Henry practically fell down in his haste to step past the table Mandi manned and toward the little room where Angel filled the doorway. After all, he had a few choice words for her, and his big personality would absolutely allow him to say them all.
Chapter Twenty-One
Angel White took a big breath as she closed the door, which was totally the wrong thing to do. Henry smelled like leather, dirt, and cologne—all of her favorite things. She’d seen the man work with horses too, and he possessed a calm, gentle spirit and a craftsman’s touch underneath all of his bluster.
Yes, he had a loud laugh, and she’d smiled at the sound of it before.
Yes, he could be brash and over-the-top, but Angel suspected that was more for show than it was who Henry Marshall was, at least deep down.
She’d seen the tall, dark-haired, bearded man rush to her brother’s aid, and he’d brought her family dinner more than once last summer.Yeah, she thought.Because he wanted an apprenticeship at the stable.
Which was true, yes.
He also happened to be an excellent candidate.
She turned to face him, wondering if he’d say something first. Perhaps a “Thank you so much,” or “I’m not going to let you down.” Something.
He stood over by the window, his bulky arms folded and making himself look bigger. Angel absolutely could not be so attracted to him. Number one, she had a boyfriend. Yep. Mm hm. She really liked Calder, and she’d never been a cheater. Maybe things between them had grown stale, or maybe Angel had simply gotten too busy for a serious relationship as more of the farm’s responsibilities fell to her.
Daddy was finally moving into semi-retirement. Her momma wasn’t well most days, and Angel spent a great deal of time, energy, and worry on Trevor as well. Though he lived alone, Angel still went by his place each morning and each evening to make sure he had what he needed.
Most nights, she fell asleep on the couch, and she’d reached a new low last week while pouring over the apprentice applications by falling asleep at the dining room table.
So she did not need Henry’s gorgeous eyes sizing her up, nor the scent of his cologne in her nose, and she prayed with all she had that she hadn’t made the biggest mistake of her life by calling him in here.
“You—” she started, but he cut her off with, “You have some nerve.”
Angel blinked, trying to keep up. “I have some nerve?” He was the one who hadn’t even responded to her message.
“Yeah,” he said. “You told me that if I applied for your stupid apprenticeship program, I had—and I quote—a very good chance of getting something.” He settled his weight onto one leg. “I got nothing out there.”
Angel blinked again, not sure they were speaking the same language anymore.
“Not even atBrowning House,” he sneered out, the name of the farm in Oklahoma dripping with disdain. Almost like it was a swear word. “I’m sunk, Angel. I have nowhere to work this summer, and that means I’m gonna have to go crawling back to my daddy like a kicked dog.”
He scoffed and spun away from her, the window in front of him so he wasn’t just facing the wall. Angel had no idea what to say or do. They seemed to exist on two different planets.
Which is probably a good thing, she thought. After all, Daddy had instituted a strict no-fraternizing policy between colleagues at the stable, as he couldn’t stand the drama. Therefore, Henry—and all other cowboys and farriers who worked for Lone Star—were outside of Angel’s dating pool.
She couldn’t even believe she was thinking about dating. She. Had. A. Boyfriend.
Her memory blipped at her, taking her back to a summer day last year, when Lone Star had fed everyone their thank you and farewell dinner. Henry had come, though he hadn’t been taken on as a boarded farrier last year. He’d made the commute six days a week. He’d risen right to the top of the crop of men they’d brought.
It hadn’t taken her father long to make him a shift lead, and then a group head. Henry had taken on the leadership roles as easily as breathing, and when Angel had put the top three applicants in front of her father last week, he’d barely looked at the other two before tapping Henry’s folder.
“I want him.”
And if her daddy wanted him, then Daddy got him. Not only that, if Daddy wanted him, that only made him more off-limits for Angel. And it hadn’t been easy for Angel to get Henry, and he certainly wasn’t making it any easier.
At the farewell shindig, Henry had sat a few seats from her, and she’d heard him telling another farrier that he didn’t want to “run home with his tail tucked between his legs” because he couldn’t cut it somewhere besides his family’s equine therapy unit.
“I have something to prove, you know?”
Boy, Angel knew, and his words had stuck with her for months now. She had something to prove too—to her brother, to her daddy, to every single farrier at Lone Star, and to herself.
Angel did a terrible thing—she moved closer to him. “Can you not do an apprenticeship this summer?” As she rounded the oval table in the middle of the room with enough seating for six, Henry cut a glare at her.
“What?”