Page 108 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late
Creston looked like he might blow fire in the next moment, but he simply said, “All right,” turned around, and walked away. The tension diffused, and Henry took a deep breath into his lungs. He realized he couldn’t just walk away with Levi, so he and Angel stood there and talked to every person who wanted to talk to them until they did finally all move off to start their jobs for the day.
Angel sighed, a totally defeated, deflated sound, and said, “That wasn’t so bad.”
“That wasn’t so bad?” Henry repeated.
“I mean, it could have been worse,” she said. “They could have rioted, called for my immediate removal.”
“Is that what you were worried about?” He chuckled. “You own this place, sweetheart.”
“Yeah, well, you heard Creston,” she said. “He thinks I’m only here because my last name is White.”
“Thatiswhy you’re here,” Henry said. “And you should never be ashamed of that.” He pulled her close and whispered, “Besides, your last name will be Marshall soon enough.”
She eased into his arms, melted into his chest, and he was glad he could hold her out in the open where anyone could see. Then he stepped back and said, “It’s been a real stressful week or so. Let’s go to dinner tonight.”
She looked up at him, pure hope in her eyes. “Really?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll come pick you up like a gentleman and everything. Drive my truck to your house and ring your doorbell. I’ll even bring flowers.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Where are you going to get flowers? You can’t drive to town and back.”
“You underestimate me. Nice.”
She tripped up on her toes and swept a kiss across his cheek. “Just pick me up at six-thirty, cowboy.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said and as she walked away, Henry experienced another moment of pure joy with Angel. He couldn’t wait for many, many more.
A couple of weeks later, Henry had just finished his work for the day, and he needed a shower and to change into his red, white, and blue shirt for the Fourth of July celebration dinner that evening.
Then, he and Angel and plenty of other cowboys would be headed into Amarillo to watch a mini rodeo with fireworks atthe end. It would be a good way to celebrate Independence Day, though he’d worked today, and Henry couldn’t wait to get off the ranch.
His phone chimed, and he pulled it out to check it.I need you, Angel had said. It wasn’t the acronym they’d used in the past, and Henry’s pulse bobbed in the back of his throat.
He called her, and she answered without saying anything. But she sniffled over the line, and he immediately turned toward her house. She had to be there, or in her office. She wouldn’t be crying out in the open. “Where are you?”
“I just need to get out of here.”
“Why? What’s going on?” he asked. Since their announcement, things had settled down. No one had quit. No teams had been reorganized. He’d taken a little chiding and ribbing from his friends, and then they’d moved on to other things. In fact, Levi had asked out one of the stable hands, a woman named Leslie, and they’d been out a few times since.
“I’m walking away from my cabin,” she said. “I just left through the front door, and I’m just walking.”
“Okay,” he said, turning in that direction and breaking into a run. “I’m on my way.” He caught up to her several minutes later out in the middle of the field across from her cabin. She wasn’t crying, but her fingers curled into fists.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Daddy’s pressuring me to teach at Sherman next fall,” she said. “I’m feeling so guilty about it, but I don’t want to do it.”
“All right,” Henry said, matching his stride to hers.
“And then I got an email from a couple of the farriers there who are angry that there’s not enough positions at Lone Star for all of them. I don’t know what they want me to do—build more stables, get more horses?” She made an angry noise and scoffed. “They have no idea what it’s like here.”
Henry had been on that side of the equation before, and itwasfrustrating that there weren’t enough positions to get the experience that the farriers at Sherman Academy needed. He didn’t say anything, because he didn’t have to.
This wasn’t Angel’s burden to carry, but he also understood the frustration from the cowboys on the other side.
She stopped abruptly, and it took Henry another step to do the same. She looked at him, and he looked at her, and he said the first thing that popped into his head.
“I’m going to call Jerry right now. There’s a really great place on the west side of Three Rivers. It’s a little further to Lone Star than Stinnett, but it’s really great, Angel. We should go look at it tonight.”
