Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

H enry read his father’s text, a measure of disgust choking in the back of his throat even as he tried to swallow it away. Of course, he could help with the equine therapy appointments the next afternoon. He simply didn’t want to. He hadn’t come back to Three Rivers Ranch to help with lessons.

I know you don’t want to , Daddy said, as if reading Henry’s mind from miles away. But Roscoe quit, and I sure could use your help. We’ve had an influx of appointments since Grams can’t stop talking to everyone at the hospital about how amazing it is to recover with horses. He added a laughing face emoji, and that did make Henry smile.

Grams had been up and about and recovering really well lately. She should be coming home later today. Henry currently worked at Three Rivers Ranch, lending an extra pair of hands to Beau Peterson, the foreman, who needed some horses fed.

If there was anything Henry could do, it was care for horses. He honestly didn’t mind helping with the equine therapy either. All he had to do was greet a patient, get them to the right horse, take care of the horse after, and make sure the person felt like a million bucks. It was essentially the same operation as Lone Star, with some slight variations, obviously.

I can do it , he texted really quick and then shoved his phone in his back pocket. Once Grams got out of the hospital, she and his step-grandpa were planning to come out to the ranch so that Aunt Kelly and Momma could take care of her better.

She had pulled way back from the bakery she owned in town, obviously, since she’d spent the last seven days in the hospital. Grams had the infrastructure, the employees, and the managers to do that. Henry automatically thought of Angel, of course, and how now, if she’d had a stroke or been injured, Lone Star would be taken care of as well.

His heart hurt physically for a moment, because he missed her so bad. Henry had never felt like that about anyone before, and in talking to Paul, he realized that he was falling in love with Angel.

You might already be there , he thought. Love wasn’t a destination. It wasn’t somewhere he arrived and then stayed forever. He knew it had different layers and different meanings in different situations with different people, and that it could grow and change and expand and protect.

Henry wanted it all, and he wanted it with Angel.

He finished his chores for the morning and went to check in with Beau. “Anything else?” he asked as the man stood against the fence, a trio of mini donkeys in the field in front of him.

“They have the best view on the ranch,” Henry said, and Beau chuckled.

“They sure do.” They both turned around and leaned against the fence, gazing off into the southern distance.

“You can almost see Finn’s place from here,” Henry said. It was too far to actually see, but facing in the right direction, Henry felt like he could.

“Beautiful morning,” Beau said. “I don’t think I need anything else.”

“You sure?” Henry said. “If I’m not working here, I have to go back to my momma’s.” He chuckled as the blueness of the sky threatened to bleed all over Henry’s vision. “The jobs she has for me are far less fun.”

He’d actually polished silverware the other day, and he certainly didn’t want to do another household task like that.

Beau grinned at him. “You can check with Charlotte. She might have something for you to do in the barn.”

Charlotte was Beau’s wife and the barn manager here at Three Rivers Ranch. They had a lot of horses that they used for roundup and herding, and she took care of all of them. Nothing nearly as large as Lone Star, but enough to warrant a full-time person.

“I’ll check in with her,” he said.

“We’ve got a few interns this summer,” Beau said. “She’s whipping them into shape real good, so there might not be much.”

Henry nodded. “I’m sure my daddy has something.”

Beau chuckled. “I’m sure he does. He’s had a couple of men quit on him recently.”

“Yeah,” Henry said. “That’s what he said.” Guilt swept through him that he hadn’t wanted to help his daddy with the equine therapy. “All right.” He pushed himself back to standing, not really wanting to work at all today. “I’ll go check.”

He reached to shake Beau’s hand. “Thanks for the work, Beau.”

“Henry, I’d take you any day,” he said.

Henry grinned at him as he left. Since he could, he found a shady spot out of the way where his daddy wouldn’t stumble upon him. He texted with Levi for a few minutes, sent a few messages to his crew, and then leaned his head back against the side of the barn.

“Lord,” he exhaled, “I love it here, but I don’t think this is where I’m supposed to be. Help me get back home.” He wasn’t sure where home was, but right now it was in a cabin that he shared with someone else at Lone Star, where he was dating Angel White.

“Help me get back to Angel,” he said, and he let his mind open completely. Such a thing hadn’t happened very many times in Henry’s life, but that morning, he felt, heard, and understood so many things about himself, things that had brought him to this point, things that allowed him to be where he’d been for the past year.

He wasn’t perfect by any means, but he’d changed a lot, and God let him know that those changes had been for the better. Henry closed his eyes and sighed, relief rushing through him. Sometimes it felt like such hard work to be Henry Marshall—to be good, to think about his family, to compliment others, to take care of Angel, and to stay close to the Lord. Sometimes it almost felt like drudgery. He whispered, “I don’t want it to feel like that. I want it to feel joyful.”

