Page 73 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

He wasn’t sure if he could fall in love in two months or not, but the feelings he had for Angel were definitely stronger and bigger and fiercer than any he’d had for anyone else in the past.

I can’t wait to meet her, Henry told Paul.

Are you bringing anyone to graduation?Paul asked, and the fact that he did that told Henry how pathetic he really was. Henry had taken women to family functions, game nights, and friends’ weddings on first dates. He simply didn’t want to attend anything alone, ever.

But again, he had started to change in the past year since he’d come on at Lone Star. He could be alone now. In fact, sometimes he craved being alone. Like right now, as he sat on the back porch while Levi finished up a load of paperwork for his new job.

Levi would be moving into Flint’s cabin in another five or six weeks, and that meant Henry would get a new cabinmate. That brought a flutter of nerves to his gut, and he wondered if life would ever just be steady, even, and predictable. Where he would have peace of mind that every day he would wake up with the people he wanted to be with, work with the people he wanted to be with, and go to bed with the people he wanted to be with.

Only if you get married, he thought. All at once, he realized why marriage was so spectacular. He didn’t have to worry about a cabinmate then, or if they’d get along, or if he’d be annoyed if the man shed his boots by the front door or if he left food in the fridge so long that it molded and stunk up the whole house.

In a marriage where he was committed to his wife and his wife to him, they would work through any problems they hadtogether. And Henry suddenly wanted that more than anything.

He thought of his momma and daddy, and then Bard and his wife Justine. He’d seen them together too, and they were sweet and kind and clearly best friends. He tapped away from Paul’s text, suddenly realizing why Bard hadn’t texted him.

He wanted Henry to come to him. The man would probably be in bed by now, but Henry texted anyway.I’d love to come talk to you about Angel, he said.Tell me when a good time is, and I’ll make it work. I am leaving next Thursday to go to my brother’s graduation, so I’d like to do it before then, if possible. I don’t want anything weighing on me or anything between us for too long.

He read over the words, thinking of Bard’s rule of not going to bed angry with anyone on the ranch, and he wondered if Angel had changed that in the employee handbook or not.

And it became apparent that Bard lived by the rules he’d expected his cowboys to, because he responded with,Come by tomorrow for breakfast, when he should’ve been in bed a couple of hours ago.

Henry’s pulse hammered as he tapped out a reply.Don’t you and your wife eat breakfast with Angel?

Yes, Bard said.But she wasn’t real keen on me talking to you alone. And I figure you’re both adults, and we can have an adult conversation.

Yes, sir, Henry said, because hecouldhave an adult conversation. That settled, he didn’t feel like he was breathing pond water anymore, and he went inside to find that Levi had left the light on over the stove for him but had gone down the hall to bed.

Henry did the same, and he closed his door and fell to his knees in front of his bed. “Lord,” he prayed, “I feel slow of speechlike Thy servant Moses. But I know that You gave him the words he needed, and I’m begging You to give them to me tomorrow when I meet Angel’s parents…as her boyfriend.”

The following morning, Henry attended roll call as usual, and he noticed that some men had grouped up differently than before. He still stood with Levi, sipping a to-go cup of coffee that he’d gotten from the machine in stable three.

Justin made that every morning, and the man was a good coffee maker. He didn’t see Angel anywhere as he listened to the announcements, as Trevor went through their inspirational message, and as the day’s work began. But the moment that Levi turned and left his side, she seemed to materialize out of nowhere.

“Hey.” She wore a hoodie this morning, and she tucked her hands into the front pocket of it. It had rained a little bit overnight, and the sun hadn’t come out that morning, making everything above the emerald-green fields and pastures gray and white and dreary.

“Morning.” He turned toward the farmhouse, glad when she fell into step beside him. “Tell me what I’m walking into here.”

“I don’t rightly know,” Angel said. “Daddy said he wanted to meet. I’m surprised I got invited at all.”

“Hm.” It didn’t take long to make it to the farmhouse, and with Angel with him, he didn’t even knock. She just opened the door and said, “Morning,” and expected him to follow her inside.

He did, closing the door behind him. He’d been to this house many times as he’d met with Bard for various horse issues and other work-related business. They’d remodeled the farmhouse,so the living room flowed right into the kitchen, where Bard turned from the fridge with a pitcher of bright pink liquid.

Henry’s knees weakened on his next step, and his legs almost buckled underneath him. But he managed to keep walking. Angel’s mama wore an oxygen tube in her nose, and the steady hum and hiss of the canister as it pumped pure oxygen into her airways almost comforted him.

“Morning, ma’am,” he said to her. Justine, who had always been kind, squeezed his hand and gave him a smile.

“Chocolate croissants are almost done,” Angel’s daddy said, and she came to a complete stop.

“I’m not making scrambled eggs this morning?”

He put the grapefruit juice on the table and said, “Sit down. The chocolate croissants are almost done.”

Henry saw no choice but to sit down where a bowl of cubed watermelon, pineapple, and cantaloupe already waited. Trying to put forth his best effort, he pulled out a chair for Angel and looked at her. She threw him a menacing glare but took the seat, and he sat next to her, Bard on his immediate left and Justine down on the other end next to Angel. Sure enough, the chocolate croissants came out a moment later. Bard put the hot tray from the oven right in the middle of the table.

“They’re supposed to sit for five or ten minutes,” he said as he pulled his chair back. “I reckon that’s enough time for us to talk.” He sat and surveyed everyone at the table, and it was very clear that he was going to lead the conversation.

After several long seconds, Angel made a scoffing sound and said, “Daddy, this is ridiculous.”

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