Page 80 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

The conversation stalled, and Angel’s worries did too as they continued to drive to the academy. They held their graduation in a huge horse arena with stands all along the side, and Angel had not been back to Three Rivers since February, but she knew Henry had told his parents and his family about their relationship.

So she automatically started looking for Chelsea, a new set of snakes growing in her gut. She had not eventhoughtshe might have to introduce her father to them today. How had she missed that?

“I don’t want to climb up too high,” Daddy said, and Angel started looking along the first couple of rows where she might find two seats.

In doing that, she spotted Chelsea’s dark hair and her bright red lips. She drew in a breath; she hardly made any noise, but Chelsea seemed to hear it, turned toward her, and zeroed in onher. Recognition lit her face, and she tugged on her husband’s arm.

Chelsea pointed at Angel, and she saw no way around it. Henry’s family sat about twenty yards to Angel’s left on the third row, and there was plenty of room beside them.

“Daddy,” she said carefully. “Can we sit by Henry’s parents?” She didn’t look away from Chelsea as she asked, and Daddy must have clued in on that.

He looked toward them too and said, “All right.”

Angel lifted her hand in a wave, and Chelsea pointed to the bleachers next to her. Angel nodded and held up two fingers to indicate that they just needed two seats. She helped Daddy up to the third row, and they started walking down.

“How are you, dear?” Chelsea asked when Angel reached her. She took her into a hug and did a little shimmy. “Oh, it’s so good to see you again.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Angel wondered how Henry had felt walking into her parents’ house the morning after she’d made the promotion announcements. Did it feel like the sky might fall? Had he wondered if he’d make it out alive?

“You remember Pete,” Chelsea said as she leaned back so Angel could see him.

“Yes, of course. Hello, sir.” She shook his hand. “This is my daddy, Bard. Daddy, these are Henry’s parents, Chelsea and Pete Marshall.”

Pleasantries got exchanged, along with handshakes, and everybody sat down. Chelsea pushed on her husband’s chest, and he leaned back. “These are our other boys. Rich is our youngest. John is just older than him, and Paul is our oldest. That’s Paul’s fiancée, Brielle, down on the end.”

Angel nodded and smiled at all of them. “It’s great to meet you,” she said as she leaned forward to see them all. They all had hair in various shades of dark brown, and Angel cataloguedthat Henry’s was by far the darkest out of the boys. “Henry talks fondly of you all.”

“Does he now?” Paul said with a smile, and Angel wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“He’s real glad you could come, John,” Angel forged ahead. “He said you might not be able to with your new job this summer.”

“Yeah,” John said with a pleasant smile. “It worked out okay. Here for the weekend.” He had a good air about him, and Angel couldn’t quite remember where he’d traveled from, probably near the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

She glanced over to Daddy, feeling like she sat on spikes instead of a flat bench. She looked out to the arena, where the dirt had been swept away to reveal the hard-packed earth underneath. Chairs had been set up in rows, and a stage had been erected with Sherman’s colors—red, white, and blue, to match the Texas state flag and the United States flag.

A general buzz rode in the air, and Angel breathed that in, trying to calm herself. She had attended graduations here before, and they didn’t take long.

Music started to play, and the graduates began marching out. Not very many women went into being farriers, but Angel caught a few of them wearing the bright royal blue robes that all the men wore.

“There’s Henry,” Chelsea said, pointing off to her left. “There he is, Pete. Do you see him?”

“I see ‘im,” his daddy said.

Angel saw him too. He wore his white cowboy hat, and he found his momma easily, who frantically waved her hand, and he returned the gesture.

When he saw Angel sitting there, she lifted her hand just up to her shoulder, and the smile vanished right off his face. Itrebounded quickly, and he waved to her as well, then followed the line to where he sat in the second row.

President Wilson got up and spoke for a few minutes, and then someone who was earning his master farrier certificate, a man named Winston Bauble, spoke for about ten. After that, they started calling graduates’ names in alphabetical order.

Angel whistled and cheered for Cedric Davis, one of the apprentices who worked at Lone Star. And the closer Henry got, the harder her heartbeat pounded. She wasn’t even sure why. She simply liked being here, being able to celebrate with him, being in this special moment with him.

Though he stood a good hundred yards away from her, she sure did like him. She couldn’t wait to talk to him, lay in his arms, and ask him what was next in his life. Did he have any big dreams? Did he want to open his own boarding stable or his own farrier business?

She was pretty locked in at Lone Star, and he knew that, but she’d been thinking more and more about living off-site since he’d mentioned it.

Why couldn’t she do that? She didn’t have to live in that cabin. She could commute into work every day. Some of their interns and even their full-time apprentices did that, as they didn’t have room for everyone to live on-site.

They’d offered two apprenticeships this year, which was one more than they’d been able to do last year, mostly because Flint was leaving and because of their restructuring.

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