I can help you with that , God whispered, and Henry smiled.

“Thank You. Could You help me with Angel? How do I feel about her? Should we really be making plans to look at places in Stinnett?” He’d texted more with Jerry, who said he’d be willing to set up the showings anytime and to just let him know. With everything with Grams up in the air and Henry not even sure when he was returning to work—and he couldn’t imagine the pile of work waiting for him at the ranch—Henry hadn’t been able to take that step.

Heck, everyone at Lone Star needed to know he and Angel were dating before they got engaged. His throat seized at that word anyway. And while he might be falling in love with Angel, he wasn’t ready to propose. But again, the Lord enlightened his mind, and Henry absolutely realized that he loved her even if it was on a small scale at the moment.

“Am I good enough for her?” he asked.

While the Lord didn’t answer, Henry felt like he got a head nod. “I’ll take real good care of her,” he promised, and he suddenly needed to see her. He didn’t want to leave in the most crucial of hours, perhaps when Grams was coming home, or Momma needed him, or Daddy was in desperate need of manpower at Courage Reins, but Henry needed to see her really soon.

“Okay.” Henry worked alongside his dad in the stables the following afternoon. “But I’m going home tonight after this,” he said. “I’ve got to get back to work.” He’d been gone from Lone Star for nine days now, and while a part of him had wondered if he would go back, if he and Angel would never be on the same page, if they’d never be able to stand side-by-side and look out at the crowd of men and tell them that they were dating, he knew now that he wanted to work through anything preventing that.

He’d take whatever flak came his way, whatever teasing, whatever consequences, whatever fallout.

He just wanted to be with her.

Henry stopped shoveling and looked over to his father. His broad shoulders rippled and worked as he spread the straw in the stable for the horses they’d already let out that morning.

“That’s okay, right?” Henry said. “I told Levi I could be back tomorrow.”

“It’s fine,” Daddy said without looking up. “I know you’ve got a job to get to. Grams is doing a lot better. She’s settled now.” She’d actually moved in with Momma and Daddy, as Kelly and Uncle Squire’s homestead had stairs everywhere, and Grams couldn’t navigate those very well.

But at Momma and Daddy’s homestead, she only had to come up two stairs from the driveway to the kitchen, and Momma had a main-floor bedroom prepped and ready.

“It’s going to be fine,” Daddy said, and he finally stopped working.

“I can stay if it’ll help you,” Henry said. “I know you’re short-handed right now.”

Daddy’s blue-eyed gaze met his. “If you know I need the help, why don’t you just stay? I don’t like this conversation of, ‘Well, I can if you need me to.’ You know I need you to.”

He sighed heavily and went back to work. “I also know you’ve got a job, and they need you there too. So I’m not going to ask.”

“Well, I don’t know what to do,” Henry said, frustrated.

“You do what’s right,” Daddy said. “That’s what you always do, Henry.”

Emotion choked in his throat because Henry didn’t know what was right. He desperately wanted to return to Lone Star. They did need him there. But how much of it was that they needed him to do his job, and how much of that was him simply wanting to hold Angel at night?

Henry hadn’t felt like crying this much in a long time, and he kept swallowing and swallowing as they finished this stall and moved to the next one.

At the end of the row, Daddy took him by the shoulders and said, “I love the man you’ve become. You are such a good person. And the problems we’re having here at Courage Reins right now are not your problems. So go home. Go back to your horses. Go back to your girlfriend. It’s okay. We’re going to be okay here.”

“I feel bad,” Henry said.

“I know you do,” Daddy said. “That’s just one of the reasons why you’re so good. Paul and I have got this handled. Beau has a couple of interns at Three Rivers, and I’m going to talk to him about lending them to us for a few weeks. I think they’re just sitting around, and he and Charlotte are inventing jobs for them to do.”

“Yeah,” Henry said.

“We’ll be fine,” Daddy said. “We just have a lot of appointments this weekend, and you’re gonna stay and help with those through tonight. And then you should go.”

Henry nodded in tight little bursts. “I haven’t told Levi yet.”

“Well, you better call him and tell him right now.” Daddy smiled at him and cuffed him under the chin. “Hey, son. Go.”

Henry nodded and grabbed onto his dad in a hug. “I love you, Daddy.”

“I know you do. Your momma and I love you a whole lot.”

Henry couldn’t believe he’d ever thought his parents didn’t need him, that they could skip from Paul to John without him, that there wouldn’t be a hole in his family if he wasn’t there. He could see now that if any of them weren’t there, they would not be complete, including Grams.

