Page 82 of The Cowboy Who Looked Again

He went into the grocery store, the scent of herbs and lemon greeting him. He veered right and picked up one of the large containers to fill with salads and fruits and other chilled items. He smiled to himself as he thought about taking a picture and sending it to his mother.

See? I eat veggies, he’d tell her, and she’d send back several emojis cheering him on. Clapping hands. A New Year’s Eve popper. A birthday toy horn that looked like it was blowing. He could see them all now.

“What are you smiling at?” someone asked, and Henry looked up.

A stunning blonde stood on the opposite side of the bar, a small container in her hand. “You know you’re looking at broccoli, right? Nothing to smile about there, cowboy.”

“Angel White,” Henry said, the name sort of biting out of his mouth. “What are you doin’ here? Doesn’t your family grow all their own produce?” He took a peek at her container, which definitely had lettuce, grape tomatoes, and green peas in it.

“My mother isn’t feeling well,” Angel said with a hint of falseness in her voice. “So I’m getting her some of her favorite things.”

“Fair enough,” he said, a twinge of guilt pulling through him for giving her attitude. “Being sick in the summer is the worst.”

“It’s October,” she reminded him.

“It’s still hot.”

“Cooling off now, though.”

Henry hummed, because he didn’t want to argue about the weather. “How’s your daddy?”

“Good,” she said, and her gaze came back to his. Looking through the sneezeguard, his eyes hooked onto hers too. She looked like she had something to say, and a pretty pink flush stained her cheeks.

“What?” Henry asked.

“You’re a farrier, right?” she asked.

“Kind of.” He moved down the bar and put on a couple of healthy spoonfuls of croutons. He loved them drenched in ranch dressing, and his mouth watered, telling him to wrap up this conversation so he could eat.

“How are you kind of something?” Angel stepped down her side of the buffet too.

“Because I haven’t graduated,” he said. “I don’t have my certification yet.”

“But you know farriers.”

“Yes,” he said slowly, watching her take his favorite thing on this buffet—the mayo-based potato salad. He took that, the sweet pea salad, and the frog eye salad. He didn’t mind if they got a little ranchy with his lettuce and veggies, and the cold food stayed with the cold food in the same container.

“Any who do have their certification?” she asked.

“Why don’t you just come out and say what you want from me?” he said. “It’ll be faster.”

She gave him a blue-eyed glare that sent bolts of lightning through his bloodstream. He had to learn how to breathe all over again every time he looked at Angel White, and he wasn’t even sure why. They’d met once or twice over the past year while he’d been in his farrier training, as her father taught one of their courses.

She handled horses expertly, and Henry told himself that was why he liked her. He could tell himself a lot of things if it kept him out of trouble, and he needed to stay on the right track here.

He’d had schoolboy crushes on plenty of women. One date usually fixed that, but he hadn’t asked Angel to dinner yet. Part of him was worried that the way he had to reinvent himself every time she looked at him would go away if they went out. So if they didn’t….

“We’re down a farrier,” she said. “We need someone—quick.”

“Your father is the most connected man in the Texas Panhandle when it comes to horses, husbandry, and farriers.” Henry watched her. “He’s having trouble getting someone?”

Angel blew out her breath with a noise of frustration. “He doesn’t think we need someone, but he can’t keep up. I’ve seen him after he works all day in the shop, and he simply can’t keep on the way he is.”

Henry ladled ranch dressing over his lettuce and veggies. “Call the school. I’m sure James would announce it in class.”

“Daddy won’t take a student.”

“We’ll have new apprentices ready in January,” Henry said. “If you can hang on for a couple more months.” He closed the top flap on his cold container and moved the ten feet to the end of the hot one. He picked up another container and glanced over his shoulder to Angel.

---