Cash glanced over to her. “Remember I showed you that picture of OJ yesterday?” he asked.
“And he played in the concert, too,” she said. “Right?”
“Right,” he said. “Well, he’s adopted, and Bailey McAllister, who’s Graham Whittaker’s daughter, is his biological mother.”
“McAllister,” Lark mused. “She’s quite a bit older than me.”
“Yeah,” Cash said. “She’s closer to Bryce’s age, and Bryce is OJ’s biological dad.”
Lark pulled in a breath. “Bryce? Were he and Bailey married before?”
“No.” Cash shook his head. “They weren’t married, and they decided not to keep OJ. Uncle Otis and Aunt Georgia were having a hard time getting pregnant, and they adopted him.”
“So OJ is Bryce’s son,” she mused, and that meant Tex’s grandson. “But he’s being raised as Otis’s.”
“Yep,” Cash said. “And we all know about it, obviously. OJ goes out to Bryce’s all the time, and since Graham is Bailey’s daddy, he’s biologically OJ’s grandfather, and OJ comes up here a lot as well. Since I’ve been back in town, most of what I know about the lodge and what goes on up here comes from OJ.” Cash chuckled. “That kidlovesto talk.”
Cash didn’t seem to have a problem conversing either, and Lark wanted to tell him that there was nothing wrong with a man who could express his thoughts. But she wasn’t the greatest conversationalist in the world either, and she found she didn’t want to tease him about that.
Not only that, but a single string of Christmas lights hung across the path, connecting two trees together, and that marked the entrance to the forest. Lark glanced left and right, almost expecting a pack of wolves to be stalking them instead of walking on a well-worn path through obviously busy woods. In fact, she heard laughter up ahead, and it comforted her that they weren’t alone.
“Anyway,” Cash said, “I’m supposed to invite you to our family New Year’s Eve party. You know, if we’re still together.”
Lark blinked, taken aback for a moment at the casual nature with which he spoke about them. “Do you think we won’t be?” she asked.
“I’m absolutely hoping we will be,” Cash said, his voice turning serious in a single heartbeat. “I know it’s only been a short time, but my feelings for you are already fairly strong, and I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be the one who will end things between us.”
Lark didn’t know what to do with that, and she didn’t want to think about breaking up with Cash anyway. She also knew the future wasn’t exactly set for either of them, though he certainly seemed to have more roots and a better idea of what he wanted to do with his life than she did.
She’d gone to college because she hadn’t known what else to do in her life. She’d made a few friends there, but she still didn’t know if she wanted to go to more school and become a vet or not.
Coming home for this week had been magical, and she told herself that Cash had as much to do with that as anyone. In fact, he was probably the whole reason she’d enjoyed herself so much these past several days. He’d taken such good care of her, kept her and her brothers entertained with activities, good food, and the same homey atmosphere that Lark had come to expect from being in the house in Dog Valley.
It felt silly to quit her degree with only one semester left, and she couldn’t even imagine having that conversation with her parents. At the same time, she had no idea what to do with her degree, or if it would even matter if she got it. She wasn’t going to go off and find a job at a meat processing plant or anything like that.
As Lark walked through the snowy woods with Cash at her side, she realized all she wanted to do was comehome. Jet’swords from yesterday flowed through her mind. He’d been gone so long, building a business and making a home in Texas, that coming back to the house where he’d grown up no longer felt like home. It still did to Lark, though, and she really wanted to be there in case her grandmother needed her. She wasn’t sure why her connection with Grammy was so strong, only that it was.
Lark wanted to talk through her options with someone. But she had no one neutral, as neither of her brothers had gone to college, and her parents would want her to stay and finish up. Grammy would tell her to follow her heart, and she suspected everything with Cash would be easier if she were just down the hall from him, instead of three hundred miles away in Pocatello.
She tightened her gloved hand in his. “Well, I think things are going really well between us right now, and I can’t imagine that we wouldn’t be together at New Year’s. So, if you need to give some sort of count to someone, you can add me to the list.”
“Everyone’s welcome at our family party,” he said.
“So it’s not a big deal if you bring a girlfriend?” she asked.
“Oh, it’s a big deal,” he said. “But you’re still welcome.” He grinned over at her. “You seem sort of serious today.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Jet and Wade are going home tomorrow, and that means I’m going home the next day, and I guess I’m just thinking about what that means for us.”
“I’ve been thinking about that too,” he said, and he cut a glance over to her that seemed a little bit nervous to Lark.
“What are you worried about when it comes to the distance that will soon be between us?”
“I worry that I’m going to annoy you,” he said. “With too many texts and too many calls. I’ll be in Vegas for part of it, and that should help, but remember how I don’t have a job?”
Lark grinned at him. “Oh, I remember.”
“I don’t want to irritate you,” he said.
