Page 10 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

A baby shrieked, and Henry’s eyes went over to the little boy sitting in a brightly-colored play seat. His arms flailed and his fists hit the plastic toys attached to the tray in front of him. Henry lit up then, because he could distract himself with a baby.

“Hey, you,” he said, moving over to the little boy. “Angel, this is Theo.” As he said those words, all conversation in the room stopped. All eyes came to him as he bent down and pulled Theo from the play seat.

He held the chunky baby boy who was blond, not so much like him, as Henry’s mama had real dark hair. But both Finn and Edith both came from lighter stock than him, and Theo looked just like them.

He turned toward the kitchen, the weight of eight sets of eyes so heavy. Henry never had any problem talking to women. He’d never struggled introducing women to other people. In fact, he’d brought a complete stranger to Link’s wedding—and that had been their only date.

“Guys,” he said. “This is Angel White. Angel.” He half-turned back to her. “This is everyone. I’ll go around and say all their names, but I don’t expect you to remember them. If y’all would just raise your hand when I say your name, maybe she’ll be able to associate your face with your name.”

He smiled as the little boy grabbed onto the edge of his cowboy hat. He pulled the hat off and took it away from Theo,then looked over to his friends again. Finn had come forward, of course.

“My cousin, Finn,” he said. “He’s married to Edith.” She raised her hand dutifully. Henry bounced the little boy. “This is their little baby, Theo. He’s, what, nine or ten months now?”

“Ten,” Edith said.

“Lincoln and Misty Glover are here,” Henry continued. They both raised their hands. “Link works a ranch south of Three Rivers. It’s quite a drive for him to get here, so we always appreciate when he decides to come up north.”

Link chuckled and shook his head, and Misty simply beamed with all the strawberry-blonde radiance she possessed.

“And then we’ve got Dawson and Caroline,” Henry said, smiling at the cowboy he’d known for years. “They’re not married yet. Engaged, getting married in, what, two weeks? Three weeks?”

“Three weeks,” Dawson said, glancing over to Caroline, a lovey-dovey smile on his face. She leaned her head against his shoulder, and it was very clear who they were, even though neither of them had raised their hands.

“Dawson and Caroline, wedding in three weeks,” Henry said with a big smile. He handed Theo to Edith as the little boy started to fuss. She took him and soothed him, then put him right back in his seat, where she handed him a few pieces of cereal, which he went after immediately.

“And last but not least,” Henry said. “We have Ollie and Aurora Walker. Ollie works at a tech company over in the high-rise buildings in Three Rivers, and they have three little kids.”

Aurora moved forward out of all of them and said, “Oh, it’s so nice to meet you. You’re Henry’s boss, right?”

Henry had not conveyed that tidbit of information. He wondered how Aurora had known that. Of course, Finn probably knew, as did all of Henry’s brothers, and Henry’s aunt and uncleobviously knew. But he had not called Finn and told him he was bringing Angel. He’d only called his mother.

“Yes,” Angel said, shaking Aurora’s hand. “Henry and I work together at Lone Star.” She glanced over at him, a fond smile on her face that he had never seen before. At least, not aimed in his direction. “He’s a great farrier, one of our team leads.”

“Is that right?” Ollie said as he came forward. “So great to meet you. Welcome to game night.”

“We’re just having snacks,” Finn said, glancing at Henry. His eyes said so much more than his mouth, and Henry wanted to run to him, hug him, and say,thank you for not making this a big deal.

He just needed someone to come with him to game night, and Levi had been sick. Angel was not special, despite the fact that she would go out with him if he could ask. He didn’t want to figure that out right now, so he clapped his hands together and said, “What are we playing tonight?”

He moved over to the counter to see what snacks they had, his taste buds dancing for something sweet. “Oh, I love these lemon bars.” He took in the pan of beautifully baked bars, nostalgia hitting him hard.

“You like sour things in your desserts?” Angel asked as she stepped to his side.

“Yeah,” he said. “Sweet and tart go great together, and this one’s got a little bit of salt in the crust.” He glanced over to Edith. “At least, if it’s my momma’s recipe, it does.”

Edith smiled at him. “It’s your mom’s recipe.”

Henry beamed at her. “Look at you, being all domestic with the baking.”

She grinned back at him. “I can do it, sometimes. If I have to.” She bumped him with her hip and added, “Come on, you guys. Now that Henry and Angel are here, let’s gather around the table.”

“We can bring the snacks over, right?” Misty asked.

“Sure,” Edith said as she picked up a bowl of popcorn that had M&M’s in it.

“Absolutely,” Finn said. “Nobody can play games without snacks on the table.” He turned to Angel. “I can barely stand to play when there are snacks.”

“Hey,” Edith said. “You like games.”

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