“I’m gonna move closer to Three Rivers,” he said.

Daddy released him and looked at him. “You are?”

“Yeah.” He nodded as he and Daddy stepped over to the sink and started washing up. “I think Angel and I are pretty serious. We started talking about looking at places somewhere like Stinnett on the eastern outskirts of Three Rivers, and we’ll commute to Lone Star.”

“She’s going to commute to the ranch she owns?” Daddy pushed his sleeves up and scrubbed to his elbow.

“Well,” Henry said, “I think it’ll kill her if she doesn’t.”

Daddy studied him for a moment, then started rinsing all the suds away. “Ranches have a way of consuming a person, that’s for sure.”

“Yeah,” Henry said dryly. “Look at you, working twenty hours a day.”

Daddy didn’t chuckle, because he had been working a lot lately. Grams’ illness had come at a terrible time when he’d had men quit and they’d been short-handed.

“Sometimes you have to rely on the angels,” Daddy said. “That’s how we’ve gotten through the past week. I don’t know how the work’s gotten done, I don’t know whose hands did it, but somehow it gets done.”

“Yeah.” Henry pumped the handle on the paper towel dispenser and ripped off the brown paper. “I can agree with that. But I’ve seen Angel when Lone Star is eating her alive, and it’s not pretty. I’m not going to let that happen to her.”

Daddy smiled at him. “I sure like seeing you in love, Henry.”

“I’m not—” Henry cut himself off. “I mean, it’s new,” he said, ducking his head.

“Nothing to be embarrassed about,” Daddy said. “Love is a beautiful thing. Caring for another person more than yourself is wonderful. Building a family and a life together is something to be admired.”

“Yeah.” Henry balled up his paper towel and tossed it in the trash can, then got out of the way so Daddy could get to the dispenser.

“So I guess you’re going to be a farrier at Lone Star.” Daddy grinned at him while he ripped off a paper towel.

“I guess so,” Henry said. “At least for now. There’s no reason I can’t branch out in the future, especially if I’m not living at Lone Star.”

“Ah,” Daddy said. “Maybe that’s why you don’t want to live there.”

“I honestly don’t know,” Henry said, turning toward the exit of the stable. “What I do know is that the Lord has shown me a tiny piece of my future, and it’s not living in Angel’s cabin at Lone Star.”

“Well, He’ll lead you to the right place,” Daddy said. “He always does.” He clapped Henry on the shoulder as they stepped outside. “All right. You better get Wide Sky out. Your appointment is almost here.”

“Yeah,” Henry said, and he took a big breath. “I’ll get her out right now.” He did that, taking the beautiful cream-colored horse out of her stall in the next stable over, whispering to her how beautiful she was, how smart she was, and how good she was going to do that afternoon for the therapy session.

He went into Courage Reins and chatted with the secretary at the front desk, who handed him a folder. “Someone new,” she said. “Never been here before.”

Henry didn’t even flip open the folder. He knew the spiel for new people. He’d done it often enough that he could get through one more. “We’ve had a lot of those lately.”

“Yep,” she said. “She’s here already, actually. Out in the waiting room in the arena.”

“All right,” Henry said. “I’ll take Wide Sky out there.” The client was early, but Henry didn’t care. He was ready. The horse was ready. And so he headed out to the arena, where he put Wide Sky with a ball and a hula hoop. He prepped her tack so that it was right next to the door, and then he headed for the waiting room that Daddy had built with a a big window for guests to watch whatever was happening in the arena.

“All right,” he said as he opened the door, making his voice bright and cheery. He flipped open the folder and found nothing inside. Confusion filled him because he didn’t know what to call the guest without an intake sheet. He glanced up. “I don’t seem to have?—”

He cut off as Angel rose from the upholstered bench. She twisted her hands nervously around one another, her dark blue tank top getting bunched up in her fingers before she released it.

“I thought I’d come see what equine therapy was really like,” she said. “For like, a real client, not just someone playing ball for a few minutes.”

Henry thought a lot of things in that moment. Somehow, his brain seized onto the words. He crossed the room and swept Angel into his arms.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” he whispered, trying to get every inch of her against every inch of him.

She hugged him back, giggling. “Are you surprised?”

“Beyond.” He set her down on her feet and looked at her, cradling her face, trying to gauge if her skin was real or not. He gazed at her and asked, “What are you doing here?”

She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “My boyfriend has been telling me how amazing equine therapy is for the past few months, and I thought it was time I checked it out for myself.”

Henry laughed, so much joy pouring through him. All the angst and worry and work that he’d done in the past several days had culminated into this moment of pure joy.

He looked at Angel and said, “I love you,” then matched his mouth to hers and kissed her.