Page 60 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

He didn’t smile. He’d hitched a mask in place she couldn’t see through. “If I get a promotion, I want to get it because I’m good. I want to get it because of my merit. I want to get it because I deserve it, not because I’m your boyfriend.”

“Of course,” Angel said.

“If I don’t get a promotion, it’s because I didn’t deserve it, I’m not ready, or there are more qualified men on the ranch. Not because we’re breaking the rules, and I’m your boyfriend.”

She nodded. “It is a little bit knotted, isn’t it?”

“It’s completely twisted up,” he said. “Who’s picking all the promotions?”

“Me and Daddy and Justin for some, and me, Trevor, and Daddy for others.”

“So you’re gonna have other opinions besides yours when you look at my application?”

“Yes, sir,” she said.

He nodded. “Okay. Then I’m gonna stop worrying about this. I’ll let it go.”

“Okay.” She marveled that Henry could compartmentalize like that. He could let things go and stop worrying about them once he knew the parameters of how things operated. She wished she could be a little bit more like that, but she wasn’t.

“I’m starting horseback riding lessons again.” She took another bite of her salad. “I’m real happy about that.”

“I am too, sweetheart.” He gave her a nice smile. “That’s great. I think you’ll enjoy that.”

“Were you ever at Lone Star when I did the lessons?”

“No, ma’am,” he said. “I think that was before my time.”

“It probably was.” They ate a little bit more, and then Angel looked at him and said in the boldest voice she had, “I want another date on the calendar.”

“All right,” Henry said easily. “What do you want to do?”

“I want to find a way for us to finesse a night out on the town,” she said.

“It might be hard for us to both be gone in the evening.”

“I want dinner at a nice restaurant, and I want to go to a movie or a show with you. And I want you to buy me dessert after.”

Henry chuckled. “You’re not demanding or anything.”

She laughed too. “You can plan the date. But I want to gooutwith you.”

“We are out right now,” he said.

“We’re at the grocery store,” she said. “And you’ve done a ton of errands, and so have I.”

“We’re still out.”

“Yeah, I guess,” she said. “I guess I just want something….” She trailed off, but Henry seemed to be able to read her mind.

“Romantic. You want something romantic. You want me to be your boyfriend, and you want me to act like it.”

She read his eyes, nothing wavering there. “Yeah,” she said. “That’s what I want.”

“All right,” he said. “I’ll start working on it.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. “But we’ll work it out, just like we worked out this afternoon.”

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