TWENTY-FOUR
“Yeah, that looks good,” Lark said as Cash pushed the star on the top of the tree over just another half-inch. “Right there, baby.”
Behind her, something thunked against the floor. She turned and found Jet setting down his duffel bag.
“You’re packing already?” She moved in that direction, the magic and majesty of the Christmas tree she and Cash had been decorating instantly gone.
She felt whipped around today, from the highs of hiking through a snowy pine forest and getting her first hand-cut Christmas tree with her hot cowboy boyfriend, to the easiness of walking through the store with Cash to pick out ornaments, to the stress of dealing with her grandmother, and now the reminder that her brothers were leaving tomorrow.
Ups, and downs, and all around. She hated that Jet and Wade were flying to a state several away from her, and she’d be left alone once again.
“Yep,” Jet said. “We have to be up early, too. There’s not a lot of choices out of the Jackson Hole airport.”
Wade had not come home from his day with Theresa yet. Lark automatically looked into the kitchen at the clock on themicrowave. It was just past eight. Weariness pulled through her, and she was more tired now than she had been all week.
She stepped into her brother and held him tight. “I don’t want you to go.”
Jet enveloped her in a hug as well, though he chuckled. “Larky, you’re leaving on Sunday.”
“Yeah, I know.” But she didn’t want to go back to Idaho. She wanted to stay here and make sure Grammy was okay, and keep getting to know Cash. He was someone who let her be herself, grumpy or quiet or anywhere in between.
She’d started to fall in love with him, which sounded ridiculous after only one week, but she wondered how long it took for someone to fall in love. Was there a set amount of time? Some sort of requirement she needed to meet?
She and Cash had spent hours and hours andhourstogether. They’d survived a major holiday with her family, and with his. They’d sat in the hot tub almost every night together, sometimes silent and sometimes talking and talking and talking.
She’d napped with him, and watched movies with him. She’d sat with him while he cooked and asked him questions about his family, his time in the rodeo, what he wanted Cousins Creek to be.
She’d told him about her classes, her roommates, her family, and how conflicted she was about the future. He’d seen her angry, irritated, happy, frustrated, tired, and sad. They’d laughed together, and had serious conversations to go with the flirty texts.
She had visited his ranch with him and listened to the enthusiasm and joy in his voice as he spoke about starting a cutting horse operation in the spring, and every time she kissed him, Lark felt reborn.
Jet pulled away and looked over her shoulder and into the living room. “The tree looks good, you two. Makes me want to come home for Christmas.”
Lark seized onto the idea. “You should,” she said.
Jet shook his head, his smile still wide. “I can’t, Larky. It’s a real busy time on the ranch, and we’ve been short-handed for a couple of weeks. I’m going to be hiring new people, and even Wade is having Theresa come to Texas instead of him coming up here.”
Lark’s eyebrows went up. “Wow, she’s coming down to Texas?”
Jet nodded and moved into the kitchen. “Yeah. Apparently he’s made a good impression on her this week.”
Lark cut a look over to Cash. She couldn’t entirely fault her brother; after all, she and Cash had certainly advanced their relationship several steps in only a matter of days as well.
“Well, good for him,” she said, and she moved back into the living room to adjust one of the shiny green ornaments.
Cash finished fitting the plastic pieces that held the ornaments back into the boxes and stacked them all in a bin Lark had brought down from one of the upstairs bedrooms. She honestly wasn’t sure what to do from here. Going down the hall to her bedroom and crying into her pillow sounded good, as did staying out here, putting on a movie, and eating some of that popcorn Cash had bought.
“Thanks for the quesadilla,” Jet said, and he put the to-go container Lark and Cash had brought home for him from Westinghouse on a plate, and walked into the living room. “What are we going to watch tonight?”
That answered Lark’s dilemma about what to do next. She grinned at her older brother. “I’ve been putting up with sci-fi and action-adventure all week. I want a rom-com.”
“Boo,” Jet said. “We watched a rom-com on Wednesday.”
“We weren’t even here on Wednesday,” Lark said. “Are you telling me you watched a rom-com by yourself? Because I know Wade was in town.” She grinned at her brother, who casually lifted the first triangle of his quesadilla to his mouth, his eyes widening in mock innocence.
“I’m gonna go change,” she said, giggling as she went. “Search up rom-coms while I’m gone.”
Cash chuckled as Lark left the room. She changed out of her confining jeans and into a looser pair of pajama pants she’d borrowed from Cash and a long-sleeved cottony shirt that almost felt like silk against her skin. Back in the kitchen, she pulled out Cash’s favorite root beer and handed it to him before she sank onto the couch next to him and curled into his chest.
