Page 22 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

She didn’t respond but instead just gazed into the water. A little trickle ran through the stream bed that would get much bigger and faster in the spring. They didn’t get much snow in the Panhandle, but some, and it stayed up in the hills until it melted, usually in another month or so. Henry sidled up beside her, feeling reckless and brave, dangerous and strong all at the same time. He threaded his fingers through hers and held on tight. She wasn’t a limp noodle, and she held his hand back, just the way she’d kissed him back a year ago as well.

He wasn’t going to kiss her now, and he didn’t even look at her. Instead, he watched the water too, marveling at the way it moved when it wasn’t alive. “Would you come to Caroline and Dawson’s wedding with me?”

“Yeah,” Angel said without a pause at all. “That sounds real nice.”

Henry breathed out, realizing that he hadn’t truly been breathing on this first half of the ride. “Great.”

He released her hand and stepped away. Even when she looked at him, he didn’t look back at her. He wasn’t sure what life was going to be like when they returned to Lone Star. Out here in the wilds of Three Rivers, he could ask her out. She could say yes.

They could come to Three Rivers, and they could go on a date.

But when they got back to Lone Star, what would they do? How would that go over with Bard and with the other cowboys?To Henry’s knowledge, the no-dating rule at Lone Star had been in place for years, decades maybe.

No one asked Angel out. No one tried to break it. And here he came, doing exactly that.

What would people think of him?

His heartbeat stuttered at him because he wanted to have purpose in his life. He wanted the things he did to matter. And he wanted the people around him to like him. Angel and Bard had a strong culture of teamwork at Lone Star. There was no “I.” There was only “we.”

They had roll call every single morning for a half-hour. Angel led it now, but Bard had in the past, and sometimes some of his master farriers. They told stories about horses that they’d rescued. They inspired the men there to love and care about their jobs, the horses, and each other.

When she came back and picked up the reins for Nevaeh and got back in the saddle, he mounted Cinnamon again, and they started the journey back to the center of the ranch. He hoped that she would find peace here, that she would find strength she could take back with her.

And maybe then they could have a conversation—the hard conversation—about starting a real relationship that other people knew about.

Chapter Six

Angel heard the back door slam, which meant Henry had just come outside. He moved down the steps and started toward the trampoline where she already lay as dusk encroached on the amazing day she’d had here at Three Rivers Ranch.

“All right,” Henry said as he climbed up onto the trampoline. He kicked off his boots the way she had, and she lay on her back with her hands crossed across her stomach as he crawled toward her, bouncing with every move.

“Sorry.” He chuckled. “Sorry, sorry.” He held something out to her, and Angel looked toward him.

She took the cup of rice pudding. “I’ve never bought this at the grocery store before.”

Henry grinned. “It’s amazing. I know you think it’s not going to be amazing, but it’s amazing. My granny owns a bakery in town, and even she says it’s better than her rice pudding. You’re gonna love it.”

Angel wasn’t so sure, but she managed to rip off the top and pull out the little plastic spoon that had been affixed to it. “All right,” she said. “I guess I’m doing a lot of things today that I wasn’t sure I was gonna enjoy.”

“I guess so,” Henry said as he lay down beside her. He’d suggested they come out to the west side of the farm where the trampoline was. He said he and his brothers would often sleep out here—they’d put up tents, whatever they needed to do just to get out of the house and enjoy the weather and each other after a good, hard day after harvesting or working with horses. It faced west so they could see the sunset, and since there were no mountains obscuring their view, the sun hadn’t quite kissed the horizon yet.

Angel never took time to watch a sunset. She hadn’t been on a trampoline in at least two decades. She hadn’t had rice pudding since the last time she visited her granny in Oklahoma, which was going on a couple of years now. A pang of nostalgia and missing hit her, and she told herself she needed to get up to Oklahoma to see her granny sooner rather than later.

Gramps had died a few years ago, right around the time Trevor had fallen from a horse, so none of them had made the trip up to his funeral. Granny said it was totally fine, no big deal, and they’d all gone to visit once Trevor had gotten out of the hospital. But Angel didn’t have time for more casual visits the way she used to. Not anymore.

You could make time, she thought, though she wasn’t entirely sure that the voice was hers. Sometimes she needed to be chastised by the Lord, and perhaps this was one of those times. Perhaps Henry was right, and she didn’t have to be on the ranch all day, every day.

Nobody had called today; there had been no texts, no emergencies, no pictures of dead horses or dead men. Everything was just fine without her. She wasn’t sure if she liked that or not, as it made her feel even more unsettled. As she took her first bite of the rice pudding, she glanced over to Henry.

“Do you ever feel just utterly replaceable?” she asked.

He sighed as he pulled the spoon out of his mouth, his tongue darting out to lick his full lips. Angel glanced away quickly because she’d already started thinking about kissing him. And that would not do.

In truth, she wasn’t sure what would do and what wouldn’t. What would her father do if she started dating one of the cowboys at Lone Star? He wasn’t in charge anymore. She was.

What if she was willing to put up with the drama? What if she was willing to work with someone who had broken her heart or whose heart she’d broken?

Daddy had made the rule many years ago, because he couldn’t stand drama. There had been some in the past when they’d had some female trainers and farriers. But Angel didn’t employ any women right now. And she’d never really wanted to date any of the cowboys at Lone Star.

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