Chapter 32

Chapter Thirty-Two

“ N ope, you don’t have to do anything more than that,” Henry said as Trevor leaned into the exercise ball. “Palermo will stand there and wait for you to send it back to him.” Henry stood only a pace away. “It’s good practice for your balance as well. And Palermo needs the same thing.”

“I can’t believe he just kicks it back and forth,” Trevor said.

“I’ve got your cane right here if you need it, too,” Henry said. “Or you can just reach out and grab onto my arm. The goal is not to hurt you. It’s to help you.”

Trevor looked at him, something new and bright in his gaze that Henry had not seen before. “I’ve heard of equine therapy,” he said. “I just never thought of doing it for myself.”

“It’s as much physical as it is mental,” Henry said. “You just go ahead and send that ball back to him anytime you want.”

Henry had not told Angel or anyone else that he’d been using equine therapy exercises to help Palermo strengthen his front leg. He didn’t see the point. His job was to help the horse get better, and he was doing it. He consulted regularly with Justin, who had a degree in horse care, though he wasn’t a vet or a vet technician, and Palermo had been doing really well the past couple of weeks since Henry had started working with him.

Henry loved playing with horses. “This is a different kind of work for a horse than training them to go after cattle or sheep. It’s not cutting left or right or knowing exactly where you want them to go with the slightest movement of your body.”

“You’re right about that,” Trevor said.

“This is play.”

Trevor straightened and took one hand off the ball. The one that remained shook as if it took a great deal of effort for him to balance himself against the blown-up exercise ball. Henry was sure it did.

“I can see that,” Trevor said with a smile. “I like it.”

Henry liked it too. “They’re playful animals,” he said. “I mean, horses are just like great big three-year-olds.” He chuckled, glad when Trevor did too. Trevor pushed the ball back to Palermo, and the horse stood there for maybe a moment while both of them watched the ball roll.

Then Trevor reached out. Henry took a lightning-fast step toward him and stood in place when Trevor’s hand landed on his shoulder.

“Now you tell him it’s his turn to send it back,” Henry said. “He’s not real great with taking a command from someone who isn’t me. But equine therapy horses should be able to obey anyone. They work with kids who have tantrums, or people with mental disabilities like autism. We have horses at Courage Reins who work with nonverbal people who can give hand signals, and the horse will send the ball back.”

“Wow,” Trevor said. “That’s incredible.”

“My daddy is real good with horses,” Henry said.

“So are you,” Trevor said.

Henry didn’t answer because he wasn’t the greatest at taking compliments. He’d been doling them out left and right the past couple of months, and that had earned him quite a few friends here at Lone Star.

Not Creston though. He’d been assigned to Henry’s team, and they’d been working together for a couple of weeks now, but he still relentlessly questioned everything Henry said. And about half the time, he didn’t do it the way Henry wanted things done. They’d had a couple of talks, and they’d had meetings, both with all four members of their team and then just him and Creston, and things were slowly getting better. Henry didn’t mind being challenged, but in the end, he was the captain. Just because Creston had been at Lone Star longer than Henry didn’t mean he knew everything.

“Are there any equine therapy programs in Amarillo?” Trevor asked. “Or anywhere closer?”

“I don’t know,” Henry said. “My daddy will know, though. And you know what? He texted me a couple of days ago and said they’re putting in a new road just north of the ranch that will lead almost directly here. It’ll only be about forty minutes from Three Rivers to Lone Star.” He grinned at Trevor. “That’ll make it way easier for me to get home when I want to visit.”

“Yeah, that’ll be awesome,” Trevor said. “I bet any other equine therapy unit won’t be as close as that.”

“I can get you into Courage Reins if you want,” Henry said.

“Can you?” Trevor asked.

“Sure,” Henry said. “And I can drive you there too.”

“That would be great,” Trevor said. “I would really like it.”

Henry’s chest swelled with pride, because he’d known that Trevor would like equine therapy. He had mentioned it to Angel a couple of times before giving up when he realized she was simply not interested in hearing more about it. They didn’t really have the space at Lone Star for a new program, and they certainly didn’t have the personnel—the required people to train the horses, not to mention any of the counselors or therapists.

“Send it,” Trevor called, and Palermo raised his head and looked at him. “Send it,” Trevor said again in a super smooth, clear, authoritative voice, and Palermo plodded forward one or two steps and nudged the ball back to him. Trevor laughed as he leaned down into the ball to balance himself. “I just love this,” he said. “It’s so much fun.”

Henry grinned too. Normally, if he was working with a client at Courage Reins, he wouldn’t have his phone with him at all. But today, his device rang in his back pocket. “I think that’s my momma. Can I take it?”

“Sure,” Trevor said, and Henry passed him his cane so that he could balance on it when he sent the ball back to Palermo.

