Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

H enry didn’t see Angel at roll call. Shad got up on the mounting stool she normally stood on to give the day’s announcements, inspirational message, training, and special assignments. He glanced around the crowd of men who’d gathered for roll call like they normally did on any given Tuesday at seven o’clock in the morning.

Angel wasn’t hard to find, because she was the only woman there. She currently stood across the crowd from him, her back leaned against the shed, her arms folded, and her eyes on Shad.

Henry should be listening too, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He wanted to edge through the crowd of men, go to Angel’s side, and ask her if she was okay. She looked okay. She wasn’t crying. She didn’t have an angry expression on her face.

But oh, Henry knew this mask and what it hid.

He did pick up the fact that Shad said they’d have four new horses coming in that day, and he would be giving special tasks for those assigned to greet them. He expected them to know the horses’ names and have their stables prepared by the time they arrived.

Henry looked away from Angel then, because if he had to lead a greeting today, he needed to be ready.

“Now we’ll hear from Trevor for our inspirational message and training,” Shad said, and he got down off the stool. Henry’s heart beat a little bit faster as Trevor shuffled forward and started to step up onto the stool.

He couldn’t believe the man could do that, though he had two men standing right there, balancing him. With his limited mobility, Trevor should not be climbing up anywhere. Not only that, but Trevor had never spoken at roll call before, and a buzz ran through the men. Everyone seemed to know this felt different, looked different, and absolutely was different.

Levi had told Henry last night that they hadn’t had roll call while Angel was gone, and that had surprised Henry too. She had asked Shad or Clay or Flint or Justin—the foreman at Lone Star—to run roll call before. Not often, but they’d done it, so he’d been surprised to find that no one had stepped into the role while she’d been gone.

It also showed him how reliant everyone at Lone Star was on Angel White, and Angel White alone.

Trevor started by reading an email from one of their boarding clients, who claimed that their equine was restless at home after he’d been housed at Lone Star for a couple of weeks. The owner, a man named Lane Rickson, had started to go out to the stable more and more often.

“He said,” Trevor said as he held his phone in front of him. “It took me a couple of weeks of this extra attention and care before Central Park settled down, and I realized it was because of the excellent care and attention you gave to my horse while he was at Lone Star. He now expected that, and he was upset that I’d simply put him in the stable and then let him out into the pasture the next morning.

“He wanted more. He wanted me to brush him down for longer. He wanted me to talk to him. He wanted special treats, and he wanted new shoes. When I provided those things—along with more time with him—he settled right back into his calm, gentle self.

“It was a real testament to me about how much you care about the horses that you board at Lone Star. They’re not just another body with four legs, more work, shoes that need to be done, things that need to be brushed, fed, watered, and exercised, but that you really care about them there. And I really appreciate that. I can’t wait to bring Central back, and I tell everyone that if they need somewhere to board their horse, to go to Lone Star.”

Trevor handed his phone to Flint, who stood right in front of him, with his other helpers right behind him.

“That’s the kind of service we provide at Lone Star,” he said. “If you’re not feeling it today, talk to someone you trust, and get feeling it. These horses are our livelihood; we do care about them. We want every single one of them to go home feeling like they were spoiled while they were here with us.

“Our full-time residents need extra special care. If you’re walking by one today and you feel like you have something to say, say it to ‘em. I know the horses can’t talk back,” he said. “But they love being talked to, so don’t ever hesitate to tell them things. They’re some of the best listeners I know, and they’re a lot like God in that way. They can hold any burdens for you, so you don’t have to.

“Everything we do at Lone Star is about excellence,” he said. “We provide excellent care for our horses, and we take excellent care of the humans who bring them to us. Let’s not forget that today.”

“Amen, brother!” someone yelled from the crowd. The fire of good hospitality burned in Henry’s soul too.

“All right,” Trevor said, and he twisted to get help getting down. “I’m gonna let Shad give you the assignments for today.” It took a minute for him to get back to solid ground, and everything seemed stilted and clumsy, the way things were with Trevor. Henry loved him in that moment for his ability to put his disability on display.

