Page 93 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

He didn’t text back, which meant he probably had a horse in his bay. Angel forced herself to take normal-sized steps at her usual pace as she went back to her office in the blue and white barn she loved.

Levi had been there and gone, and the boxes stood stacked on the floor near her desk. She grabbed a pair of scissors from her desk and sliced through the tape on the top box, an actual tangible hum filling her ears as she did. She wasn’t even sure why. She just knew the arrival of this employee handbook felt like a pivotal moment, and she’d been waiting for it for months.

Only one of them fit in the box, and she turned it, so she could look at it the right way. The cover bore a beautiful aerial photo of Lone Star Ranch that had been taken a couple of years ago. Above that, Angel had put “Lone Star Ranch and Boarding Stable,” and below it, “Employee Handbook.” The cover had a faded, almost transparent Texas flag behind it. She turned it sideways so the Texas star burst out from behind the wordsLone Starat the top.

She smiled at it, because she’d worked hard on this booklet over the past few months. She’d give these out to every man who worked at Lone Star and expect them to follow the rules and procedures contained inside. She picked up the book, which had been spiral bound with a blue plastic cover on the back.

This book meant so much more than just new rules and new leadership here at Lone Star—her leadership. It meant she and Henry wouldn’t have to sneak around anymore.

Someone knocked on her door, and Henry said, “I’m coming in.”

She turned toward him.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

She held up the book, feeling fizzy and bubbly inside as she searched his face. He took a few more steps, looked at it, and studied the cover. Then he stopped just in front of her.

“The new employee handbook came,” she said. “Just now. Levi texted me right after my lesson.”

Henry folded his arms, and he didn’t smile. Angel wasn’t sure what he had going on inside, but it looked like something raging and loud.

“How does it look?” he asked.

“I haven’t seen everything,” she said. “But I know what it looked like before it went to the printer.”

He reached for it and took it. “Well, it looks good.” He flipped through a few of the pages, clearly not reading them. “She sure has a nice horse.”

Angel blinked at him, trying to catch up to what he’d said. “You watched my lesson?”

“I happened by.” He glanced over the book to her and went back to it.

“What’s going on with you?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’ve been kind of, I don’t know…distant.” She wasn’t sure if that was the right word or not, but Henry definitely hadn’t been ascloseas he’d once been. He sighed, slapped the book shut, and tossed it onto her desk.

“I sure did like sitting next to you at church earlier this week,” he said. “And Alex and Nicki are hosting an outdoor game night on their ranch next week, and I’d sure like you to go with me.”

“That does sound fun,” she said. “What kind of outdoor games?”

“I don’t know, croquet or something,” he said in a disgusted voice and looked away from her. He heaved another sigh as he said, “I told them we might make it, but we might not.”

Angel stepped over to him, very aware that the door stood open. “Why wouldn’t we be able to make it?”

“Because,” he said, “I don’t want to go if we can’t tell everyone that we’re together.” He looked down at her, ignoring her touch as she ran her hands up his chest and around to the back of his neck. He’d never simply stood there so still when she’d touched him like that before.

“I thought you told your friends about us.”

“I did,” he said. “I wanteveryoneto know.”

“You mean everyone here.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I mean everyone here.”

Sometimes her father stayed grumpy no matter what Angel said or did, and Henry sure seemed like that right now. Still, she smiled at him. “Are you going to be like this all night long?”

“Like what?” he growled.

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