Cash closed her door, and they started toward the grocery store entrance. “What kind of chocolate did you bring?”
“It’s that new Dubai chocolate,” she said, a certain excitement poking through her. “Has it reached Coral Canyon yet? Because it’s delicious.”
Cash shook his head. “I haven’t heard of it.”
“We’ll look and see if they have it here,” she said. “It’ssogood.”
He got a full-size cart and entered the grocery store to the produce section. He went around each of the stands, collecting his grape tomatoes, mini cucumbers, a bunch of asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, onions, garlic, and celery. He got thebagged salad, a loaf of crusty French bread, and a bag of already-cubed day-old bread from the adjacent bakery.
“All right,” he said, coming to a stop in front of the refrigerated salad dressing section. “What kind of ranch do you want, Sparrow?”
He grinned at her, and Lark managed to keep her smile straight as she shook her head. She didn’t necessarily hate the nickname Sparrow,but it also didn’t make a lot of sense.
She studied the rows and rows of ranch dressing, with everything from dilly ranch to buttermilk ranch across multiple brand names. She expected this from the big grocery chains in the college town where she’d spent a lot of her time in the last few years, but the grocery stores in Coral Canyon had always had a much more limited selection. Until now, apparently.
“Ah, this one.” She picked out the most expensive bottle of homemade ranch that the grocery store made back in the deli.
Cash simply took it from her and put it in the cart, no questions asked. Curiosity about him burned through her as he moved past a seasonal display and over to the eggs, dairy, and butter against the back wall of the store.
“You really just quit the rodeo because you felt like you should?” she asked.
He set a quart of whipping cream in the cart, along with two half-gallons of ultra-expensive organic whole milk. “Yeah.” He gave a quick shrug of one shoulder. “I mean, I guess there was this fear of getting hurt, but that wasn’t the real reason.”
He returned to the dairy case and got out another quart of whipping cream and one of half-and-half. “I’m working with a couple of amateurs,” he said. “And I have to go to Vegas next week while they ride in the NPR Finals.”
Lark’s heart pumped out a couple of extra beats. “Oh, you do?”
Cash glanced at her and then pushed the cart over to the eggs. “Yeah.” He chose a large, five-dozen package and set it at the end of the cart. “You’re moving into finals, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” Lark said. “I’m just here for the week.”
“When are you leaving?” he asked.
“Sunday,” she said.
His lips twitched. “Your brothers are leaving on Saturday.”
“Yeah,” Lark said, as she was well aware of Jet and Wade’s plans to return to Coral Canyon for the Thanksgiving holiday. Because of how the days fell this year, Thanksgiving was pretty late in the month. December would begin on Tuesday next week. “I only have a couple of weeks left,” she said.
She paused as he loaded the cart with containers of sour cream, cottage cheese, and Greek yogurt.
“You can get anything you want,” he said. “You’ll be at the house for over a week. You don’t have to be at the mercy of what I’ve got in the fridge.”
Lark nodded. “I brought a couple bags of groceries home from my apartment,” she said. “And then, well, Iwaskind of expecting that I would just be able to eat whatever was there.” She looked at him, realizing her mistake. “I don’t know why I assumed that. My parents aren’t here.”
He gave her a quick smile. “You can eat anything you want in the house,” he said. “A lot of it is mine at this point, but I don’t care. It’s just food.”
She nodded and reached for one of her favorite flip yogurts—the key lime pie. “I’ll get a couple of these for breakfast.”
“I was going to make overnight oats,” he said. “Wade requested them.”
Lark nodded, though she didn’t like feeling like she was the last to the party in knowing things about Cash. Of course, her brothers had known him for a lot longer than her, and in a different capacity.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you.” Her nerves vibrated at her, because she should’ve had this conversation over text. Weeks ago.
“Because the holiday break between semesters is a lot longer than Thanksgiving, and I’m hoping it will be okay if I stay at the house.”
“Of course,” Cash said. “It’s your house.” He glanced at her, his eyes wide and filled with worry. “Do you want me to leave?”