Henry needed to be more like that. He tended to bottle everything up, hide everything that he felt was a flaw or that others wouldn’t like, only put forth the best parts of himself.

Shad retook the stand, blue folders in his hand now. Blue meant arrivals. “We have welcome packets today,” he said. “We have a horse coming at nine o’clock, one at ten-thirty, one at eleven, and one at four.”

He surveyed the crowd, a very serious expression on his face. “Our ten-thirty and eleven appointments are really close together.

“I expect those stables to be ready, and I’m assigning a team of three to those horses, so we have everything done on time.”

Henry gaped at him. It took at least an hour to get a horse settled at Lone Star. Sometimes they had to settle the owners too, as horses could be so fickle sometimes. And Shad was saying they needed to be ready for two horses within thirty minutes of one another?

“We want every guest who comes to Lone Star to feel like they’re the only horse here, that we prepared just for them. That’s what our welcome packets are for,” Shad continued. “The nine o’clock crew has four people on it since you only have ninety minutes to prepare. There are notes in here—we’ve had this horse before.

“We know who he is, we know what he likes, and we want his stall prepared appropriately. We’re giving this horse to Henry as team lead and his crew, and the fourth person I need over there with him is Copper.”

Henry nodded, and Copper, who stood far closer to Shad, took the packet. “It’s Gentry Michaels,” Copper called out in his heavy Texan drawl. “And Pure Country.”

Henry’s muscles relaxed. He knew Pure Country; the horse loved him. He could get him off the trailer and settled in his stall in no time. Henry’s crew started to move over to him, the two farriers he oversaw, and then Copper joining them as well. Henry took the packet from him as Shad announced who would take the other horses, and he wasn’t surprised that Ford got the ten-thirty horse. He was one of the three master farriers here, and he could handle any equine.

Levi got the eleven o’clock horse, which was a great honor for Henry’s cabinmate, and he grinned over to him. The four o’clock horse went to Nathan, a good farrier Henry had known for years in the academy.

“All right, guys,” Shad said. “Let’s make Tuesday the best day this week.” He clapped his hands one time, and everyone clapped back once at him. He got off the stool, and roll call ended.

Henry flipped open the folder as his guys gathered around him. He pulled out the picture of the owner, Gentry Michaels. “We’ve had Gentry here before,” he said. “Been here three or four times since I’ve been at Lone Star.”

He handed the picture to the man next to him, a talented farrier intern named Jake, who’d come from Henry’s academy too. “Memorize his name, make sure you know what he looks like. There’s information there about his wife, his family, what he’s doing.”

The next sheet showed a picture of Pure Country, Gentry’s horse. He was black and white like a cow, with a long black tail and mane, a black face, and a white patch across where the saddle went.

“This is Pure Country,” Henry said. “He likes butterscotch candies more than strawberry candy, so let’s make sure we’ve got those in our pockets. He doesn’t need a halter to get off the trailer; we can just back him out with a rope. He doesn’t like to go into the stall right away, so we’ll put him in the exercise ring first. He’s a little keyed up when he comes; usually the exercise will calm him down. We could probably put him in the pasture with Susan and Tea Time,” he said, naming some of their calmest full-time horses. “So, Caleb, I want you to be in charge of the exercise ring and the resulting pasture that he’ll be in.”

“Yes, sir,” Caleb said.

“Copper, you and I are gonna make sure the stable’s ready for him. He always goes in the same one, number twenty-seven. He likes shavings more than straw, so we need to check it. I don’t know who’s in twenty-seven right now, but they might need to be moved. He likes it because it has a wider opening over the door. He’s quite a tall horse, and it gives him more headroom.”

“Yes, sir,” Copper said.

Henry looked at Jake, who still held the photo of Gentry. “Do you think you want to take on meeting Gentry today?”

Jake looked up at him, his eyes wide and afraid. “I’ve never met an owner before,” he said.

Henry nodded and clapped him on the shoulder. “Everyone has to do something the first time.”

Jake swallowed. “Where will you be?”

