Cash laughed, and he opened the door to the master suite. He entered first, while Lark hesitated in the doorway. He sank onto the bench he’d put by the door and pulled off his boots, the silence now reigning between him and Lark a bit tense.
“A nap sounds nice,” he said, because no, he didn’t want to cause a problem for Lark.
“It looks so different,” she said, and Cash caught her looking around. “What happened to the curtains?”
“They were sheer,” he said as if that explained everything. “I still have them in the top drawer, and I’ll put them up before your parents get back.” He stood and took a couple of steps to the wall of windows that showed him the Tetons once he awakened in the morning. “These are blackout curtains, since I sleep pretty late in the morning.”
He turned back to Lark. “I got new bedding, but your parents’ stuff is in the top of the closet. I’ll re-make their bed with their stuff before I leave.” He wasn’t sure why she kept looking from item to item like he’d left a box of kittens out in the cold. “I took pictures of everything before I changed it, so I can get it back to how it was.”
Lark’s eyes finally returned to him. “It feels like you.”
“What does that mean?”
“The blue, the gray, the brown.” Lark shrugged. “The hat rack.” She indicated where he’d placed it next to the door. “The blackout curtains, the scent of…I don’t even know what that is. Musk? Leather?”
She reached out and touched the sleeve of his dark brown leather jacket, her eyes flying back to his. Cash simply looked back at her, so many things flying through his head. He imagined himself stepping forward and kissing her right there in the doorway. Or taking her hand and tugging her further into the room, so he could close the door and just be with her. Or peeling off his shirt and tossing it onto the bench, as he never slept in a shirt. Not even to nap.
He did none of those things and waited for her to do something. Say something. Anything. He took a breath to saysomething—what, he wasn’t sure—when Lark committed to entering the room.
She closed the door with one bare foot, which felt very much like Cash had been called to the principal’s office. His pulse kicked into high gear as she stepped toward him. And when she asked, “Can I lay by you to take a nap?” in the softest, sexiest whisper Cash had ever heard, all he could do was nod.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Harry Young took the plate of pumpkin pie Belle handed to him. “Thank you, sweetheart.”
“The texts just keep coming,” Bryce said from across the table. Kassie and Reggie had set up a couple of extra tables to add to their dining room, and that had made for cramped quarters in the living room.
Belle took her pie over to the couch, and he noted that she’d gone for something with a texture that agreed with her. Pecan pie with vanilla bean ice cream.
Harry suddenly wanted that too, and he nudged his pie out of the way so he could place his phone on the table in front of him instead. He hadn’t looked at the family text all day, because sometimes it brought him more anxiety than anything else.
Uncle Tex:Things are going well here at Mav’s.He’d included a picture of smoke coming out of the oven.
Daddy:Holy cow. What’s going on?
Aunt Hilde:Do you need somewhere to eat? Sterling is planning a lunch Thanksgiving meal too.
Aunt Dani:It’s fine. The turkey juices just spilled onto the bottom of the oven.
Uncle Mav:The smoke alarm is going off.
Uncle Otis:We’re eating in the mid-afternoon, and things are going great here.He’d put a picture of himself lounging on the couch with OJ, who had a guitar across his lap.
Things here had been extremely low-key and casual, yes. Despite the smaller quarters, Kassie and Reggie had managed to feed ten adults, two babies, and five children.
Uncle Blaze:Momma and Daddy loved helping the girls set the table.A picture of their Thanksgiving table, which had clearly been driven by ten-year-old girls, showed beneath his text.
Jem isn’t faring as well.
Harry knew his uncle didn’t like it when Blaze spoke for him, and he expected Uncle Jem to chime in and argue. Harry would like that, because he wasn’t sure why Uncle Jem wasn’t faring as well—at least if Blaze was to be believed from a few hours ago.
Uncle Tex:It’s just a little smoke. The food is fine.
Uncle Luke:We have plenty if anyone needs to come up.
Cash:We got started with the Young Family tater tot casserole and doughnuts for breakfast.
