Page 60 of Boston (Coral Canyon: Cowboys #12)
CHAPTER
FORTY
L ark McClellan busied herself in the kitchen at her parents’ house, putting together a can of spaghetti sauce and browned ground beef to make a meat sauce. She always added fresh garlic, as well as salt and pepper and a pinch of rosemary, to brighten up the canned spaghetti sauce.
She’d been watching the hall for a solid half-hour, and Cash Young had not reappeared.
She’d put her brother’s baseball bat back in his room, but the paintball gun still sat on the dining room table.
She hadn’t exactly lied to him about having a weapon, but it certainly wouldn’t have incapacitated a man with such broad shoulders and big muscles.
Lark shook herself, because while Cash possessed all the tall and dark genes that she loved, she also had a boyfriend in Idaho.
“Kind of.” She could practically hear Wade and Jet both asking her, “How do you kind of have a boyfriend?”
Lark scoffed, as if they were in the room teasing her.
She could kind of have a boyfriend, because while Danny liked her, she’d been putting off going out with him.
They’d finally gotten together a couple of times at the end of the winter semester, right before she’d come home for the summer.
She’d kissed him the one time before driving away and spending her days in the apple orchards to save money to go back to school.
She’d packed up everything she needed for college on Saturday and driven her mom to the Jackson airport with the intention to continue on to Idaho State University after that.
She’d been texting Danny a lot and knew that he’d moved into his new off-campus apartment over the weekend.
They’d actually planned to meet tonight, but Lark had forgotten all of the textbooks she’d ordered online, so she’d turned around and come back to Dog Valley to get them.
Luckily, she’d only been a half-hour past Jackson when she’d realized the mistake, so she’d made the drive back.
She’d decided to spend the night here, so she wouldn’t have to drive through the mountains at night.
She could have left yesterday, but Grammy had texted and then called, forgetting that Momma had gone to Costa Rica.
Lark’s jaw sat tense, because she had no idea how her parents could leave Grammy here in the condition she was in.
She lived in a fifty-five-plus community down in Coral Canyon, and they did have on-site maintenance and medical, but it was for emergencies only, and Grammy had started forgetting more and more and more.
Lark had gone to help her yesterday with the stackable washer and dryer in her unit, which she claimed she needed quarters for, and that a boy with bright red hair had stolen from her.
Lark had calmed her down and helped her with her laundry and decided that she could make the drive to Pocatello today.
Classes didn’t start until Wednesday, so she had time.
She could have grabbed her books and gone after making sure Cash was safely in bed, but for some reason, she’d been in the house for another few hours, and now she almost had lunch ready.
She kept telling herself that as long as she left by about three, she could make it before dark. She didn’t like driving the winding canyon down to Coral Canyon and then across to Jackson, and then all through the back roads to Swan Valley in the dark.
She only had one year of school left, and then Lark would have to decide what she wanted to do.
Veterinary school would be another four years, but she could do it down in Texas, where her brothers lived.
Then, she could possibly come back to Coral Canyon and work for a farm or a ranch, or maybe open her own clinic.
Lark wasn’t sure what path she wanted to take, and God had been mysteriously quiet about the whole thing.
The timer for the spaghetti went off, and Lark poured the noodles and water into a strainer already set in the sink.
She shook the noodles a couple of times and then transferred them into the pan with the meat sauce, turning back to the hall just as she heard the distinct sound of cowboy boots against hardwood that had been covered by a rug.
Cash approached slowly, wiping his big hands down his face. “They’re not kidding when they say not to operate heavy machinery when you take those pills.” He gave her a quick smile, and Lark found herself returning it.
“Are you all right?” she asked. “I thought you were gonna faint there for a second.”
“Me too.” He opened the fridge and looked inside. “I swear I had a drink. A Gatorade or something?” He looked at her as if she had become his personal shopper while he napped, and Lark simply shook her head.
“I don’t know, but I made something to eat.” She picked up the pan of spaghetti and put it on the hot pad she’d already laid on the counter.
He looked at it and then her. “You did? Why?”
Irritation fired through her. “Because I’ve got a long drive in front of me and not a lot of money to buy food.” She rolled her eyes, wondering why she’d stayed and cooked. What did she think she was going to become? Best friends with one of Jet’s rodeo buddies?
Been there, done that. Didn’t happen.
She turned to the cupboard and got down two bowls and then opened the drawer with the tongs and started to dish herself some spaghetti. She looked over to him as he came closer, and dang if electricity didn’t jump from his forearm to hers. She almost flinched away because of it.
Instant foolishness rushed through her. She let some of the spaghetti slop over the side of the bowl, though she was usually pretty meticulous about being clean.
“If you want some, have it,” she said, and she moved to the right to get away from him. She went over to the dining room table and pulled out the chair closest to the paintball gun. She sat down, well-aware of the weight of Cash’s gaze on her.