“Copper and I are on stable crew,” Henry said, which was the lowest ranking crew member for greeting a horse. It was the thing the horse saw last, though it was important. Every step along the way was important.

But greeting the owner was something the boss did. Moving the horse, getting him off the trailer, and settling him somewhere where the owner could see he was going to be taken care of was something really talented men did. Men the owner really trusted.

Cleaning the stable, the owner didn’t even see. So Henry and Copper wouldn’t even meet Gentry today.

“Copper and I’ll just be behind the scenes,” Henry said. “Or I can come with you to meet him and let you lead.” Now that he thought of it, that was probably the wisest move. “That’s probably what we should do,” he said. “I can be there to shake the man’s hand. He knows me. Pure Country knows me too. And then I can just stay out of the way so that you and Caleb can get the experience that you need.”

Caleb nodded, his expression resolute. “I can do it, boss,” he said.

“I know you can,” Henry said. “I know you can too, Jake. That’s why you’re on this team. That’s why we got Gentry and Pure Country. They’re both easygoing. It’s a great time for you guys to step up into a different role.”

Jake nodded as he swallowed. “I can do it, boss.”

“Yep, let’s do it.”

Everyone had their assignments. And even though Jake’s right now was to go away and study the profiles, make sure he knew everything about Pure Country and Gentry, and he didn’t really have much to do until this horse showed up in an hour and a half, Henry knew that every detail in that folder would be memorized before Gentry pulled onto the ranch.

He’d given himself stable duty because he needed something to keep his hands busy and his mind off Angel. Once they had Pure Country settled for the day, Henry would be back to his farrier rotation, and he’d find folders sitting on his standing desk with his charges for the day.

Angel usually walked around and handed those out, but today, he wouldn’t be surprised if Shad, Ford, or Clay did it. And he secretly smiled to himself that she was already doing less now that they’d returned to Lone Star.

This distraction in the stables worked for a little bit, but Copper certainly didn’t need instructions on how to move a horse, clean and prep a stable, and get things ready for a new boarder. He wasn’t a farrier but one of the more senior horsemen who worked with horses every single day, moving them, exercising them, caring for them, inspecting them, feeding and watering them. He knew every horse at Lone Star, same as Henry, and he worked fast, efficiently, and quietly so Henry’s mind was free to wander wherever it wanted.

And he wanted to think about Angel. He needed to see her, find out how her night had gone. Simply breathe in the scent of her skin. He wasn’t quite sure how to do that, and she hadn’t texted him at all since he’d dropped her off last night.

Was the ball in his court? Could he text her and ask about lunch or dinner? Or about meeting him in the afternoon shade of the eastern barn so that they could talk for a quick minute?

“I’ll get the name tag,” he said to Copper, and he headed toward their supply room down at the end of the row. They made a name plate for every horse who came to Lone Star, even if they’d only been there once.

Pure Country, of course, had been boarded here more than once, and when Henry found his name plate, it held seven stars. That meant he’d been here eight times—once to get his name plate made, and one star for each of his seven subsequent stays.

When a horse stayed with them ten times, they got a permanent star on their name plate in silver, and Henry couldn’t wait to tell Gentry that he only had one more stay before Pure Country got his silver star.

Once he’d hung Pure Country’s name on stall twenty-seven, Henry pulled out his phone and tapped on Angel’s name.

Of course, he had texted the woman many times over the past ten months since he’d been here at Lone Star, but he’d never had trouble with words with women. He always knew what to say, what questions to ask. His work was quick, and his mind sharp, and he could change directions at any time. He could read any room and any situation in less than a second and pivot on the spot.

He found himself standing in the stable in the middle of the aisle, outside stall twenty-seven, staring at his phone, at a complete loss for what to say. He finally tapped out a message and sent it, hoping it wasn’t the lamest thing on the planet. Then he sighed, shoved his phone in his back pocket, and went to find Jake so that they could go over how to greet an owner before Gentry arrived.

He had plenty of time to stew over Angel before he saw her, and he could only pray she wouldn’t think his message was the lamest thing she’d ever gotten.