She joined them, and Reggie handed her a pie plate with half a pecan pie in it. “That’s all that’s left?”
“Yep. Babe, Harry and Belle are leaving.”
Kassie turned toward them. “You are? Did you get pie?”
“Plenty,” Harry said. “Thanks so much for having us.” He hugged her too, and then he turned to face the rest of the house.If he thought he could get out of here without answering a dozen questions and handing out just as many hugs, he was delusional.
Since he actually wasn’t, he raised his hand and called, “We’re gonna head out, y’all. We love you and we’ll see you online tomorrow.”
His daddy rose from the couch with both little girls in his arms. “I need my hug,” he said, quickly passing Avery to Momma and coming over to him. He slid his hand behind Harry’s head and hauled him into his shoulder.
“Love you, bud. I’ll be over about ten-thirty.”
“Yep, that’s great.” Harry smiled at his father as others called their good-byes. Then he and Belle left the house, and as he helped her into the car, Harry’s emotions got the better of him. He pressed his teeth together as he rounded the hood in the near-darkness, and as he got behind the wheel, he continued toward Belle.
“I love you, baby.” He slid one hand over her belly, where she’d just barely started to show, and the other along the back of her neck.
She leaned toward him, and Harry met her halfway for a sweet, perfect kiss. “We’re doing this,” she whispered. “Tomorrow. And it’s going to be amazing.”
Harry leaned his forehead against hers, drawing from her solidity, her strength.
“Okay, cowboy. Take me home, so we can lay on the couch and put something on the TV we won’t watch.” She laughed lightly, and Harry joined her.
She gazed at him with all the love in the world as he pulled back, and her love for him gave him the ability to take the next step in every part of his life.
So maybe tomorrow would be a success after all.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
“Ican’t believe I’m doing this,” Lark muttered to herself as she waited for Cash to round the front of his truck to open her door.
She liked that he played the gentleman and wanted to serve her first when they ate, open her door in the truck, and make sure she was comfortable. He’d gone out and started the truck a full ten minutes before they needed to leave just to make sure it wouldn’t be cold.
He was thoughtful, and when she’d said she felt like pasta, he’d spent twenty minutes reviewing their restaurant choices with her. He’d then taken her to Three Ps in a Pod, listened to everything she said, and acted like he really enjoyed being with her. Lark wasn’t sure why she didn’t believe he did, other than no one else ever had.
The conversation today had mostly been around her brothers’ departure tomorrow and what they both thought about Theresa. Lark had known her growing up, but seeing her through adult eyes was totally different.
Wade sure seemed to like her, and seeing as how Lark was about to start her own long-distance relationship, she really had no room to judge Wade’s. She actually needed to talk to him andsee what he and Theresa were going to do while they were apart. Video calls? Texts? What else was there?
She at least had a plan for returning to Coral Canyon, but she had no idea how she was going to make it through the next hour as they searched through the woods for a Christmas tree. Lark told herself she’d done plenty of things for longer than an hour that made her uncomfortable or irritated, and she could do this too.
She tugged her gloves on tight as Cash opened her door.
“All right,” he said. “Are you ready for this?”
“I suppose,” she said. “Are you sure we can’t just go down to that little parking lot? They already had trees cut.”
Cash, the eternal optimist, simply shook his head. “We’ve made it this far,” he said. “Let’s keep going. It’s actually pretty warm today.”
If bypretty warm, he meant only ten below freezing, Lark would give him the distinction. He didn’t seem to feel the cold, though he claimed he did. Lark checked her phone one last time just to make sure that Grammy hadn’t messaged with any emergency. Fortunately, or unfortunately, she hadn’t, and Lark tucked her phone into her back pocket as she got out of the truck and let Cash close the door behind her.
He put his hand on the small of her back and guided her along through the parking lot to a path that said,Trees This Way.
Lark had never been up to Whiskey Mountain Lodge for much of anything, though she’d grown up with some of the Whittakers. Apparently, Cash’s family knew them well, and as they left the paved asphalt in favor of a snow-covered path leading toward the trees, Lark glanced over to her midnight cowboy boyfriend.
“Tell me how your family is connected to the Whittakers again,” she said.
