Page 112 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

“Yeah, it sure does,” he said. “But I’ve never gutted a kitchen, and I think it would be fun.”

She giggled because gutting a kitchen was not something anyone would willingly put on their bucket list of “Fun Things To Do.”

They settled into the drive, and Angel decided not to pester him or pick at him with questions. His nerves didn’t ratchet up again until he started to slow down, about halfway between Stinnett and Three Rivers.

“It’s here on the right.”

“I’ve never seen anything here on the right before,” she said.

“There’s a road,” he said. “It goes out to a few homesteads.”

“So, ranches?” she asked.

“Well, you looked at it,” he said, his tone carrying a hint of irritation. “It’s kind of a mini-farm, but I wouldn’t really call it a ranch.”

She tapped on her phone as he made the turn, but she didn’t want to be looking at her device as she took in a possible place where she and Henry would live together, where they’d raise their family.

Trees grew up right next to the road as they did in many places in Texas, and she could only see the brown path ahead of her. It mirrored her life, and Angel simply held on as Henry drove down the dirt road.

“This place on the left is another house,” he said, indicating the branching dirt road with a nod of his cowboy hat. “I guess at one time a family owned all this land. They built several houses for their kids, and they all lived here and worked it.” The truck bumped over a large pothole, and Henry corrected the trajectory of the truck. “And then when their daddy died about fifteen years ago, they sectioned up the land according to where the houses are, and now there are six or seven out here.”

“So we wouldn’t be alone,” Angel said.

“No,” Henry said. “And it’s not a full ranch.”

“Is there room for your horse?”

“There’s room for horses, yes,” he said. “And chickens, and even some dairy cows, and some ducks and pigs if you want them.”

Angel glanced over at him. “No pigs. We’ve already talked about that.”

He grinned at her. “You’re right, you’re right.” It sure did soothe her to hear him laugh lightly. “No pigs.”

He went past another driveway on the left and then turned onto the first one that had come up on the right. “It’s this one,” he said. “It’s on the end, and there are a few more back in there, at least according to Jerry.”

They went around another bend in the road to the right and then to the left, and the house appeared. Angel pulled in a breath, because it was the most quintessential two-story farmhouse, something straight out of the pages of a children’s book.

“Look at that porch,” she said.

“Jerry said they just painted the house,” Henry said. “It’s blue now; can you tell?”

Angel leaned up and peered through the windshield. “Itisblue,” she said, and that only made the house better. The porch spanned the entire width of the house, and she could see that it had a basement as well. “Three levels.”

“Plenty of room,” he said. “Five bedrooms already.”

She’d looked at the pictures, but everything felt different when she came face-to-face with property, and she could admit she’d semi-dismissed this one because of the kitchen. She reached for the door handle, a sense of wonder overcoming her.I love this house, she thought.

Henry had pulled up to a detached garage, which had a cement pad big enough for three cars. The third space extendedpast the garage, and Angel noted the extra parking. Of course, on land like this, they had plenty of parking for horse trailers or RVs.

“How big is it?” she asked, hugging herself, not quite daring to hope that this might betheirplace.

“It’s only six acres,” he said. “We don’t have to plant anything, but there’s plenty of room if you want to grow flowers or a vegetable garden.”

He came to her side and took her hand. “Jerry’s here already. Let’s go meet him.”

Angel hadn’t even seen Jerry, but he suddenly stood on the porch. She noticed his red truck as they went by it, something she also hadn’t seen. The grass in front of the house needed to be watered, and it sure seemed like no one had lived there for a while.

“How long has it been empty?” she asked as she crossed the lawn and started for the steps.

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