Chapter 24 #2
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. She had 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.
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.