Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

A ngel White took a big breath as she closed the door, which was totally the wrong thing to do. Henry smelled like leather, dirt, and cologne—all of her favorite things. She'd seen the man work with horses too, and he possessed a calm, gentle spirit and a craftsman's touch underneath all of his bluster.

Yes, he had a loud laugh, and she'd smiled at the sound of it before.

Yes, he could be brash and over-the-top, but Angel suspected that was more for show than it was who Henry Marshall was, at least deep down.

She'd seen the tall, dark-haired, bearded man rush to her brother's aid, and he'd brought her family dinner more than once last summer. Yeah , she thought. Because he wanted an apprenticeship at the stable .

Which was true, yes.

He also happened to be an excellent candidate.

She turned to face him, wondering if he'd say something first. Perhaps a "Thank you so much," or "I'm not going to let you down." Something.

He stood over by the window, his bulky arms folded and making himself look bigger. Angel absolutely could not be so attracted to him. Number one, she had a boyfriend. Yep. Mm hm. She really liked Calder, and she'd never been a cheater. Maybe things between them had grown stale, or maybe Angel had simply gotten too busy for a serious relationship as more of the farm's responsibilities fell to her.

Daddy was finally moving into semi-retirement. Her momma wasn't well most days, and Angel spent a great deal of time, energy, and worry on Trevor as well. Though he lived alone, Angel still went by his place each morning and each evening to make sure he had what he needed.

Most nights, she fell asleep on the couch, and she'd reached a new low last week while pouring over the apprentice applications by falling asleep at the dining room table.

So she did not need Henry's gorgeous eyes sizing her up, nor the scent of his cologne in her nose, and she prayed with all she had that she hadn't made the biggest mistake of her life by calling him in here .

"You—" she started, but he cut her off with, "You have some nerve."

Angel blinked, trying to keep up. "I have some nerve?" He was the one who hadn't even responded to her message.

"Yeah," he said. "You told me that if I applied for your stupid apprenticeship program, I had—and I quote—a very good chance of getting something." He settled his weight onto one leg. "I got nothing out there."

Angel blinked again, not sure they were speaking the same language anymore.

"Not even at Browning House ," he sneered out, the name of the farm in Oklahoma dripping with disdain. Almost like it was a swear word. "I'm sunk, Angel. I have nowhere to work this summer, and that means I'm gonna have to go crawling back to my daddy like a kicked dog."

He scoffed and spun away from her, the window in front of him so he wasn't just facing the wall. Angel had no idea what to say or do. They seemed to exist on two different planets.

Which is probably a good thing , she thought. After all, Daddy had instituted a strict no-fraternizing policy between colleagues at the stable, as he couldn't stand the drama. Therefore, Henry—and all other cowboys and farriers who worked for Lone Star—were outside of Angel's dating pool.

She couldn't even believe she was thinking about dating. She. Had. A. Boyfriend .

Her memory blipped at her, taking her back to a summer day last year, when Lone Star had fed everyone their thank you and farewell dinner. Henry had come, though he hadn't been taken on as a boarded farrier last year. He'd made the commute six days a week. He'd risen right to the top of the crop of men they'd brought.

It hadn't taken her father long to make him a shift lead, and then a group head. Henry had taken on the leadership roles as easily as breathing, and when Angel had put the top three applicants in front of her father last week, he'd barely looked at the other two before tapping Henry's folder.

"I want him."

And if her daddy wanted him, then Daddy got him. Not only that, if Daddy wanted him, that only made him more off-limits for Angel. And it hadn't been easy for Angel to get Henry, and he certainly wasn't making it any easier.

At the farewell shindig, Henry had sat a few seats from her, and she'd heard him telling another farrier that he didn't want to "run home with his tail tucked between his legs" because he couldn't cut it somewhere besides his family's equine therapy unit.

"I have something to prove, you know?"

Boy, Angel knew, and his words had stuck with her for months now. She had something to prove too—to her brother, to her daddy, to every single farrier at Lone Star, and to herself .

Angel did a terrible thing—she moved closer to him. "Can you not do an apprenticeship this summer?" As she rounded the oval table in the middle of the room with enough seating for six, Henry cut a glare at her.

"What?"

"Why won't you have anywhere to work?" She frowned at him. "I'm so confused."

"Join the club." He turned and faced her fully. "I hate the lottery system. I know you guys are overloaded and all that. The academy here has grown, and there aren't many big operations to take on the farriers coming out of the program. I get it."

"Yeah," she said slowly, because all of that was true.

"But I don't get why you can't weed us out by grades or something. Then look at applications after that. I'm good, Angel." He released his breath and quickly took another, almost like he couldn't quite get enough oxygen. "And I don't say that out loud very often. When my momma calls and asks me how I'm doing, I tell her everything I'm learning. I never brag about how I was the only one—the only one out of all your guys—to get Whiplash in the cross ties last year. Not even Flint could do that."