“You can move around the circle with him,” Henry said. “He should face you and kick it back to you no matter where you go.”

“All right,” Trevor said.

Henry pulled his phone out and said, “Hey, Momma.”

“Henry,” she said, her voice panicked and full of air. “Where are you?”

“I’m at Lone Star,” he said. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Grandma,” she said.

The blue sky in front of Henry splintered, cracking with a jagged line right down the middle of it. “Grams?”

“Malcolm just called and said he thinks she had a stroke,” Momma said. “He called an ambulance, and they just arrived when I got off the phone with him. Daddy and I are heading to the hospital right now. We don’t know much; we just want everybody to pray.”

Praying felt so useless in that moment, and Henry wasn’t sure how he could even contribute with something so small and simple as prayer.

“Henry,” Momma said.

“Yes, yes,” he said. “I’m here.”

“I’ll know more when we get to the hospital and talk to the doctors. I don’t want you to panic.”

“ You’re panicking,” he said. “How am I supposed to not panic?”

“I’m trying not to,” Momma said, but her voice broke, and that only caused everything inside Henry to break as well.

“I’ll pray,” he said because he didn’t have any other choice.

“I’ll call you again real soon. I love you.” She hung up before Henry could say, “I love you too, Momma,” so he said it to the sky and to himself, hoping the Good Lord would be able to take that message to his momma and daddy and most of all, Grams.

He stood there for a moment, not sure what else to do, until Trevor’s voice broke into his thoughts, asking, “Is everything okay?”

Henry turned toward his friend and said, “Actually, my grandma is on the way to the hospital.”

“Oh no,” Trevor said. He sent the ball back to Palermo and leaned on his cane. “Do you need to go?”

“I don’t know,” Henry said. “My momma didn’t know a whole lot. She was on the way in. She won’t know for at least an hour.”

“Right. Your ranch is pretty far out.”

“Yeah,” Henry said, surprised that Trevor had remembered such a detail.

“You should still go,” Trevor said with that same authoritative voice he’d used on Palermo.

“I need to talk to Angel.”

“Nope,” Trevor said. “You just go. It’s Saturday, and whatever you’ve got going on today can be covered by somebody else.”

“I have horses to shoe,” Henry said.

“Not today,” Trevor said. “And your day off is tomorrow anyway. We’ll give you whatever you need. This is your family.”

The way he said that— this is your family —as if it came before everything else in the world, struck a major chord inside Henry. He looked at Trevor and said, “You’re right. I’m gonna go. I’ll text Angel.”

“I’ll handle it all. You go. It’s no big deal.”

“I’ll be in touch,” Henry said, and he started to walk away. Then he turned back and said, “Wait, wait, I gotta put Palermo away. I can’t just leave you here.”

“No. Go.” Trevor held up his phone, his smile just as sunny and bright as always. Henry marveled at his positive attitude and agreeable disposition.

“I can send one text on this phone and have twenty men here to help me in five minutes. All of them will know how to put Palermo away. Only you can go pack your bag and get to your family’s side. So just go.”

Henry’s mind whirred as if he had poured a bunch of fruit and yogurt into it, then pressed liquefy on a blender. “Okay,” he said. “Yeah, okay, I’m gonna go.”

“Yep,” Trevor said. “You go. I’ll handle everything here, and I’ll call you tonight to find out how things are going.”

“Okay.” Henry strode back to Trevor, wrapped him up in a tight hug, and said, “Thank you so much, Trevor. This really means a lot to me.”

“We’ll pray for you,” Trevor said.

And right then, Henry truly understood the culture at Lone Star. Trevor would pray for him, and he would tell everyone at Lone Star, and they would pray for him too. Henry suddenly also realized the power of prayer. One prayer was amazing, and God surely heard it, but with the power of many….

Henry’s chest fell and then expanded again as he jogged, trying not to panic, trying not to cry, and trying to stay above water until he could find out if he had anything to worry about.

Please, Lord , he thought. Help me. Help my momma. Help Grams. Help my family.

Henry sat in the only available chair in his grandmother’s hospital room, listening to the sounds of the machines monitoring her health. One of them wisped every so often when she breathed, and another beeped whenever the IV bag got too low.

No one had been in and out of the room for a while now. As the afternoon turned to evening, Henry shifted. His mama and daddy had plenty to do in the summer, and not all of them could sit in the narrow hospital room anyway. Someone had been sitting with Grams, either from his family or from Uncle Squire and Aunt Kelly’s, since she had been admitted over the weekend.

Henry had been gone from Lone Star for five days now, and irritation and frustration pulsed through him with all the texts coming in from Creston. “I’m not even there,” he muttered.

Yes, as captain he had a lot of responsibility, and he knew that his horses had been pushed off to other men, probably on their days off, and that everyone shouldered a burden for him not to be there. He also knew that he didn’t need it rubbed in his face with every text message that came in.

