“Why won’t you have anywhere to work?” She frowned at him. “I’m so confused.”
“Join the club.” He turned and faced her fully. “I hate the lottery system. I know you guys are overloaded and all that. The academy here has grown, and there aren’t many big operations to take on the farriers coming out of the program. I get it.”
“Yeah,” she said slowly, because all of that was true.
“But I don’t get why you can’t weed us out by grades or something. Then look at applications after that. I’m good, Angel.” He released his breath and quickly took another, almost like he couldn’t quite get enough oxygen. “And I don’t say that out loud very often. When my momma calls and asks me how I’m doing, I tell her everything I’m learning. I never brag about how I was the only one—theonly oneout of all your guys—to get Whiplash in the cross ties last year. Not even Flint could do that.”
His chest heaved, and she wanted him to look away. Anywhere but at her. He simply exuded male magnetism, and Angel couldn’t stand under the weight of it. She gripped the back of a swiveling conference chair just to steady herself.
“Yeah,” she said. “That’s why we consider applications for apprenticeships. It’s only the internships that are done on a lottery—and.” She pointed one manicured fingernail at him. “We weed those out too, I’ll have you know. I look at so many applications from October through January, it’s a miracle I even have time to celebrate the holidays like a normal person.”
Her chest heaved too, because this man rubbed her all wrong. He acted like she could work more hours than God had given them in a day. She reminded herself she didn’t have to defend any of her decisions to him. Daddy wouldn’t have.
“So are you saying you don’t want the apprenticeship we’ve offered you?”
“I’m saying—” He clamped his mouth shut as his eyes widened. “I—what? What apprenticeship?” His mouth dropped open now, and oh, Angel didn’t need to see those perfect straight white teeth gleaming at her.
Still, she smiled. “Now I know what to do to get the mighty Henry Marshall to slow down and stop talking,” she said.
Henry’s glare came right back, and his mouth snapped closed. He had full lips that Angel tore her gaze from quickly. Dots started to connect, and a complete picture came into view.
“I’m going to assume you did not receive my email,” she said, turning back to the table. She’d laid his paperwork there, and she ran her finger along thetop of the folder. “I sent it twenty-four hours ago, and I did ask you to confirm that you A, wanted the apprenticeship and could complete it as outlined in the email, and B, to schedule a time with me to go over everything.”
She picked up the folder and hugged it to her chest. “You have not responded, but when I saw you outside, I figured maybe you’d just checked your email after the announcement inside.”
Henry stood there, the perfect living, breathing human male specimen of a statue.
Angel mimicked him, but she raised her eyebrows after a couple of seconds. When he still didn’t say anything or move, she asked, “Would you like a moment to check your email now? I’m quite certain I typed it in correctly. It’s the one you put on your application.”
That got him to fumble for his phone in his back pocket, and he swiped and tapped quickly, sputtering, “I never check my email. I’m so sorry,” as he did.
Angel liked this more vulnerable, less imposing version of Henry Marshall, and she turned away from him. She’d seen him like this over the summer too. Nothing special about him.
There can’t be, she told herself as she balanced herself at the head of the table now, a professional, appropriate distance between them that prevented the scent of his cologne from infecting her female judgment too strongly.
“This is unbelievable,” he said, his voice full of awe. “You had one spot, and you picked…me?”
“You were the best candidate,” Angel said with as much matter-of-factness as she could muster. “And let me tell you, Mister Marshall, I had to fight off Brownstone and Castleton for three full days before they’d relinquish you. Davey said he’d double my proposed salary for you just to get you, and boy, did that make me mad.” Shetsk’ed a time or two and smiled at him. “You donotwant to see me upset.”
She also didn’t want to lose Henry. She couldn’t even imagine returning to the stables this evening and telling her father that someone had stolen him away with the promise of more money or better working conditions.
“No, ma’am,” he murmured, lifting his eyes to meet hers. They held a boyish sense of wonder now. “I want this job.”
“You haven’t had time to read that.” She nodded to his phone. “I worked for two hours typing up the requirements of the apprenticeship, as well as what would be provided.”
He grinned at her, and oh, that lopsided smile should be illegal when used on women. “I’m sure you’ve used this exact language in the past.”
“Actually,” she said. “I started with Daddy’s template, but it’s been dissected and torn apart quite a bit. I’m in charge of apprentices now, you see, and that goes fromstart to finish.”
“I do see,” he said, clearly flirting with her. He absolutely could not do that, and Angel flipped open his folder and set it on the table. She turned toward it, her eyes glued to it. They had to be, or they’d be stuck to him.
“I’m glad you’re accepting the apprenticeship,” she said. “We can schedule another time to meet, if you’d like. Perhaps you’d like to go over the contract, which I attached to your email, with your parents first. A lawyer. Someone.” She tilted her head and looked over to him.
“Do people do that?” he asked.
“Smart people definitely have someone else look over any contracts they sign before they sign them,” she said, lifting her head fully and smiling at him. “And Henry, you’re one of the smartest cowboys I know.”
He grinned fully then, and dang if the temperature in the room didn’t shoot up ten degrees. Everything about him, from his grumpiness to his happiness, influenced everyone around her—she’d seen this personally last summer—and he whooped.