Page 70 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

He definitely had work to do that day, but he furtively moved toward Angel’s house. She’d likely come in the back door, and he slipped around to the front porch and texted her,Come see me out in front of your house when you get a minute.

On my way, she texted back. Henry looked up and across the dirt lane to the fields beyond. Pure happiness moved through him, and he tilted his head back and said, “Thank you, Lord, for giving me a captain position.” He could thank Angel and Justin too, but only one of them with a kiss.

Angel came out her front door a couple of minutes later, and Henry jogged up the steps, laughing. She grinned and giggled with him as he grabbed onto her and twirled her around.

“Is this joy about your promotion?” she asked.

He set her on her feet and ran his hands through her hair. “Sure is, sweetheart,” he said. “Thank you for taking a chance on me.”

“You’re a good farrier, Henry,” she said, planting both palms against his chest. “When are you going to start believing it?”

“I don’t know,” he whispered. “Maybe in June.” He kissed her then because every amazing promotion needed to be sealed with an amazing kiss.

Maybe he kissed her for too long or maybe too deeply, but when he heard a door slam, he came to his senses and pulled away. Angel jumped back, and she looked past him to her front yard. Henry turned and looked that way too, every ounce of blood in his body turning to ice as her daddy stared at him from the front corner of his pickup truck.

Bard let out a long, huffing sigh and then went around to the passenger seat to help Trevor get down. Trevor wore pure astonishment in his expression when he faced the house, and Henry wished he had chameleon skin so he could fade into the siding of Angel’s house and simply disappear.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Ishould go,” Henry murmured as he moved past Angel. She agreed, but she wanted him to stay. The look in Daddy’s eyes told her Henry absolutely should not stay. Henry went down the steps and met Daddy and Trevor where the cement met the grass. They paused, their eyes locked, the silence so thick Angel could cut it.

Henry ducked his head, muttered something, and hurried around the corner of her house, leaving Angel to face her family alone.

She looked at Daddy just as he looked at her, and a firestorm burned in his gaze. He assisted Trevor through every painstaking step up to the porch and said, “We brought breakfast,” in a horribly low, gruff voice.

He continued past her toward the front door, which he opened and held for Trevor, and then went in without waiting for her. Someone had filled Angel’s lungs with sawdust. That was why she couldn’t breathe. That was why she couldn’t speak. She hugged herself and looked out into the blue sky on this brand-new day that had been going so well—a great announcement, lots of energy on the ranch, an amazing kiss from Henry.

Frustration pulled through her, and she turned around and entered her own house. “Daddy, I’m almost thirty years old,” she said to her father’s back as he went into her kitchen. She hurried to follow him.

“It’s nothing serious.” As soon as she said that, she heard her own mistake. One, Daddy didn’t believe in dating if it wasn’t going to be serious, and two, every nerve ending in her body screamed at her that what she and Henry had was definitely serious.

“I mean….” She stopped in the doorway of her kitchen and exchanged a nervous glance with Trevor. “I like him, Daddy.”

“How long has that been going on?” Daddy growled.

“A few months,” she said, and she cleared her throat, needing the whole truth to come out. “Since I went to Three Rivers with him in February.”

“That’s onlytwomonths,” Trevor said. “Not that long.”

“Right,” Angel said, seizing onto the words. “Not that long.”

Daddy said nothing as he reached into the brown paper bag where he’d packed their breakfast. “There’s a rule here, Angel.”

“I took the rule out of the new employee handbook,” Angel said, swallowing. Daddy looked at her, and now he wore the surprise in his expression.

“You took the rule out of the new handbook?”

“Yes,” she said. “Irun Lone Star now, Daddy, and I think it’s okay if people here want to date.”

“You just gave that man a promotion,” Daddy said.

“Yousigned off on all the promotions,” Angel said. “I didn’t make the decisions myself. Justin helped. You helped. Henry’s deserving. He didn’t get it because he’s my boyfriend.”

She balled her fingers into fists, then strode across the room to help her dad get breakfast out. She didn’t know what else to say because everything she’d said was true. She was an adult.She’d only been dating Henry for a couple of months, and she had removed the rule.

“This doesn’t affect you,” she finally said as she scooped the last spoonful of eggs onto Trevor’s plate. She took her brother his meal and returned to get hers, meeting her father’s eyes again. “Ireallylike him, Daddy. He’s a good man.”

Daddy couldn’t argue with that, and he didn’t even try. He simply grunted, picked up his plate, and took it to the table. Angel followed him and sat down, feeling like the chair might break at any moment. She shot a look over to Trevor, who gave her an encouraging smile, and said, “The announcements went really well this morning. Energy is real high on the ranch.”

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