Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

H enry had a hive of angry hornets lodged in his throat. They stung down into his stomach, intestines, and bowels, and he seriously thought he might throw up. The clock ticked closer and closer to seven, when Trevor would start roll call. Henry stood near the front of the crowd, Angel at his side—where he always wanted her to be. He looked over at her, everything inside of him calming.

When she looked at him, she swallowed, a sign of nerves. Henry put a brave smile on his face, which was about how he tried to cover up everything that made him nervous. He wanted to reach for her hand, hold it, squeeze it, and whisper that everything would be fine. But the truth was, Henry wasn’t sure of any of that. He knew everyone here at Lone Star, some better than others, but Angel was the boss of all of them.

The fallout might be worse for her. Henry gritted his teeth, determined to make sure that Angel didn’t suffer after the announcement. Trevor shuffled up the ramp, using his arms to pull himself up. He didn’t have to quiet anyone down as he said, “Good morning, everyone.”

They all tuned in to roll call, and Trevor went through the announcements for the day, telling them about an exciting new partnership with a saddle maker that would increase their profile with their customers and provide a premier riding experience for everyone who came to Lone Star.

The minutes passed by in a blur when Henry just wanted them to stop. And before he knew it, Trevor said, “And now Angel has an announcement.” It took him several seconds to get off the platform, and Angel didn’t move.

Henry wasn’t sure how this was going to go. They had talked about it, of course, late last night when he’d snuck over to her house after returning to Lone Star. He was tired inside and out, and perhaps they should have waited until another day.

Then Angel’s fingers curled through his, and she led him toward the platform. A murmur ran through the crowd because Henry had never been on the platform before, and it wasn’t exactly big enough for two people. Still, Angel stepped up, and Henry crowded in right beside her. In that moment, God chose to stop time.

Henry saw every man in front of him for what he was—a good person, a hardworking soul, a child of God. Bard stood in the back corner, his arms folded, and when he met Henry’s eyes, he nodded. That infused strength into Henry’s muscles, into his voice, and into his mind.

Since neither he nor Angel had planned who would go first or who would say what, he wasn’t sure if he should start or if she wanted to. He looked at her, and she looked at him, and then she faced the crowd.

“In case you haven’t figured it out,” Angel said, “Henry Marshall and I are dating.” The crowd stood deathly still. Henry cataloged the shocked look on Levi’s face, Shad’s gasp, Cedric’s and Clay’s wide eyes, and the surprise in every member of his team. Anger flashed across Creston’s face, and Henry would have to deal with that later.

“We got new employee handbooks a week or so ago,” Angel continued. “The no-dating rule has been removed now that I’m in charge.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” someone called, and Henry wasn’t sure if they were joking or upset. It was a lot to take in—all of their faces, the emotions, deciphering what they might be feeling. He wasn’t capable of it.

“We have several female stable hands at Lone Star right now,” Angel said. “We’ve had female farriers from time to time, and we could have a female barn manager or horseman in the future. I’m not my father, and I’m willing to deal with the drama between people who choose to date each other.” She squeezed Henry’s hand. “We don’t know how long Henry will be at Lone Star as a farrier, but I know he’s going to be at my side for a long time.”

She nodded and faced the crowd again. Henry wasn’t sure what to add to that. He wasn’t in charge. She laid it all out exactly the way he’d wanted her to. She’d claimed him, and he bent down and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Someone whooped, and Henry very much thought it was Levi. Applause started, and that only made Henry’s face fill with heat. He wasn’t sure if it was shame or embarrassment, humiliation, or simply just being in the hot spotlight for too long. No matter what, he didn’t like it, and he nudged Angel before he went down the ramp and off the platform.

Others immediately surrounded him, some patting him on the back, and Levi pushing through them all and taking him into a hug. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” Levi said. “How did you hide this from me?”

Henry chuckled and clapped him on the back. “I don’t know, brother. I didn’t exactly lie.” He pulled back and looked his friend in the face, sober as ever. “You know that, right? I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“I know,” Levi said. “My guess is you were out texting on the porch with your family, and then you’d go over to Angel’s. You just left that part out.” He grinned. “You two sure are cute together.”

Henry didn’t want to get too far away from Angel, so he tucked her against his side. “You think so?”

“Oh, yeah,” Levi said.

“This isn’t a problem for you?” Henry asked.

“Not for me,” Levi said. Then he turned and clapped his hands. “All right, I need my crew over here with me.” He turned back to Henry. “And that includes you, cowboy.”

Henry turned to Angel. “I’ll see you later,” he said, squeezing her hand. He told himself over and over that Angel was a mature adult and she could handle herself. If anyone had a problem with their relationship, she could handle it, and he would be at her side. He hadn’t taken two steps when Creston appeared in front of him.