“It smells good,” he said.
“Did you eat with your pills?” she asked. “Because you’re supposed to eat when you take stuff like that.”
“I had a couple of crackers with peanut butter. I think.” He picked up the bowl and the tongs and dished himself a healthy serving of spaghetti. He joined her at the table, but he sat way down at the other end.
They ate in silence for a few minutes, and then Cash said, “You know, I’m never gonna take a woman seriously who says she has a gun now.” He nodded to the paintball gun. “Is that thing even loaded? What color you got in there?”
Lark looked at the gun too. “I don’t know,” she said. “It’s Jet’s.”
Cash grinned. “Probably orange, then. That man loves UT.”
“Yeah, he does.” Lark said. Both of her brothers were several years older than her, and Lark had been left out of plenty of their life.
She’d only been twelve when they’d left home, first Wade and then Jet the next year.
They were Irish twins, only eleven months apart, and then she’d come along six and a half years later.
She felt like an only child, as she was the only girl and the only one at home during her teenage years.
“So do you live here?” Cash asked, barely looking at her from underneath his eyelashes.
“No,” she said. “Well, at least not anymore.”
“You going to school?” he asked. “Seems like Jet told me you were going to school.”
“Yep,” she said. “I’m at the University of Idaho. It’s my senior year.”
“Oh, good for you,” he said, and he sounded like he meant it.
“Why aren’t you riding the circuit this summer?” she asked.
That brought his head up, and oh, those dark eyes could blaze with bright fire.
“I’m taking some time off,” he said vaguely, his tone definitely cooler.
Lark finished her spaghetti and got up to rinse the bowl. “I’ll leave this for you, okay?” she said. “There’s no other food in the house.” She washed her hands and faced him. “You know you can’t get food delivery up here, right? You have to be down in Coral Canyon for that.”
“I’m a grown man,” he said. “I know how to take care of myself.”
“All right,” Lark said. “I’m just saying there’s not much to eat here. My mother eats like a bird.”
“Well, thank you for leaving the spaghetti, then.” He took another bite, the noodle whipping against his chin. He used his napkin to wipe his face, and why did Lark find that such a sexy move? Why couldn’t she look away? Why didn’t she get her textbooks and go?
Cash finished eating too, and he brought his bowl over to the sink. Lark barely made room for him, and he looked at her out of the corner of his eye as he, too, rinsed his bowl and stacked it in hers.
“You got roommates waiting for you in Idaho?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, the word barely falling out of her mouth.
He nodded. “So someone will know you’ve made it safely.”
“Yes,” she said again.
Cash leaned his hip against the counter and gave her a devastating smile. Oh, that man knew exactly what he did to the female species, and Lark found him as attractive as she did irritating.
“Maybe you should give me your number,” he said. “And text me when you get there, so I know you’re safe.”
Lark scoffed and shook her head. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
He chuckled, and she turned her back on him and strode into the living room where she had put her stack of books. She’d never get that chuckle out of her head now, blast him.
“Besides, I have a boyfriend, and if I’m going to text anyone, it’ll be him.”
“A boyfriend, huh?” The fire in Cash’s eyes reached her from several feet away, and her stomach somersaulted.
“Okay, I’m gonna go.” She paused just before entering the hallway that led to the foyer. “You’ll be okay here, really? How often do you have to take those pills?”
“I got a momma just down the road,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”
Lark glared at him for one more minute, and he gave her attitude right back when he raised his eyebrows. She said, “Fine,” and stalked toward the door.
His bootsteps came after her, but she didn’t slow down as she crossed the porch and went down the steps to her car.
“Drive safe,” Cash called after her.
Lark didn’t know what kind of response he expected. She wrenched open the back door and threw her books on the seat. She faced him and lifted her hand in a polite wave, a small smile even touching her lips.
“You too,” she said. “As in, not right now. Probably should wait a little longer before you get behind the wheel of a car.”
He waved back and then receded into the house and closed the door behind him. For some reason, that made Lark seethe as she got behind the wheel.
“You too,” she muttered to herself. She didn’t care if this man drove safe, and as she set off down the Apple Highway leading south, the gorgeous Cash Young danced through her mind.
She’d just reached Coral Canyon and was turning onto the highway that would take her west to Jackson, when her phone rang. Jet’s name sat on the screen of her car, and she tapped to answer the call.
“Hey,” she said. “I’m on my way to Idaho now.”
“Yeah, I just talked to Cash,” Jet said. “And he says you have a boyfriend in Idaho.”
“We’ve not heard of any boyfriend,” Wade yelled, his voice coming through on-speaker.
“Yeah,” Jet said. “We’ve not heard of any boyfriend, so you better get talking, sister.”
“Oh, brother.” Lark rolled her eyes even as she smiled, because her brothers lived in Texas, and what were they going to do about her boyfriend in Idaho?
The better question was, why had Cash told them she had one?