“I thought he might like to live on the farm near his cousins,” Cash said softly. “We had so much fun out heregrowing up, and it’s not so far from town.”
“Okay,” Bella heard herself say.
“Okay?” Cash echoed.
“Yes,” she said. “Thank you. I know he’ll love being here. But…”
“But what?” he asked.
“Will your parents care?” she asked him. “About that thing you tore up today?”
“They won’t,” he said. “If we even tell them. That will be up to Cody.”
Bella nodded slowly, impressed that somehow Cash had already thought all of this through.
“Let’s go inside,” he said to Cody. “I want to show you your room. And I think Carl probably wants his lunch.”
“Come on, Carl,” Cody said to the big animal.
“Can you believe his name is Carl?” Bella asked Cash, shaking her head in wonder. “Like Carl Perkins? You always said he was one of your biggest influences.”
“I can, actually,” Cash chuckled. “When I stopped in at the shelter and they told me, I figured it was fate.”
“You saw Cody’s posts?” Bella guessed.
Cash nodded and gave her a crooked smile that made her heart melt.
Together, they went inside, and Cash gave them a tour of what she couldn’t believe was her new home.
A few hours later,Bella stood in the doorway of Cody’s new room.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
Carl was curled up on the bed besideCody, taking up more than half the space, but the boy didn’t seem to care. The two of them looked like they were in heaven at the end of their long and exciting day.
“Really good,” Cody said. “Kind of… surprised, I guess.”
“Me too,” Bella told him.
“But it’s all a good surprise,” Cody said. “He’s kind of amazing.”
She smiled, knowing he meant Cash.
“Yeah, he is, isn’t he?” she said.
“You’ve got a pretty good fish on the line,” Cody said. “Maybe you should finally reel him in.”
“What do you mean?” Bella asked, knowing full well what he meant, but not exactly how Cody could be so certain.
“He likes you,” Cody said, shrugging. “It’s pretty obvious. I think it’s cool.”
“Really?” Bella asked. “Isn’t there enough going on here?”
“Less isn’t more,” Cody said, quoting his mom. “More is more.”
“She got that from a movie,” Bella said, smiling.
“And the movie was based on a book,” Cody told her. “And it’s also true.”