“You’ve been dating the boss?” Creston folded his arms. “No wonder you got a captain position.”

“That’s not true,” Henry said at the same time as Angel.

“I got promoted because I deserved it, because I’m a good farrier and a good leader.”

“Yeah, right,” Creston said. “Just like Angel runs this place because her last name is White. It’s not like she knows what she’s doing.”

“Hey, now,” Henry said. “That is totally not true. She knows exactly what she’s doing.”

“She hasn’t been to farrier school.”

“Actually,” Angel said. “I did attend farrier school. All the coursework. All the practical hours. I simply never applied for graduation.”

“See?” Henry took a step forward, trying to get Creston to back up. “She knows who to promote because she knows who’s going to bring the loyalty and team spirit that she wants here at Lone Star. She knows exactly what she’s doing.”

“Is there a problem here?” Bard asked, stepping into the fray.

Henry looked over to him, suddenly nervous all over again. “No, sir.”

“You got something you need to say?” He looked at Creston.

“No, sir,” Creston said.

“Because if you do, my office is always open,” Bard said. “Isn’t that right, Angel? We’re open to feedback, criticism, anything we can do to make Lone Star better.”

“That’s right,” Angel said, and together the three of them created a united front. “I just want the best people to work with the best horses here at Lone Star,” she said. “I know I’m not perfect, Henry’s not perfect, but he didn’t get promoted because he was my boyfriend. The three of us—me, Justin, and Daddy—went through all the applications, and we chose the men. I didn’t do it myself. In fact, it wasn’t me who chose Henry at all.”

“It was me,” Justin said, stepping next to Bard.

“And me,” Bard said. “I seconded it immediately. Henry is a good farrier, and he’s a great leader.” He looked right at Henry. “And I wouldn’t be able to pick a better man for my daughter.”

Creston looked like he might blow fire in the next moment, but he simply said, “All right,” turned around, and walked away. The tension diffused, and Henry took a deep breath into his lungs. He realized he couldn’t just walk away with Levi, so he and Angel stood there and talked to every person who wanted to talk to them until they did finally all move off to start their jobs for the day.

Angel sighed, a totally defeated, deflated sound, and said, “That wasn’t so bad.”

“That wasn’t so bad?” Henry repeated.

“I mean, it could have been worse,” she said. “They could have rioted, called for my immediate removal.”

“Is that what you were worried about?” He chuckled. “You own this place, sweetheart.”

“Yeah, well, you heard Creston,” she said. “He thinks I’m only here because my last name is White.”

“That is why you’re here,” Henry said. “And you should never be ashamed of that.” He pulled her close and whispered, “Besides, your last name will be Marshall soon enough.”

She eased into his arms, melted into his chest, and he was glad he could hold her out in the open where anyone could see. Then he stepped back and said, “It’s been a real stressful week or so. Let’s go to dinner tonight.”

She looked up at him, pure hope in her eyes. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll come pick you up like a gentleman and everything. Drive my truck to your house and ring your doorbell. I’ll even bring flowers.”

She laughed and shook her head. “Where are you going to get flowers? You can’t drive to town and back.”

“You underestimate me. Nice.”

She tripped up on her toes and swept a kiss across his cheek. “Just pick me up at six-thirty, cowboy.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said and as she walked away, Henry experienced another moment of pure joy with Angel. He couldn’t wait for many, many more.

A couple of weeks later, Henry had just finished his work for the day, and he needed a shower and to change into his red, white, and blue shirt for the Fourth of July celebration dinner that evening.

Then, he and Angel and plenty of other cowboys would be headed into Amarillo to watch a mini rodeo with fireworks at the end. It would be a good way to celebrate Independence Day, though he’d worked today, and Henry couldn’t wait to get off the ranch.

His phone chimed, and he pulled it out to check it. I need you , Angel had said. It wasn’t the acronym they’d used in the past, and Henry’s pulse bobbed in the back of his throat.

He called her, and she answered without saying anything. But she sniffled over the line, and he immediately turned toward her house. She had to be there, or in her office. She wouldn’t be crying out in the open. “Where are you?”

“I just need to get out of here.”

“Why? What’s going on?” he asked. Since their announcement, things had settled down. No one had quit. No teams had been reorganized. He’d taken a little chiding and ribbing from his friends, and then they’d moved on to other things. In fact, Levi had asked out one of the stable hands, a woman named Leslie, and they’d been out a few times since.

“I’m walking away from my cabin,” she said. “I just left through the front door, and I’m just walking.”

