“Sparrow? Really? You’re just going to go with another bird species?” She scoffed and shook her head. “Nope. That doesn’t work.”
And yet, Cash couldn’t stop smiling. “So no falcon?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Eagle? No, abaldeagle. They’remajestic, Larky.”
She giggled and looked at her phone as it chimed. “Larky is what Wade calls me.” She looked at him and their eyes met forone blazing moment before he had to turn his attention back to the road.
“So not Larky,” he said, as he certainly didn’t want a brother-sister relationship with Lark.
“Not Larky, cowboy.”
“Nope,” he said, popping the word out of his mouth. “You can’t call me cowboy. That’s so generic and lame.”
Her eyes once again traveled to his cowboy hat. “But you’re a cowboy.”
“And you’re a fast-witted woman with a bird name. Falcon should fit perfectly.” He glared at her, eyebrows raised. “Cowboy? Please. Have some creativity and originality.”
“Oh, like, Cash-money-honey?”
Cash grinned and grinned and didn’t think he’d be able to stop grinning anytime soon. “You know what? Cash-money-honey is pretty good.”
“I just threw up a little merelythinkingabout saying it again.” Lark smiled at him again, and Cash counted that as a huge win.
“Come on. Say it.Cash-money-honey.”
“No. Stop it.”
Cash laughed again, and without thinking, he reached over and took Lark’s hand in his. He realized what he’d done when she pulled in a sharp breath, and then…her fingers melted between his as they settled into place.
And just like that, Cash was holding hands with the woman he’d been thinking about for months now. He finally knew what he wanted to say in his prayer:Dear Lord, please don’t let this cause my ultimate demise.
CHAPTER
FOUR
Lark couldn’t believe she was holding hands with Cash Young. Her brain cells warred with every other part of her body as he continued navigating them toward the grocery store on the southwest side of town. He had to pull his hand away to make the turn, and Lark quickly fit the fingers on her left hand through those on her right, the skin there still buzzing as heat and adrenaline pulsed through her body.
“All right.” Cash released a sigh as he pulled into a parking spot, though there were at least a dozen closer than where he’d chosen. “Read me what I’ve got on the list.”
Lark blinked for a moment, her brain not working at all. She wondered how she’d been undone so easily by the good-looking, quick-witted cowboy—probably because he was good-looking and quick-witted, both things Lark could admit she appreciated. She appreciated intelligence and kindness and faith as well,and Cash seemed to have it all.
Don’t get carried away,she told herself, as her mind started functioning again. She tapped on her phone to get it to open, and the grocery list she’d started for Cash stared back at her from a digital yellow sticky note. She read him back the list, and thenlooked at him expectantly. He unbuckled his belt and turned to get out of the truck.
“We need a lot more than that,” he said. “We’ll just go up and down every aisle.”
“I don’t want to go up and down every aisle,” Lark complained as Cash got out and slammed his door in response. She sighed and tucked her phone into her purse and tugged her gloves back on before Cash made it around the truck to open her door. When he did, she glared at him. “I thought we were just getting a few things for chicken pot pie.”
“We are,” he said.
“I didn’t plan on a whole-store shopping trip, and then dinner out,” she said.
Cash offered her his hand. An electric zing shot through her, though she wore gloves, when she put her hand in his and let him ease her to the ground.
“Do you ever do anything outside of your plans?” he asked.
“Of course,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. I got up early and drove for three hours, and I was planning on a relaxing afternoon with my tablet, and a nap, and maybe some of the chocolate I brought with me.”