His chest heaved, and she wanted him to look away. Anywhere but at her. He simply exuded male magnetism, and Angel couldn't stand under the weight of it. She gripped the back of a swiveling conference chair just to steady herself .

"Yeah," she said. "That's why we consider applications for apprenticeships. It's only the internships that are done on a lottery—and." She pointed one manicured fingernail at him. "We weed those out too, I'll have you know. I look at so many applications from October through January, it's a miracle I even have time to celebrate the holidays like a normal person."

Her chest heaved too, because this man rubbed her all wrong. He acted like she could work more hours than God had given them in a day. She reminded herself she didn't have to defend any of her decisions to him. Daddy wouldn't have.

"So are you saying you don't want the apprenticeship we've offered you?"

"I'm saying—" He clamped his mouth shut as his eyes widened. "I—what? What apprenticeship?" His mouth dropped open now, and oh, Angel didn't need to see those perfect straight white teeth gleaming at her.

Still, she smiled. "Now I know what to do to get the mighty Henry Marshall to slow down and stop talking," she said.

Henry's glare came right back, and his mouth snapped closed. He had full lips that Angel tore her gaze from quickly. Dots started to connect, and a complete picture came into view.

"I'm going to assume you did not receive my email," she said, turning back to the table. She'd laid his paperwork there, and she ran her finger along the top of the folder. "I sent it twenty-four hours ago, and I did ask you to confirm that you A, wanted the apprenticeship and could complete it as outlined in the email, and B, to schedule a time with me to go over everything."

She picked up the folder and hugged it to her chest. "You have not responded, but when I saw you outside, I figured maybe you'd just checked your email after the announcement inside."

Henry stood there, the perfect living, breathing human male specimen of a statue.

Angel mimicked him, but she raised her eyebrows after a couple of seconds. When he still didn't say anything or move, she asked, "Would you like a moment to check your email now? I'm quite certain I typed it in correctly. It's the one you put on your application."

That got him to fumble for his phone in his back pocket, and he swiped and tapped quickly, sputtering, "I never check my email. I'm so sorry," as he did.

Angel liked this more vulnerable, less imposing version of Henry Marshall, and she turned away from him. She'd seen him like this over the summer too. Nothing special about him.

There can't be , she told herself as she balanced herself at the head of the table now, a professional, appropriate distance between them that prevented the scent of his cologne from infecting her female judgment too strongly .

"This is unbelievable," he said, his voice full of awe. "You had one spot, and you picked…me?"

"You were the best candidate," Angel said with as much matter-of-factness as she could muster. "And let me tell you, Mister Marshall, I had to fight off Brownstone and Castleton for three full days before they'd relinquish you. Davey said he'd double my proposed salary for you just to get you, and boy, did that make me mad." She tsk 'ed a time or two and smiled at him. "You do not want to see me upset."

She also didn't want to lose Henry. She couldn't even imagine returning to the stables this evening and telling her father that someone had stolen him away with the promise of more money or better working conditions.

"No, ma'am," he murmured, lifting his eyes to meet hers. They held a boyish sense of wonder now. "I want this job."

"You haven't had time to read that." She nodded to his phone. "I worked for two hours typing up the requirements of the apprenticeship, as well as what would be provided."

He grinned at her, and oh, that lopsided smile should be illegal when used on women. "I'm sure you've used this exact language in the past."

"Actually," she said. "I started with Daddy's template, but it's been dissected and torn apart quite a bit. I'm in charge of apprentices now, you see, and that goes from start to finish."

"I do see," he said, clearly flirting with her. He absolutely could not do that, and Angel flipped open his folder and set it on the table. She turned toward it, her eyes glued to it. They had to be, or they'd be stuck to him.

"I'm glad you're accepting the apprenticeship," she said. "We can schedule another time to meet, if you'd like. Perhaps you'd like to go over the contract, which I attached to your email, with your parents first. A lawyer. Someone." She tilted her head and looked over to him.

"Do people do that?" he asked.

"Smart people definitely have someone else look over any contracts they sign before they sign them," she said, lifting her head fully and smiling at him. "And Henry, you're one of the smartest cowboys I know."

He grinned fully then, and dang if the temperature in the room didn't shoot up ten degrees. Everything about him, from his grumpiness to his happiness, influenced everyone around her—she'd seen this personally last summer—and he whooped.

A loud, rodeo cowboy type of whoop. He tossed his cowboy hat into the air and laughed. "Yes," he said through his chuckles. "Yes, I want this apprenticeship. Thank you so much, Angel."

And before she could even comprehend what was happening, Henry took the two strides to her and lifted her right up off her feet. "Oh," she squeaked as he laughed over her.

"This is so great. My momma is gonna be so happy." He beamed down at her, and then, before she even knew her feet had touched the ground again, Henry Marshall kissed her.

And oh, Angel couldn't help herself—she kissed him right on back.