Angel had called on Saturday night to get an update on Grams, who had had a stroke. A mini one, the doctor said. It hadn’t lasted very long, and they’d been doing tests ever since. She hadn’t been able to go home yet because the doctors had seen something in her bloodwork that they didn’t like, and they were trying to get her potassium to go down before they would release her. She slept right now, and Henry, though he’d been sleeping more than ever, looked over to her and wished he could do the same. He had no idea how much longer she’d be here or how much longer he would be needed here.

Finn and Edith usually came in the evening with Theo, after Finn finished on his farm and before Edith started writing in her she-shed, and Henry had stayed to visit with them several times. Finn had started to send him some of the properties around Three Rivers that Henry might be interested in purchasing.

With the new road going in up north, Henry had started looking up there as well, almost along the Oklahoma border. A few small towns had some houses for sale, and he could still commute to Lone Star. He knew with certainty now that he didn’t want to live there. He did not see himself moving into Angel’s cabin and assuming his role there at her side as if she’d just been waiting for him.

He still saw himself with her, though they hadn’t talked about marriage or kids, or even if she’d move away from Lone Star to be with him.

I guess if she doesn’t , he thought. Then that’s your answer right there.

He didn’t like the black-and-whiteness of it. He’d learned that most things in life existed in a shade of gray.

Angel loved Lone Star. She ran the place; she definitely wouldn’t be leaving that job behind. But she didn’t have to live on-site.

Henry still believed with a firm determination that she would be happier if she could leave every evening and go somewhere else for safety and solace and comfort. He wanted that to be with him, in a place that they’d built together.

He moved away from texting Creston, because he’d already told him to text Levi. Levi had been handling everything on Henry’s team, and he would continue to do so. He navigated over to the text thread he had with a real estate agent in Three Rivers who had helped Finn buy his one-man ranch.

Jerry Bozeman had sent him two more listings, and while Henry wasn’t looking for a ranch, he definitely wouldn’t mind a pasture where he could keep a horse or two. They could have dogs and chickens and live a good country life, closer to his family while also remaining near Angel’s.

Stinnett looks like a good possibility , Jerry had said. There are two properties there right now that fit your budget.

Truth be told, Henry had never imagined himself living in Stinnett, a town about halfway between Three Rivers and Amarillo. But if he chose Stinnett and the new road went in as planned, he would be able to get to Courage Reins and Three Rivers Ranch, where the majority of his family lived, in only thirty-five minutes. And he would be able to get to Lone Star in thirty.

It seemed almost too good to be true, like God had made sure that a town had sprung up there specifically so that Henry and Angel would have a halfway point between the two places they both wanted to be.

I’ll look at them , Henry said. Thank you, Jerry.

Let me know if you want to set up a showing , Jerry said. The one’s been on the market for a long time, so no rush. The other one just came up last week, but nothing’s been selling super fast lately, so again, no rush.

Thanks , Henry said.

Sitting in the hospital made the time go by astronomically slow. Henry leafed through the pictures of both properties. He could see why the first one hadn’t sold yet; it needed a lot of fixing up. He played all the games on his phone, answered all the texts coming in with questions about Grams, and he even read a little bit out of a farrier manual. Grams still hadn’t woken, and his shift still hadn’t ended.

I got everything taken care of with Creston , Levi texted. That man.

Henry snorted and chuckled, because at least he wasn’t the only person frustrated by the other farrier. Thank you , Henry said. I owe you big time.

Angel passed out new employee handbooks today , Levi said.

Henry’s fingers froze completely while his heartbeat continued at a faster pace.

Oh, yeah? he finally asked. He wasn’t sure if he needed to pretend like he didn’t know there was a new handbook or not.

Yep , Levi said. I got you one. Don’t worry.

Anything I need to know? he asked, his heartbeat thundering the way a wild herd of horses’ hooves did across dry ground. Had she stood up on the platform and told everyone at Lone Star about their relationship without him? Part of him hoped she had, and the other part really didn’t want her to carry that burden.

Nothing of note , Levi said. I put it in your bedroom. It’s sitting on your nightstand for when you get back.

Thanks, brother , Henry said, and he quickly tapped to call Angel. Her line rang and rang, and she finally picked up, saying, “Henry, hey,” in the labored voice.

“Can you talk for a minute?” he asked. He wasn’t sure why, but his tongue felt poisoned, and it turned numb as he waited for her to answer. He’d felt like this before—last year when he thought he hadn’t gotten an apprenticeship at Lone Star. He bit back on the words threatening to spew from his mouth. If she had time to talk, they’d talk, and if she didn’t…then Henry would pray for patience and figure out how to approach Angel when he didn’t feel like spitting nails.