“Thank you, Songbird,” he whispered. He put the soda pop on the side table next to the couch and lifted his arm over her shoulders.
“He’s gotThirteen Going on Thirtyas his top pick,” Cash said in a louder voice, so Jet could hear too.
“Great,” Lark said. “That’s a good one. I like Mark Ruffalo.”
Jet emitted a sigh that flapped his lips and reminded Lark very much of a horse. Which reminded her…. She tilted her head back and looked at Cash. “Are we still going out to Cousins Creek tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” he said. “And up to Bryce’s if you want to meet my horse.”
“Oh, I want to meet your horse.” She grinned at him, glad when he tipped his head down and gave her a quick kiss.
“Great. Now stop distracting me,” he whispered. “Your brother is on the other end of the couch, and I already feel a little wild seeing you in my pajama pants.”
Lark looked down at the black, gray, and white checkered pants. She’d asked him to borrow them at the beginning of the week, when she’s spilled something on hers. Satisfaction sangthrough her that she seemed to affect him as strongly as he did her.
She snuggled deeper into his side. He pulled a blanket from the floor and up and over her legs and his lap, creating a little nest for the tin of popcorn, which he handed to her next. Lark liked that he didn’t have to ask what to do to make her comfortable; he already knew.
Though she’d asked for a rom-com to put a little pep in her mood, she couldn’t help feeling more and more sullen with every hour that passed, because that was an hour closer to when her brothers would leave, and an hour closer to when she herself would drive away from Cash.
The following morning,Lark wiped at her eyes as she pulled away from Jet and grabbed onto Wade. “You guys text me when you get home,” she said fiercely, feeling and sounding very much like her mother.
“We will, Larky,” Wade promised. He pulled back and held onto her by her shoulders. “You behave yourself with Cash.”
“Oh, please.” She lifted her arm to wipe her eyes again, and Wade’s hands fell back to his sides. “I’m not the one who was out until one a.m. with my boyfriend.”
Wade only grinned at her. “I wasn’t out until one a.m. with my boyfriend, either.”
Jet scoffed and then laughed. Wade joined him, and Lark missed them already.
“Maybe I should come to Texas for Christmas too,” she said.
Wade’s eyebrows went up. “If you want to. There’s always room for you there, anytime you want to come, Larky.” Hegrinned at her and looked past her and waved to where Cash stood on the front porch.
Lark stayed out front, clutching her arms around herself to fight off the winter cold as Wade and Jet got in their rental car and slammed the doors. Only once they’d backed out and she’d waved madly again, and they’d waved back, did she turn and start back toward the house. Cash leaned against the pillar on the front porch wearing a pair of gray basketball shorts and a black sweatshirt, easily the sexiest man Lark had ever laid eyes on.
She jogged up the steps and into his arms. “Are you going to work out?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Then we’ll have lunch, and we’ll head out to Cousins Creek.”
Lark nodded and pulled away. She hated that she needed to sniffle, but she did, and she wiped her eyes again. “I don’t know why I’m acting like this.” She shook her head, irritated with herself, and headed inside.
“It’s okay to be emotional,” Cash said. “You haven’t seen your brothers for a long time.”
“Yeah, exactly,” she said. “It’s not like we’re close. I don’t know why this is affecting me so bad.”
“Maybe because you want to be closer to them,” Cash said.
Larkwouldlike that, but she didn’t want to admit it. She had no idea how to build a closer relationship with her brothers, not with them in Texas and her in Idaho or Wyoming.
“It’s just so hard when they’re so far away,” she said.
The door closed behind her. “Kind of like how it will be hard when we’re not together?”
Lark spun back to Cash. “That’s not what I meant.”
He hovered near the front door, his head ducked, though he didn’t wear his cowboy hat indoors. “Yeah, but it’s true.”
Lark returned to him and ran both hands up his chest. “It’s two weeks,” she whispered. “And I’m going to be busy with finals and work, and you’re going to be busy in Las Vegas. Before you know it, we’ll be right back here together.”
