She’d change wreaths out every month and be only a few minutes away from his uncle Tex if she needed help. And of course, Boston and Cora would be living on the same property, and maybe Lark could have the same relationship with Cora that Kassie and Codi seemed to have. After all, they shared the horse rescue ranch across town, which had two separate homes on it, and they all worked with the equines.
“Are you coming, hon?” Cash called, and Lark realized he’d already gone through the gate and up the front sidewalk.
He’d told her on their visit on Wednesday that the front porch had been rebuilt, and Lark saw the beauty in every line as she hurried to catch up to him.
“New door,” Cash said, and it wasn’t bright blue, but a solid, sturdy oak that gleamed golden in the early afternoon sunlight.
“I like the window at the top,” Lark said, and Cash opened the door without a key.
“Oh, yeah, someone’s been here,” he said without even taking one step inside.
Lark joined him and wrapped her arms around his waist, turning sideways to press into him so she could fit in the doorway with him and see what was happening in the house.
“It’s been gutted,” she said.
“Nate did call and say the flooring was in,” Cash said. He looked left and right. “But he said he’d fit me in around other projects.”
“Well, he’s fitting you in,” Lark said.
The floor had been stripped to the plywood subfloor. It had holes in some places, and new sheets of plywood leaned up against one wall in the far back corner. Cash had taken out a couple of walls to make a great room from front to back, where his living room, dining room, and kitchen all flowed together into one.
A formal living room sat to the right, and a hallway led past the stairs into the bedroom and bathroom area. The house was laid out strangely as it had been added onto over time by the previous owners. Cash wanted to bring it into the modern era and make it a friendlier layout for the future.
Lark smiled at the change in the farmhouse since Wednesday. “Maybe it’ll be done sooner than you think,” she said.
“Yeah, maybe,” Cash said, a hopeful note in his voice. “Well, I don’t think there’s much for us to do here.”
He turned into her, and Lark smiled up at him. “I know what you can do,” she said, trying to be flirty and coy.
“Oh, you do?” he teased her back, and then he matched his smile to hers and kissed her in a way that told Lark he was thinking about their future together on this ranch too.
Lark lost herself in his kiss for once, letting go of the reins and letting herself feel and fall. She released the idea of needing a feeling, a prompting, a voice to tell her what to do, and made the decision for herself.
She still didn’t know what the future held or how to plan for any of it, but with Cash’s heated lips on hers and his fingers knotted in her hair, none of it mattered. She wanted to be right here with him, nothing else in her mind, nothing to worry about, nothing stinging at her, and she did exactly that, giving the future problems to Future Lark.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
Cash carried the box of food he’d put together for Lark out to her sedan, sighing as he looked up into the gray sky. Now that the Thanksgiving holiday had ended, he really needed to pull out his folder for his mentees.
He needed to do his laundry, and he needed to get his head back on the rodeo circuit, and he needed to text his mother in Utah and find out if she had time to visit with him. He really didn’t want to do that last one, as his mother truly did have a new life now.
Just like Daddy, he thought.
Cash turned away from the bitter thoughts, though they still rang true through his soul. At the same time, he knew his father loved him with a depth that couldn’t be comprehended, and he turned toward Lark as she grunted under the weight of something.
He hurried down the sidewalk to help her with Sweetie’s purse, as she also towed her suitcase behind her, the wheeled thing almost bumping into her heels. “I got it,” he said, taking her little dog from her. “I don’t know who I’m going to miss more—you or this tiny thing.”
He grinned at her and ignored the way she rolled her eyes. “I think it’s you, though she helps me take the best naps ever.”
“She’s a snuggler,” Lark said. “But I think I’ve done a pretty good job of that this week too.”
“You definitely have.” Cash opened the front passenger seat of her SUV and placed Sweetie on the seat. “I’m going to miss movie night so much.” His voice dried up on the last word, and all he could do was pray Lark hadn’t heard him.
He moved to the back of the vehicle and took her suitcase from her. After lifting it in and sliding it forward, he turned toward her. “I’m going to miss sitting with you in the hot tub.”
“You are not,” she said even as she wrapped her arms around him. “I know I was infringing on your downtime, and now you’ll be able to get back to it.”
