Page 78 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

“Yes, sir,” Henry decided he didn’t have to humiliate himself by saying he and Angel had been caught kissing. “Angel’s in charge now, Daddy, and she’s changing the employee handbook. There is no rule against dating at Lone Star anymore. And we’re going to make an announcement together to all the cowboys there. We’re grown-ups. We can handle this.”

“Of course you can,” Daddy said. “And Henry, you’re a really good grown-up.”

Momma nodded along with him, and Henry once again found that he needed this specific reassurance. He needed their vote of confidence, even though the people giving it to him loved him no matter what.

“Thank you,” he said. “Like you said, Daddy, it’s early. It’s new. It’s been two months. Who knows what will happen? All I know is I want to keep dating her. I want to keep getting to know her. I want to keep being with her.”

“That’s sweet,” Momma said. “I’m so glad, Henry.” He was too, mostly because the conversation was out now, and he wouldn’t have to stew over it for the next seven hours as they drove to Waco.

They all seemed to realize the conversation had run it’s course, and after a couple more miles, Henry asked, “You guys know what Paul and Brielle are going to do after they get married? Where they’re going to live?”

“They haven’t decided yet,” Daddy said.

“What are you going to do if Paul moves to the Hill Country?” Though he sat in the back, he saw his father’s grip on the steering wheel tighten, his jaw mirroring the movement.

That meant he didn’t know. Henry decided not to push it. He also didn’t volunteer to come back to Courage Reins. John wouldn’t, he knew that, but Rich might, and Henry just wanted to see how things would play out before he threw such a hairpin into his own life.

“All right,” Momma said. “Can we talk about something a little more fun now?” She turned all the way around in her seat and looked at Henry, her eyes aglow.

“What’s that?” he asked cautiously, an inkling of what she wanted to talk about in his mind.

“Your graduation party,” she said with pure glee.

Henry groaned. “Momma, I don’t need a graduation party.”

“Yes, you do,” she said, her smile faltering slightly. “Everyone needs a graduation party when they graduate.”

His aunt Kelly, who ran Three Rivers Ranch steadfastly and perfectly alongside his uncle, loved parties and loved planning them. By the gleam in Momma’s eye, she’d been partners in crime with Aunt Kelly for far too long.

“I already graduated from college once,” he said anyway, knowing this fight would be lost.

“Well, you have that nice ranch where you work,” Momma said. “It has tons of space, and we’d like to get to know Angel a little more too. We could just do a picnic at your cabin and invite all the men.”

“Lone Star already feeds all the men all the time,” Henry said. “And we’d need more room than a single cabin.”

“Great,” Momma said without missing a beat. “Then we’ll sponsor this dinner. There’s got to be other men there graduating.”

Henry couldn’t lie and say there weren’t, so he simply gazed at his mother, feeling all the fondness and all the love and all the sacrifice that she’d done for him over the years and said, “All right, Momma. I’ll talk to Angel about it.”

She grinned, clapped her hands together, and said, “It’s going to be so great, Henry.” She turned around and faced the front again. “Do you want me to order those meatball subs that you like from Papa Kelsey’s?”

Henry’s mouth watered, because he could use a meatball sub right this moment. “Yeah, sure, Momma. That would be just fine.”

“Is Angel going to come to your graduation?” Momma asked next, and Henry felt exactly the way Daddy did when he squeezed the steering wheel and pressed his jaw together. He didn’t answer the way Daddy did.

And Momma said, “Oh, I see.”

What she saw, he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t put anything past her. “It depends,” Henry said. “On whether or not the men at Lone Star know we’re together by then.”

Momma hummed this time, and for some reason, that tickled Henry’s funny bone, and he chuckled. That broke the mood in the truck, and Daddy reached to turn up the volume on the radio. Country music played through the cab, and Henry settled back into his seat for the long drive, bringing up his phone so he could text Angel that he’d told his parents about them.

It went decently well, he told her.Though they didn’t seem happy about it in the beginning, same as your parents.

I’m glad you told them. Can’t wait till you get back to the ranch.

Henry couldn’t wait for that either, and he sent herINACH <3, and she sent him the very best text in return:I got you, cowboy <3

Chapter Twenty-Six

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