Page 74 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

“How long have you been dating my daughter, Henry?” he asked as he reached for the fruit bowl and spooned some chunks of only pineapple onto his plate.

Henry refused to look over at Angel, though he really wanted to borrow some of her strength, to lean on her the way sheleaned on him sometimes. “A couple of months, sir,” he said. “We talked about it first when I went home to Three Rivers that time in February.”

Bard nodded, and Henry decided he’d passed some sort of test. “Anything before that?”

Henry swallowed, not sure if he should bring up the incident from last year. He figured his conscience would be clear if he did, and so he said, “Well, I did something real stupid a year or so ago,” he said. “When Angel came to Sherman to make the announcements for apprenticeships and internships?—”

“Henry,” she interrupted.

“No, I’m going to tell him,” he said, feeling his lungs expand and then collapse. “I was really angry that I didn’t get one. See, I hadn’t gotten her email from the day before, and I went to talk to her about it, because I didn’t have a position anywhere and I was desperate. I needed an apprenticeship to graduate.”

He realized his tongue had run away from him, but he didn’t know how to stop it. Surely Bard could understand the desperation a man would have after four years in farrier school, and all he needed was an apprenticeship to graduate.

“When I was talking to Angel, and it became clear that Ihadgotten the apprenticeship—the only one Lone Star had offered—which I was real thankful for, sir. Real grateful. I’ve loved being here, so much that I’m coming back next year.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Bard said.

Henry’s vision flashed black and then white before the kitchen came into view again. “My job is in jeopardy?” he asked. “For dating Angel?” He couldn’t handle the pressure now descending through his shoulders. It mixed with that same desperation he’d felt in the apprenticeship meeting last year. “Sir, she’s a grown adult and so am I. She barely gets off this ranch.”

“Henry,” she said again, softer this time.

He turned to look at her, hearing something significant in her tone, and he tried to figure out what she was trying to say to him with her eyes. But something inside him told him that he needed to stand up for her, and himself, and this relationship.

Itmeant somethingto him, and he wanted Bard and Justine to see that. He looked down to her momma. “She takes care of everything around here. All the cowboys, all the farriers, all the land, all the schedules, Trevor, you guys. She goes to church every week. She’s awake at the crack of dawn, and she’s staying up late to get various things finished. And I have to admit that I’m part of the problem with that. I’ve been trying to leave her place by nine-thirty so we can both get a good night’s rest. I’ve been trying to be real respectful of her time. Real respectful of her as a woman.”

He reached over and took her hand the way his daddy taught him. “I sure do like your daughter, sir.” He switched his gaze back to Bard. “Ilikeher. I like spending time with her. I like talking with her. And yeah, I like kissing her. We’ve only been dating a couple of months, but in my mind, we’re headed toward something serious, something long-lasting. A real commitment. Something that could be beautiful and wonderful and forever.”

Beside him, Angel sniffled. But Henry wasn’t done talking yet. “So last year when I found out about the apprenticeship, I was just so excited. And I can admit maybe I was a little bit of a player back then. I really started to change the most when I came to Lone Star in the summer.” His voice cracked because his friendship with Bard was real to him, and the mentorship that Bard had done for him meant a great deal to Henry.

“Anyway, I grabbed onto her right there in the conference room at Sherman Academy, and I kissed her. I shouldn’t have. I know that. It was just my way of celebrating in that moment.”

Bard blinked. “Kind of like this morning when you showed up at her house and kissed her on the front porch after you got your promotion?”

“Yes, sir,” Henry said quickly. “Kind of like that. Except this time, Angel and I are dating, and she’s not with some other guy.” He chuckled lightly and glanced over at Justine. She wore a smile now, a soft look around her eyes, and Henry felt like maybe he’d scored some points.

“That’s all?” Bard asked.

“Yes, sir,” Henry said. “I came on last summer. Nothing happened. Angel and I have worked together just fine. We’ve been friendly, but.”

He cut a look over to her. “I wouldn’t call us friends. Until the day Levi got sick. I sent that text and Angel showed up, asked about him, and completely broke down. I offered to take her home to Three Rivers with me, and things really started then. I confessed my crush on her, and you know what, sir? She told me that she would go out with me if there wasn’t this no-dating rule. So we decided that we would…kind of bend the rule a little bit. We’d see each other when we could. We’d find private moments.”

“You’ve been sneaking around, you mean,” Bard said.

“Only a little, Daddy,” Angel said. “Nobody got hurt. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Henry wasn’t sure Bard saw it that way, but he figured he’d said everything he needed to say. And it’d been about five or ten minutes. So he reached for the spatula and scooped up a chocolate croissant. He put the first one on Bard’s plate, the second on Justine’s, and the third on Angel’s. That only left one for him.

Henry put it on his plate, turned to Angel, and said, “You want some fruit salad, baby?” as if he ate breakfast with herparents every day. As if he’d start calling her “baby” in front of everyone at Lone Star. All three of them gaped at him.

“Oh, do we need to pray first?” Henry asked.

Angel’s face broke into a smile, and she laughed. “Yeah, cowboy,” she said. “We usually pray first.”

Henry looked over to Bard, who gave him a single nod that Henry took as total acceptance of his relationship.

“Angel says the two of you are going to handle telling the other cowboys about your relationship,” he said.

“Yeah,” Henry said. “That’s right, we are.”

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