Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

A ngel bent over the whiteboard in her office. It had been covering her desk for the better part of the past two weeks. She and Justin had made nameplates for every man working at Lone Star, and she’d started moving them into new positions.

“If we move Copper to a welcome greeter, will he still be able to keep up with his duties in the stables?” She didn’t look at Justin as she asked, and he came over to her desk with a cup of coffee.

She straightened and took it, and he said, “Yeah, Copper’s great. He’ll have no trouble keeping up, even as we move into summer.”

She took a sip of her coffee, wondering if her choices would hold. She had been relying a lot more on her intuition, making moves, and then taking those decisions to the Lord at night.

She prayed every morning over breakfast with Momma and Daddy that she would have a clear mind and eyes to see, and that she would meet the needs of the men at Lone Star who had embraced the culture. They lived for it and wanted to be there.

“I think our welcome greeters are great,” Justin said. “Shad’s going to do fantastic as a farrier foreman. Caleb will be amazing in your captain position here.”

Angel nodded and said, “Hm,” just like Henry did. Caleb would be their first all-horseman captain, as in the past, all their captains had been farriers. The farriers dictated what horse care needed to be done, and then the horsemen carried those out.

She and Justin had agreed on Cedric, Jake, and Nathan as new team leads, which would fill those three positions— if you hadn’t moved Henry and Ray to captain positions , she thought.

That had created two more vacancies for team leads. She’d given them to Thompson and Miles, both interns this year, who showed incredible promise. Henry and Ray would move into two of the three new captain positions, as well as Thane, another horseman who had never held a leadership position before. As she’d studied his application, she’d seen a fantastic horseman, worker, and person. He was in his mid-thirties, so he wasn’t new to this, and he’d come to them from another farm when it had closed.

She took another sip of her coffee and looked at the whiteboard. “I’m not sure what else to move.”

“We haven’t moved names on this thing for three days.” Justin grinned at her and turned around so that he faced the door and she faced the window. He looked out the side of his eye, because sometimes it was better if people didn’t make direct eye contact with Angel.

“Angel, I think this is it. You’re obsessing over it a little bit. It’s time to just make the announcement.”

She nodded and said, “I’ll tell Trevor I’m ready for Monday.” A nest of bees grew in her stomach instantly, but that also could have been hunger pangs, as Angel hadn’t eaten since that morning.

“All right,” Justin said. “You’ve got contracts to generate, don’t you?” That was his not-so-subtle way of saying stop obsessing over this. The lineup is final. He walked out of her office, gently closing the door behind him.

Angel studied the whiteboard for several more moments, as well as the names on the side who hadn’t been moved into any of the new positions. The nurturing, caring side of her wanted to give every man at Lone Star an opportunity for leadership and advancement. She knew it wasn’t possible, just like she knew she couldn’t hire every farrier at Sherman Academy.

She turned away from the whiteboard and went to sit at her temporary desk, which was a four-foot-long folding table that Henry had set up for her last week. Her computer sat there, as did her printer, and Justin had been right. She had contracts to print.

She’d seen no need to duplicate the work of interviewing everyone at Lone Star to find out if they were going to stay for another year—something she’d normally do in two or three weeks—when she was already interviewing everyone for these new positions on the ranch. So she’d asked everyone a month early, and she told them all to let her know by yesterday.

And they had. So, yes, today she had new contracts to generate, even though they wouldn’t be signed for another six weeks. She wanted to hand every man moving into a new position a welcome folder with their job descriptions, their teams, and their new contracts. Since she’d had to move people into team leads and captain positions, as well as appoint a new foreman and her welcome greeters, she now had eleven new packets to generate.

Justin and Daddy had gone through the teams and mixed everyone up so that everything would be brand new and shiny starting on June first. Angel simply had to input the names of who would be on what team, and of course, she’d spent the last month laboring over the new employee handbook, which now included brand new job descriptions for welcome greeters as well as a farrier foreman. That wouldn’t be back from the printer for another month, but she could print individual pages for those specific jobs.

She still hadn’t brought up the no-dating rule with Daddy, and she hadn’t shown him the employee handbook before sending it to the printer. “Justin saw it,” she muttered to herself, but he had made no comment on it.

Angel’s printer whirred every few minutes as she finalized documents and printed them. She needed a much longer table, but she managed to put together Shad’s foreman folder as well as the welcome greeter folders before someone knocked on her door.

