Cash nodded and nodded, but otherwise didn’t move. “And then what, Larky?”
His eyes met hers, and Lark honestly had no answer. She hated admitting she was wrong or that she didn’t know something, but with Cash, it felt easier to say, “I don’t know.”
Lark ran one hand up and over the side of his face, where he’d been growing a beard all week. “Maybe we’ll just have to take it one day at a time.”
He wrapped her in his arms, his big hands landing on the small of her back and pulling her flush against him. “I suppose I can take it one day at a time.” A half-smile lifted his lips. “And I know how hard it is for you to not have a plan.”
“It is,” Lark admitted. “But I don’t know what’s going to happen. I wish someone would just tell me what to do, and that God would put this feeling in my heart that it was right, and then I would do it.” A wildness moved through her. “I swear I would.”
“Sometimes God does do that,” Cash said.
“Yeah, and sometimes He doesn’t.” Frustration ran through Lark rampantly. “I’ve been asking Him and asking Him, and He’s being stubbornly silent.”
A soft chuckle came out of Cash’s mouth. “Boy, do I know how that feels.”
“So what did you do?”
Cash ran one hand up her spine and back down. It made Lark feel seen and cherished, and she fell a little bit deeper in love with him in that moment.
“I did what I thought was best,” he said. “And I relied on my faith that God would tell me if it was wrong.”
“You came back to Coral Canyon,” she said.
“Right. And Boston and I bought the ranch, and then this house opened up for me to live in, and it sure seemed like God was putting pieces together for me,” he said. “Though He never once put it in my heart or mind that what I was doing was right, He also never told me it was wrong.”
Lark sighed and wound her hands around to his back. “Maybe I’m not as good at listening to Him as you are.”
Cash scoffed and dipped his head, pressing the tip of his nose into her cheek. “Lark, my love, you’re ten times better than me, and I’m sure you hear the Lord just fine.”
She leaned into his touch and wanted more as he skated his lips across her jaw and then the side of her neck.Lark, my love.
He’d never said those words, and she liked that nickname far better than any other he’d used.
“I’m falling in love with you, Lark,” he whispered, and when he raised his head, his eyes were already closed. He waited, and Lark’s heartbeat thrashed against both sides of her throat and down into her stomach.
She wanted to tell him she was falling in love with him too, but she couldn’t find the words. She’d been trying to put her gratitude into action, and she wondered if the same thing worked with love.
With Cash’s hands on her waist balancing her perfectly, she tipped up on her toes and kissed him, hoping that every stroke of her mouth against his would tell him that she was oh-so-close to being in love with him.
A couple of hours later,Cash made the turn from the Eastern highway onto Cousins Creek Ranch.
“The road looks great,” Lark said, surprised at how much work had been done since she’d been here on Wednesday. “I can’t believe they got all this asphalt down.”
“They were in the middle of doing it on Wednesday,” he said. “I doubt they’ve been back.”
“The cones have been moved.”
“True.”
Cash eased the truck between snowbanks, tall pines, and trees that had lost their leaves for the season. He went around a curve, and the farmhouse came into view. A huge dumpster sat out front, and Lark pointed to it. “Someone’s definitely been working here, Cash. That thing’s full.”
“Huh,” he said. “What do you know?”
He pulled in front of the house, which now had a fence lining the asphalt, creating a parking area there. He could also go around the side to the garage, which had space for two cars.
Anticipation drove through Lark, as the ranch looked different today than it had only a few days ago. As she dropped out of the truck, she realized why.Shehad changed from a few days ago.
Her relationship with Cash was no longer casual, but serious, and she knew if they ended up together, she would be living in this house on this ranch with him. Her whole future opened up in that moment, and she could see the house the way Cash did—not this pale blue stained thing, but a bright white, with pretty black shutters, and a bright blue front door.
