Page 43 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

“I guess we’re doing this then,” he whispered, and it wasn’t a question.

“I guess so,” Angel whispered back. She moved, causing Henry to lift his head and open his eyes. Reality rushed back.

Oh, he wanted to sink into that fantasy of kissing Angel over and over. Now that he’d done it, and it was real, he had such a better experience to relive than he’d had before.

He reached for his cowboy hat, which had fallen to the ground, dusted it against his chest, and settled it back on his head as he cleared his throat. He sat back in his chair the proper way and took her hand in his again.

“I didn’t come here to do that, you know.”

“I know.”

“I’m real happy you talked to your momma and daddy,” he said. “I’m real glad there’s going to be some changes around here for you.”

“Thank you, Henry.”

He took a deep breath, wondering what to do next. With any other woman, he would ask her to dinner and do some reconnaissance to figure out her favorite place, so he could provide the perfect first date for her.

Henry excelled at the perfect first date. He excelled at dating in general. But this was something different. This didn’t feel like real dating, though in his heart and mind, it absolutely was.

Then Angel did something awful. She voiced Henry’s worst question. “What next?”

He released the breath in his lungs, wondering how to answer. “Indeed,” he said. “What do you think we should do next?”

“What would you normally do next?” she asked.

“I’d ask you to dinner,” he said. “Take you out somewhere real nice. Have a good time. Try to kiss you again.”

She shook her head but grinned too. “I don’t think you’d have to try very hard, Henry.”

“Well, that’s good to know.” He looked out over the fields in front of them and said, “I would like to go out with you. A real date. Not a fake weekend together.”

“I’d like that too,” she said. “I’m not sure when it will happen, though.”

“I can be patient,” he said.

“Can you?” she teased. “Is that one of your strong suits?”

He burst out laughing because no, patience was definitely not one of his strong suits. “Not if you ask my daddy,” he said with a chuckle.

Angel grinned at him too, and he leaned over and brushed his lips across her cheek. “I have to go, sweetheart. I told Levi I’d help him with the four o’clock delivery. And I’ve still got another horse to shoe after that.”

“Okay,” Angel said, her voice sounding small and far away.

“I’ll text you,” Henry said. “Maybe I’ll call you or something. We’ll keep in touch a lot more than we did before.”

“You better,” she said.

“We’ll find a time we can go out,” he said. “Where it’s not a big deal, where there won’t have to be major explanations.”

“Okay.”

She nodded, and he took her face in his hand again, this time with fingers on one side of her chin and his thumb on the other. “We’ll find a time, Angel,” he said. “I promise.”

“Okay,” she said again.

Henry leaned down and matched his lips to hers one more time. He didn’t hold on, didn’t stroke for all he was worth, didn’t try to get every last ounce of Angel the way he had last time. He simply gave her a kiss, glad when she received it.

“I’ll talk to you later.” And with that, Henry pulled himself away from Angel and escaped the shade of the barn. Heat filled his body, and not just from the sun that now touched his skin, but from all that had happened in those ten minutes in the shade.

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