“Come in,” she called. She stood at the table, stuffing folders for Zane and Copper, so she could easily turn and see who was coming in. Henry entered, a bright smile on his face, matching the way his white cowboy hat tipped up into a grin as well.

“Hey, sweetheart,” he said, all the swagger in the world in his voice and in his step. “You realize you’re missing dinner, right?”

Angel blinked at him. Surely she hadn’t forgotten that tonight was one of their three weekly dinners where they fed everyone.

“What day is it?” she asked.

Henry laughed and said, “Thursday, baby.” He took her into his arms, but he hadn’t closed the door, and an alarm bell rang through Angel.

“Henry,” she whispered, “The door’s open.”

“Hm. It sure is,” he said as he leaned down and inhaled the scent of her skin along her neck. “And everyone’s at dinner except you.” He raised his head and looked at her. “Well, and now me.”

He pressed his lips to hers in a closed-mouth, chaste kiss. “Do you need to finish up? Can I help you with something? Everyone’s wondering where you are.”

Angel could stand in the circle of his arms for a good long while, but her stomach did tell her that she needed to eat. And she could print out the team lead and captain positions tomorrow.

“I can come now,” she said.

Henry reached over and turned off her computer. “Great, let’s go.” He held her hand for the few steps it took to get out of the office, but then he dropped it as he led the way outside, and down the path to the backyard of the farmhouse.

Sure enough, tables had been set up for the thirty people who ate there three times a week, and the combined scent of pulled pork, barbecue chicken, and smoked brisket rode on the air.

At least the catering arrived , she thought. Without any help from you. She’d ordered the catering, of course, and she did love Chuckwagon Dinners and their smoked meats and delicious Texas sides they brought once a month.

“There you are,” Levi said as Angel arrived at the table where Henry had obviously been sitting.

“Found her working,” Henry said, and he flashed a smile that didn’t look too flirty or too romantic or like they were anything more than friends.

Angel smiled at the men sitting there and said, “Just lost track of time. I’ll go grab some food.”

On her way to the long table that held all the proteins and side dishes, her stride got interrupted as someone whistled through their teeth. The loud, shrill noise cut all the conversation, and Angel turned to find Justin standing on a chair.

“Now that everyone’s here,” he boomed, graciously not looking over to Angel. “I just want everyone to know that roll call is going to start fifteen minutes early tomorrow. Please be gathered in front of stable one at six-forty-five instead of seven. Miss Angel will have a lengthy announcement about the new positions here at Lone Star, and anyone moving into a new role will receive the information they need at that time.”

He grinned at her then, and Angel suddenly felt like the entire world’s eyes had landed on her.

“All right,” Justin said, clapping his hands. “Get back to eatin’.”

All the cowboys in the group clapped back at him, the slapping sound of it hanging in the silent air. Angel stood there for a moment, and while a few conversations broke out and the energy in the air had definitely doubled, she felt like she had been stripped of all her clothing and now stood naked in front of everyone who worked at Lone Star.

Not only that, but she’d have to go back to her office and get the packets printed and ready for tomorrow morning—fifteen minutes early—or she’d have to get up really early to finish that work. Irritation burned through her as she caught Justin’s eye, his grin wide as he came toward her.

“You’re mad, aren’t you?” he asked with a chuckle, but he certainly didn’t care if she was.

“Who says I’m going to announce the leadership positions tomorrow?” she grumbled as she headed toward the food table once again.

“I just did,” he said. “Because I knew if I didn’t, you’d obsess over it for the whole weekend, and you don’t need to do that.” He’d become firmer with her since she’d been to Three Rivers, since she’d talked to Daddy about getting new positions, since she’d told Justin that she needed another foreman on the farrier side and had asked him to help her staff more leadership positions at Lone Star.

She’d been grateful for all of that, as he was several years older than her and had plenty of experience in barn management and equine care.

She didn’t confirm or deny that she would obsess for the next three days until Monday morning, and she figured a Friday morning roll call was as good a time as any to announce the leadership roles. They still had roll call on the weekends, but they all worked a reduced schedule. And with the new positions in place, she wouldn’t have to work hardly at all on the weekends.

“Those new positions don’t start until June first,” she reminded herself. She still had six weeks of carrying everything at Lone Star. But suddenly the load wasn’t so heavy, because she really was bringing on an excellent team to help her, to take Lone Star into the future, and to ensure that the boarding stable would continue to provide excellent care for men and equines alike for many years to come.

