Page 35 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

“Okay,” Trevor said. “And okay on the roll call, Angel.” He reached over with his fork and tangled it up with hers, starting a little pushing war in the potatoes that made her smile. He’d done this when they were younger, when Daddy lectured them too much, when she wanted to go to prom but didn’t know how to bring it up.

She laughed and looked at him. “Okay, Trevor.”

“Are you okay?” Trevor asked. “Because you don’t seem okay to me, Angel. And you’re real good at hiding it from everyone, but you can’t hide it from me. And if you start dating Henry, you’re not going to be able to hide it from him either.”

Angel already knew about Henry’s eagle eyes. She’d already revealed a lot to him. He already did see her—the real her, the Angel behind the walls, behind the straight-line face, behind the schedules, behind the roll call, behind the public façade.

Henry already sawher.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m doing okay, now that I’ve had a little break.”

“I’m glad,” Trevor said. “But what else do we need to change?”

Angel took a deep breath and sliced off another piece of chicken. “Not this chicken, I can tell you that.”

Trevor grinned back at her. “I even made the barbecue sauce myself,” he said. “It’s Granny’s recipe.”

“We need to go visit Granny,” Angel said.

“Yeah,” Trevor agreed. “We haven’t been there in a while.” He scooped up another bite of food, and Angel got herself to take one too.

“I’m not Daddy,” Angel finally admitted. “I can’t do things the way Daddy did. He has a lot of good systems in place for hiring farriers, for how we get things done around here, and our culture, and I want to keep all that. But I’m not Daddy.”

She simply couldn’t take another bite, but she looked at the glistening corn on her plate. “I can’t work eighteen hours a day with no breaks. I’m so lonely.” She looked at her brother, and she knew he saw her too. “I need time away from the ranch. I do want to date Henry. So I’m going to need more help. Maybe another foreman.”

She dropped her head again, and this time, when Trevor reached over, it was to cover her hand with his. “Then we’ll hire another foreman,” he said. “Maybe even Henry. Move someone up from one of the team leads, those who are already ingrained in our culture. It’s part of our motto. We promote from within.”

“Yeah,” Angel said. “What about you?”

Trevor pulled his hand back, already shuttering off his own vulnerability. “I’m too slow for that, Angel. Besides, I don’t work with the farriers. I train cutting horses.”

“You only work with one horse at a time.” Angel knew that. And he had two men who helped him. That was their whole job, to take care of his cutting horse and him.

“Okay,” Angel said. “I’ll start going over the team leads and see who’s appropriate.” She looked at her food, put another bite in her mouth, and started to feel more settled. After swallowing, she asked, “Can I sleep here with you tonight?”

“Anytime you want to,” Trevor said.

“Do you think it will look fishy if I promote Henry?” she asked. “I don’t want the other men to think I’m favoring him. Especially when they find out that we’re dating.”

“Are you dating?” Trevor asked.

“No,” Angel said. “But if we do—let’s say we do—and I promote him, then what?”

“What if you promote him first?” Trevor asked.

“Did anyone seem like it was weird that we were gone together this weekend?”

Trevor looked at her blankly. “I don’t think so. I didn’t hear anything.”

Angel nodded, her thoughts becoming more and more wild as they raced around. They tied knots in her head, and she decided she didn’t have to know or decide anything tonight. “Thanks for dinner, Trevor.”

“Any night you want to come over, Angel,” he said. “You’re always welcome here.” She nodded because she knew that was true. She helped her brother in the morning get ready for work. They always went to roll call together. After roll call, she went back to her parents’ house and helped them while everyone else got to work. By eight-thirty, she was fully entrenched with ranch work. She was lucky if she was home before seven.

As Angel finished her dinner, she knew absolutely that she’d spoken true. She wasn’t her father, and she couldn’t keep doing what she’d been doing at Lone Star for the past year. Something had to give, and she didn’t want it to be her.

They’d both finished eating, but neither of them got up. Angel finally looked over to her brother again. “Just say what’s on your mind.”

“I’m a little nervous about it,” Trevor said.

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