“Okay,” he said, turning in that direction and breaking into a run. “I’m on my way.” He caught up to her several minutes later out in the middle of the field across from her cabin. She wasn’t crying, but her fingers curled into fists.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Daddy’s pressuring me to teach at Sherman next fall,” she said. “I’m feeling so guilty about it, but I don’t want to do it.”

“All right,” Henry said, matching his stride to hers.

“And then I got an email from a couple of the farriers there who are angry that there’s not enough positions at Lone Star for all of them. I don’t know what they want me to do—build more stables, get more horses?” She made an angry noise and scoffed. “They have no idea what it’s like here.”

Henry had been on that side of the equation before, and it was frustrating that there weren’t enough positions to get the experience that the farriers at Sherman Academy needed. He didn’t say anything, because he didn’t have to.

This wasn’t Angel’s burden to carry, but he also understood the frustration from the cowboys on the other side.

She stopped abruptly, and it took Henry another step to do the same. She looked at him, and he looked at her, and he said the first thing that popped into his head.

“I’m going to call Jerry right now. There’s a really great place on the west side of Three Rivers. It’s a little further to Lone Star than Stinnett, but it’s really great, Angel. We should go look at it tonight.”

“You’ve looked at it?” she asked, pure fire in her eyes.

“Only online.”

She nodded, softening. “I want to look at it online.”

“Okay,” he said. “But let’s go right now. Let’s get off the ranch. Let’s just go.”

“It’s the Fourth of July,” she said. “He’s not going to be available to look at it tonight, and we have the family dinner tonight, and the rodeo, and the fireworks.”

“There’ll be fireworks everywhere,” Henry said. “Heck, we can buy some of our own and just set them off in the middle of the road.” He took her hand. “Please, just come with me right now.”

She searched his face and then looked away, scanning something on the horizon.

Henry wanted to ease this burden for her, take it if he could. He wanted to rage at the cowboys who had made her feel this way and tell her daddy to back off and let her make her own decisions about teaching at the academy.

“All right,” she said. “Let’s go right now.”

“I’ll call Jerry,” Henry said. “If he can’t come, we’ll just drive by. It’ll be fine.”

“Will you send it to me?” she said.

“Right now,” he said, and he pulled out his phone to send her the link to the listing that he’d been looking at.

“Come on, baby,” he said, and he took her hand. “Let’s not stand in this field in the middle of the summer day.” She turned back toward the ranch and started walking with him, reluctantly in his opinion.

“Let me slow you down,” he said. “I got you, okay?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“That’s what we do for each other, Angel,” he said. “It’s what I want to do for you for the rest of my life.”

“All right,” she said.

“So you tell me what you want for the rest of your life,” he said, hoping this conversation didn’t stir up a new nest of worries for her.

“Like kids?” she said.

“Yeah, kids,” he said. “Do you want a lot of kids? Not very many kids? Kids right away after we’re married, or…something else?”

“I haven’t really thought about it,” she said.

“Do you want to get married in the spring, summer, or fall?” he asked. “I don’t believe you haven’t thought about your wedding.”

“I’ve thought about it,” she said, and he slowed as they neared the cabin. Henry didn’t want her to go back inside, but if they were going to go for a drive and then maybe go to the rodeo after, she might need to grab a few things.

“I think spring would be awesome around here,” she said. “The flowers bloom, and it’s so green.”

“Spring,” he said. “Doesn’t give you much time if we’re gonna get married this next spring.”

“Doesn’t give me much time?” she asked. “Or it doesn’t give you much time? I mean, it’s not like I’m wearing a diamond.” She glanced over at him, and Henry almost tripped.

“Do you want to wear a diamond?”

“If it’s yours,” she said, and Henry was the one who stopped this time.

“I’d marry you in the spring,” he said. “Heck, I’d marry you tomorrow. And I’d take a baby anytime God gave us one. I want us to find a place of our own that we can move into when we get married. I don’t want to live there before you, and I don’t want you to live there before me. I want it to be our place.”

“I want that too, Henry,” she said.

“All right,” he said. “So let’s go look at this place. And if we have time, maybe we’ll still go to the rodeo and the fireworks.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Or maybe we’ll just go out to Courage Reins, see your momma and grandma, and do whatever the cowboys are doing.”

Henry knew that was what she wanted, and he’d do whatever he had to in order to give it to her. “How many minutes do you need to put a bag together?”

“Fifteen?” she guessed.

Henry took her across the road and kissed her at the bottom of her steps. When he pulled away, he murmured, “You have fourteen minutes.”

She laughed, and Henry backed up, deadly serious. “Clock’s ticking,” he said, and then he hustled home to pack a bag so he could take Angel away from this place.

Rescue her.

Bring her back to the surface where she could breathe—where they could breathe together.