She got her food and returned to the table where Henry had saved her seat. She sat between him and Caleb. Everyone around her went silent, and Angel stared at her potato salad as she pushed it around on her plate, finally stabbing a chunk. She looked up and said, “It’s done, guys. It’s decided.”

That seemed to break the ice, and Henry said, “Yeah, of course it is. And no matter who you picked, Angel, we’re going to support them—and you.”

She looked at him and found the utmost sincerity in his eyes.

“That’s right,” Levi drawled from across the table. “Everyone here is deserving. Whoever gets the positions, we’ll all rally behind them.”

“Thank you,” Angel said quietly, though that had been the culture that she, Daddy, and her granddaddy before him had cultivated.

Henry went back to his phone, and Levi said something to Copper down the table. Angel glanced across to Levi. With Shad moving into the farrier foreman position, that left one of their three master farrier positions open, and she and Justin had chosen Levi for it. He had been a full-time skilled farrier working with apprentices at Lone Star for two years now, and while it might be a little bit early to advance him, as Angel looked at him and he gave her a healthy smile, a warm blanket settled around her shoulders, letting her know that she’d made the right choice.

Two seats down from him sat Zane, another full-time farrier. She’d moved him to a greeting position, and she’d had to promote somebody else from captain into that position. That would be Brent Howsman. She glanced down the table toward Henry’s side but didn’t see Brent.

So many changes , she thought, and another flutter of nerves winged its way through her body. It’s going to be fine , she told herself as she finished her potato salad and moved to the brisket.

“Here you go,” Henry said. He placed a bottle of barbecue sauce in front of her. “You like the sweet kind, right? Or is it the spicy?” He looked down the table. “Hey, Copper, hand us that spicy sauce.”

“I like the sweet,” Angel said. “It’s fine.” She waved off the spicy sauce just as her phone dinged. She’d set it next to her plate in its usual place so she could glance at it whenever it went off. If she needed to answer, she’d pick it up.

Heat filled her face, zooming from her toes up her legs through her torso and straight to the back of her mouth when she saw Henry’s name there and the letters INACH .

That had started out as code for “I need a cowboy hug,” when Angel needed him to slow her down, help her, or simply be in the same room with her to soothe her.

It had morphed to “I need a cow girl hug” whenever Henry wanted to come to her office, or he’d figured out a way for them to meet off-site.

In the past week or so, it had morphed into simply an acronym that meant “I’m coming over tonight.” She supposed they could have changed it to ICOT , but they hadn’t. And Angel didn’t dare look at Henry, just in case her face had turned the color of poppies.

She flipped her phone over and clued into the conversation happening next to her. She didn’t have to contribute to it to be more present, and she did want to be present. These family-style dinners three times a week fed the culture here at Lone Star. The men here really did support each other. And it was really hard to have misunderstandings go on for too long or people who didn’t get along super well when they ate together three nights a week. That didn’t mean everyone got along spectacularly, and Angel feared that with her shake-up, she may have teamed up people that would cause some discomfort in the beginning. Angel had gotten comfortable with being uncomfortable, and she expected her men to do the same.

Something popped into her mind, and she turned to Henry and said, “Oh, your leave of absence is approved for your brother’s graduation.”

“Great,” he said. “Thanks.” He’d be gone Thursday through Monday next week, and he’d invited her to go to John’s graduation with him. Angel hadn’t known how to answer initially. She wanted to be with Henry off the ranch. But showing up to such an intimate family event?

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Henry had said he had not told his parents that they were dating, and when she challenged him with, “Well, what are you going to tell them when I show up for John’s graduation?” he’d remained silent.

They both knew that couldn’t happen, even if they wanted it. Angel’s mind shifted to his graduation. He hadn’t asked her about coming yet, and she wondered if he would. She and Daddy sometimes attended the graduation at Sherman Academy, especially if they had an intern there who was becoming a master farrier, which took quite a few years.

Flint was getting his master’s certificate this year, and in fact, he wasn’t returning to Lone Star come June. He had another job opportunity in Central Texas, and he was taking his family and moving there. She could perhaps use that as a reason to go to Henry’s graduation this year, but she kept that tucked under her tongue for now.

Angel managed to eat her dinner, and then she headed back to her office with snakes slithering through her bloodstream to get the last several packets ready for tomorrow morning’s announcement.