you going to put me to bed?”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “And if you want me to hike out into the woods in the snow, you’ll go without causing a problem for me.”
