She would make a home with him.
Lark swallowed the nerves suddenly vibrating in the back of her throat. She couldn’t evenimaginemarrying Cash, and yet, it was the only thing that made her smile.
She made it through her shift of very boring secretarial work in the Agricultural Sciences Department. They closed up at five, the sun already a blaze of fire in the low southwest sky that had disappeared by the time Lark walked into her apartment.
Sylvie, one of her best friends and her favorite roommate, hummed as she stirred something in the kitchen, and she looked over to Lark as she dropped her backpack into the cubbies they’d put next to the door.
“How’d it go?” Sylvie asked.
“Great,” Lark said. “I’m done.” She meant in so many more ways than just this semester’s finals. Only she knew that, but it felt so freeing to say it out loud.
In the next moment, Lark’s spirits dropped. If she was going to be moving home for good in only three days, she had a metric ton of work in front of her. She’d need to find boxes and pack everything up. She’d have to go through all the cupboards to make sure she didn’t leave anything behind.
She’d have to do her normal monthly apartment cleaning on top of that, talk to the property management about moving out and whatthatcleaning entailed, figure out how to get her security deposit back, and sell her lease.
She swallowed the sudden urge to throw up at the number of tasks she’d suddenly inflicted upon herself. She took a seat at the bar, the scent of sautéed red and green peppers filling the air.
“Are you making brats?”
“Yep,” she said. “Caleb’s coming over.” She smiled over her shoulder to Lark. “But I made enough if you want some.”
Lark nodded, because she sure did miss a home-cooked meal, and while sautéed peppers and onions with a pan-friedbrat wasn’t exactly Cash-level-cooking, it also wasn’t food from a vending machine or a student buffet line.
“Sylvie,” she said. “Would it be crazy if I went home to Coral Canyon and didn’t come back?”
Sylvie’s hand holding the wooden spoon froze, and her eyes widened as she turned toward Lark. “You’re going to quit school?”
Lark hated that word, “quit,” and she let the wash of shame and disappointment it brought settle the seething in her stomach. With that gone, she smiled. “Yes,” she said, her voice strong and her decision made. “I don’t need to finish my degree, and I want to be home in Coral Canyon with Grammy and Cash.”
Sylvie stirred her peppers and onions once more, then stepped away from the stove and leaned her elbows on the counter in front of Lark. “I wish I was as brave as you,” she said.
Lark tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
Sylvie’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m in love with Caleb,” she said. “And I haven’t even told my parents about him yet, because they’ll be furious that I’m thinking about getting married before finishing my degree.”
Sylvie was only a junior, and Lark couldn’t imagine living with that pressure for another year and a half. She reached out and covered Sylvie’s fingers with her hand. “You’ll do what’s right,” she said. “Foryou.” She raised her eyebrows and nodded. “Because in the end, that’s all we can do.”
“And you think this is right for you?” Sylvie asked.
Lark once again let the question roll through her, waiting for God to tell her it was wrong. When He didn’t, she nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I think this is the right decision for me, and unless the Lord tells me in very clear words that it’s not, I’m going to do what I need to do to move home this weekend.”
Sylvie came around the counter and drew Lark into a hug. “I’m very happy for you,” she said. “And I know you’ve kind ofbrushed off Cash like he’s new and it’s nothing, but Larky, you never do anything unless it’s all the way.” She grinned at her and moved back into the kitchen, where she put a lid over her brats and said, “Caleb’s going to be here in about ten minutes.”
Lark knew that code:Your brat is ready; will you eat it and give me the living area?Lark moved into the kitchen to get a plate, and Sylvie gave her a toasted bun with a cheddar brat on it and plenty of onions and peppers.
Lark smiled at it and then at her friend. “I’m only going to miss one thing about Idaho,” she said. “And that’s you.”
Sylvie grinned, and Lark took her food back to her bedroom, so she could watch Cash’s mentee ride in the rodeo that night…and figure out how to tell everyone around her of her newfound decision.
CHAPTER
THIRTY
Cash pounded River Johnson on the back as he came out of the arena. “You killed it!” he yelled to the man he’d been doing a bit of consulting with in the past several months. “You can’t ride better than that, River!”
River nodded as he peeled his gloves from his hands. Cash looked up to the scoreboard, as he’d done so many times in the past. Every cowboy’s dreams pivoted around the scoreboard, and tonight, Cash waited for River’s name instead of his own to flash with the judges’ scores.
One thing about the rodeo was they worked fast, and Cash only had to chew on his anxiety for a couple of seconds before River’s name came up. The applause rose through the arena, and the announcers started to blather through their loudspeakers. But Cash had eyes, and he could see River’s score. He’d ridden the full eight seconds, and the judges had given him a ninety-four.
