Page 64 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late
Tonight was that night. Outside the grocery store, he’d kissed her deeper than he ever kissed her before, and she’d kissed him back. When Henry said they needed to slow down, he meant physically. He didn’t want to get himself into too much trouble. And he and Angel had really only been dating for six weeks, despite the fact that he’d known her longer than that.
He crept up to her back door, knocked a few times, hoping she was still awake. Cursing himself mentally, he pulled out his phone to send her a text when the door opened, and light spilled out onto her back deck, haloing her from behind.
“Henry,” she whispered.
“Sorry, I meant to text you,” he whispered back.
She pushed open the screen door, and Henry slipped inside. She sealed them in and locked the door, which felt very dangerous and very off-limits to Henry.
She didn’t wear her usual jeans and tank top, nor her cowgirl boots. In fact, Henry saw her bare feet, which he hadn’t seen before. At his parents’ house, on that lazy Sunday where she’d worn his cousin’s clothes, she’d worn socks.
She wore a pair of loose, blue pajama shorts with a matching tank top, and she looked like she might head outside and sit in a chaise lounge to get a suntan. Perhaps she wore a bikini underneath her clothes, and she’d take those off so that she could get every inch of her skin a golden brown.
Henry shoved the thoughts away, recoiled from the images that entered his mind, and licked his lips as he looked at her. “How’re you doing tonight?”
“Good,” she said, staying across the kitchen from him.
“The deadline for applications is over.” He didn’t know what to do with his hands. He wasn’t sure why he was so nervous. But the fact was, he’d only been in her house once before this, andfor some reason, this first, forbidden meeting in her house had brought some nerves to his chest.
“Yeah,” she said. “It seems like everyone applied.”
“That’s good,” Henry said, though his competitive streak reared up. “That means you’ve got a good, nice culture here.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m not unhappy with it. Lots to choose from.”
“Everyone?” he asked.
“Almost everyone,” she said. “Caleb’s finishing up his apprenticeship, and he’s decided he’s not going to come back.”
“Oh,” Henry said. “When do I need to decide that?” With everything else going on, he hadn’t even thought about staying on at Lone Star or moving on.
“I’m going to go over all of that in the interviews,” she said, tension all over her face. “Normally, I’d do that in May, but there’s no reason to have two interviews so close together.”
“Mm hm.”
“Do you have any idea what you might do?”
Every door in his life felt like it stood wide open right now, and Henry couldn’t add his future at Lone Star to the mix. “No, I’m not sure.”
“Well, your apprenticeship will be up at the end of May,” she said. “We’ll write you a real good letter of recommendation if you have somewhere else you want to go or if you’re starting your own place.” She cut off when Henry reached out and touched his finger to her lips.
“I don’t know what I’m doing, Angel,” he said. “There’s no other place. I’m not going to start my own business. I’ve just got a lot going on right now and haven’t thought about extending my apprenticeship here.”
She nodded, and Henry dropped his hand. “You want some coffee?”
“No, ma’am,” he said. “I’ll be up all night. Already got a lot of thoughts in my head keeping me awake.”
“You do?” she asked. “Like what?”
Henry hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “Can we maybe go sit down?”
“Yeah, sure,” she said, and she seemed nervous too.
Henry took her hand and started to relax. He led her into the living room. He sat on the couch and pulled her down onto his lap. “It’s sure good to see you, Angel.” He nuzzled the tip of his nose against her cheek. “I didn’t mean to kiss you so strongly this afternoon,” he said. “I apologize.”
“It’s fine,” Angel whispered.
“Yeah, I know,” he said. “But I minded it. It’s not something we should be doing.”
