Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

“ I should go,” Henry murmured as he moved past Angel. She agreed, but she wanted him to stay. The look in Daddy’s eyes told her Henry absolutely should not stay. Henry went down the steps and met Daddy and Trevor where the cement met the grass. They paused, their eyes locked, the silence so thick Angel could cut it.

Henry ducked his head, muttered something, and hurried around the corner of her house, leaving Angel to face her family alone.

She looked at Daddy just as he looked at her, and a firestorm burned in his gaze. He assisted Trevor through every painstaking step up to the porch and said, “We brought breakfast,” in a horribly low, gruff voice.

He continued past her toward the front door, which he opened and held for Trevor, and then went in without waiting for her. Someone had filled Angel’s lungs with sawdust. That was why she couldn’t breathe. That was why she couldn’t speak. She hugged herself and looked out into the blue sky on this brand-new day that had been going so well—a great announcement, lots of energy on the ranch, an amazing kiss from Henry.

Frustration pulled through her, and she turned around and entered her own house. “Daddy, I’m almost thirty years old,” she said to her father’s back as he went into her kitchen. She hurried to follow him.

“It’s nothing serious.” As soon as she said that, she heard her own mistake. One, Daddy didn’t believe in dating if it wasn’t going to be serious, and two, every nerve ending in her body screamed at her that what she and Henry had was definitely serious.

“I mean….” She stopped in the doorway of her kitchen and exchanged a nervous glance with Trevor. “I like him, Daddy.”

“How long has that been going on?” Daddy growled.

“A few months,” she said, and she cleared her throat, needing the whole truth to come out. “Since I went to Three Rivers with him in February.”

“That’s only two months,” Trevor said. “Not that long.”

“Right,” Angel said, seizing onto the words. “Not that long.”

Daddy said nothing as he reached into the brown paper bag where he’d packed their breakfast. “There’s a rule here, Angel.”

“I took the rule out of the new employee handbook,” Angel said, swallowing. Daddy looked at her, and now he wore the surprise in his expression.

“You took the rule out of the new handbook?”

“Yes,” she said. “ I run Lone Star now, Daddy, and I think it’s okay if people here want to date.”

“You just gave that man a promotion,” Daddy said.

“ You signed off on all the promotions,” Angel said. “I didn’t make the decisions myself. Justin helped. You helped. Henry’s deserving. He didn’t get it because he’s my boyfriend.”

She balled her fingers into fists, then strode across the room to help her dad get breakfast out. She didn’t know what else to say because everything she’d said was true. She was an adult. She’d only been dating Henry for a couple of months, and she had removed the rule.

“This doesn’t affect you,” she finally said as she scooped the last spoonful of eggs onto Trevor’s plate. She took her brother his meal and returned to get hers, meeting her father’s eyes again. “I really like him, Daddy. He’s a good man.”

Daddy couldn’t argue with that, and he didn’t even try. He simply grunted, picked up his plate, and took it to the table. Angel followed him and sat down, feeling like the chair might break at any moment. She shot a look over to Trevor, who gave her an encouraging smile, and said, “The announcements went really well this morning. Energy is real high on the ranch.”

“Sure is,” Trevor boomed, and Daddy threw him a glare too. To her surprise, her brother laughed.

“Come on, Daddy,” he said. “Who do you think is gonna take over Lone Star if Angel doesn’t start having kids?”

She pulled in a breath, which sent a chunk of scrambled egg down her throat. She started to cough and wheeze and gasp, and Trevor laughed even harder. “I’ve got no prospects,” he said through his chuckles. “I haven’t dated anybody since my accident. If Angel doesn’t get married and have kids, it’s going to be the end of this place.”

Angel cleared her airway by taking a big drink of orange juice. She glanced from Trevor to Daddy. “Henry and I haven’t talked about kids or marriage or anything like that yet,” she said. “It’s been two months.”

“Daddy met Momma and married her within two months,” Trevor said dryly.

“It was four months,” Daddy drawled, and that set Angel giggling too.

She managed another couple of bites of breakfast before everyone sobered and she looked at her father again. “What are you going to do?”

“I’d like to talk to Henry,” he said.

“Daddy, less than a week ago, you told me he was your top choice for captain.” She cocked one eyebrow and took another drink of juice.

“Yeah, well, that’s before I knew he was kissing my daughter,” he said.

“That doesn’t impact his work at all,” Angel said. “It only makes him more loyal to us.” She hated using Henry as a business asset, but Daddy could at least understand that. He nodded and said, “I’m still going to talk to him.”

“Fine,” Angel said. “I’ll text him and tell him that you’d like to meet with him.”

“I have the man’s number,” Daddy said slowly. “I’ll text him myself.”

Angel wanted to lunge for his phone and throw it against the wall to break it. “Daddy,” she said with as much courage and patience as she could. “I really like this man, and I have very little opportunity to meet men off the ranch.”

“Everyone should know,” Daddy said.

“And they will,” Angel said. “But you’re not going to tell them. That’s something that Henry and I get to decide.” She threw another glance to Trevor, though she didn’t know what her brother could do to help her.

“When the new employee manual comes,” she said, seizing onto the idea. “I’ll tell everyone. There is no longer a no-dating rule at Lone Star, and that Henry and I are together.”

“When’s that going to be?” Daddy drawled.

“Another month,” she said. “It’s going to be fine.”

He didn’t say anything else, and breakfast concluded in stony silence—clearly waiting another month was not fine with Daddy.

Daddy helped Trevor stand, and they left with Trevor saying plenty of non-verbal things with his eyes. The moment the front door swung closed, Angel whipped out her phone and texted Henry.

Daddy wants to meet with you. He was not happy. I think I managed to delay him from telling anyone or making an announcement or embarrassing us until the employee handbook comes out.

Oh, boy , Henry sent back. I’m real sorry, Angel. I didn’t mean for that to happen.

Angel sighed. She honestly wasn’t sure what she wanted to have happen. Maybe it’s okay , she typed out. Maybe now that he knows, we don’t have to be so secretive. Maybe we can just start hanging out and holding hands and everyone will get the hint.

Henry called, and instead of saying hello, he said, “No, that’s not gonna work for me.”

“Not gonna work for you?” she repeated, throwing his attitude right back at him.

“Angel, we’re not just going to start pretending like we just started dating and hope other people catch on,” he said. “This requires an announcement—either from you, or Trevor, or Justin, or Shad, or your dad…but I think it should come from us . Us, together .”

Angel heard the power in his voice. She heard how passionately he felt about this. And she had to say she didn’t disagree. So she said, “Okay…but I’m not ready.”

“That’s fine,” he drawled. “I did want to ask you if you’d come to my graduation in a few weeks.”

Angel once again hesitated, but Henry seemed to have none of that inside him.

“Do you think you might be ready to make our announcement before then? Then we could attend that together. I could tell my parents about us.”

“Maybe,” she said. “Let me get through this next week of getting everyone settled into their new roles, and then we’ll see where we are.”

“All right,” Henry said. She didn’t detect any degree of disappointment, though. “Well, I guess I’ll see you when I see you then.”

“Yeah,” she said, and the call ended. She immediately texted him, INACH , and Henry texted back, INACH 3

It didn’t mean everything was okay between them. In fact, Angel doubted very much that it was, but Henry spoke his mind with her, and she spoke hers with him. And she had to believe that somehow it would be okay—if Henry could make it through the conversation with her daddy without losing his cool—or his job.