Page 82 of Giddy Up, Daddy

Sam snorted. “It’s a pain in the ass. ‘Sides, I’m only trying it out. I don’t know if I’m going to keep going.”

Taking classes had been Charlie’s suggestion. At first Sam had dismissed it. He had enough to do and, as he’d told Nick, it had been a long time since high school. But the more he thought about it, the more interesting the idea became.

He’d always regretted not getting to go to college. Truthfully, he’d been kinda jealous when Charlie had been shipped off to school. He wouldn’t have fought it the way she had, but life had other plans for him. She’d gone and he stayed, giving up on furthering his education.

But that had been years back, when they weren’t much more than kids. Now that they were married and owned the ranch, different opportunities had opened up. They had money, and he had more time on his hands than he used to.

That hadn’t been the convincing factor though. Truthfully, Charlie was learning a lot of interesting shit. She loved to talk about her classes and everything she was learning. Sam hadstarted to realize that there was so much more out there, so, as of the fall semester, he’d joined her in taking online courses.

He still wasn’t sure it had been a great idea. It had been a hell of a long time since he’d had to memorize facts and do homework. Still, he didn’t like to walk away from a challenge, and he had to admit he was enjoying some of it.

“So, if it’s not the classes…” Nick trailed off as one eyebrow rose in question.

Sam hesitated. He didn’t really like to talk about marital problems, but Nick was probably the one person he did feel comfortable talking to. “Having a little trouble with Charlie.”

The second eyebrow rose to join the first. “Well, hell, boss. Should have just said it was woman trouble from the start. Don’t tell me the honeymoon’s over already?”

“Not… notthatkind of trouble. At least… I don’t think so.” Sam frowned.

They’d only been married a year and most of it had been blissful. They’d done some traveling, before returning to the ranch to settle into the routine of married life.

The benefit of living together before getting hitched was that not too much changed after, at least in theory. Only… therehadbeen changes. He couldn’t really pin them down or explain. It just felt different, but not in a bad way.

Their connection was closer. And in a macho bullshit kind of way, he felt like she belonged to him more completely. More permanently. It had all been wonderful, untilveryrecently.

Until last week, when he’d noticed that Charlie had begun acting shifty. It was nothing major, just a few odd things, like phone calls that ended as soon as he entered the room, or her sudden need to make extra trips into town.

His local classic-car-swap paper, the only one around that was still printed and delivered, had been cut to pieces. Whole pages were missing.

Charlie had admitted to that. “I’m so sorry, honey.” Her bottom lip pouted, and she gave him doe eyes. “I thought it was an old one and I needed to make a collage for an assignment. It’s so hard to get print magazines and papers anymore,” she added.

Which was why he’d subscribed in the first damn place. A cowboy didn’t like to be tied to digital all the time. Sometimes he wanted to sit on the porch with a real newspaper in his hands, while he looked at the old cars and fantasized about buying one someday.

But that was a momentary irritation. Another one would arrive in a month or so and he was often behind on reading them anyway. It was more the oddness of it. She was working on a doctorate in Animal Sciences, what kind of assignment was she doing that needed pictures of old cars?

He didn’t want to quiz her about it, not when she seemed to feel bad about the mistake, but tied in with the other stuff it made him curious. There was nothing he could specifically call her out on, but his Dom radar was pinging hard.

Even putting it into words with Nick was making him feel silly. “I feel like she’s hiding something from me. I don’t know what it is but… it’s driving me crazy.” He wouldn’t have said that to anyone else, but Nick was not only his friend, but also a Daddy Dom in his own marriage.

He’d understand things that other people wouldn’t, like how to balance a marriage, a business partner, and a D/s dynamic. Sometimes making all those roles work could be a little overwhelming.

“You think she did something wrong and is hiding it?”

Sam shrugged. “I don’t think so. When she’s feeling guilty about something it’s usually pretty obvious.” He took a second to think about it and then shook his head. “Definitely not. But Charlie likes to make plans without talking to me first, andthey aren’t always well thought out. You know we’ve had some struggles over ranch management before?”

“I’ve heard a few stories, yep. Kind of thought you guys had worked that out by now. What with you being the Dom and all.”

“It’s not quite that easy. I mean, it’s been a while since there was a major problem, but now and then things still pop up. I’m sitting here like a nine-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, waiting.”

Nick threw his head back and laughed. “Man, that’s what keeps it fun though. Right? What would we do without them keeping us on our toes all the time?”

Okay, maybe Nick didn’t entirely understand. Their dynamic was different. Nick’s wife was a real handful and was known for getting in trouble for the sole purpose of earning a spanking.

Nick loved catching Katie in trouble. For the two of them it was about the game, and it tended to end with funishment more than anything meant to teach a lesson.

With Charlie things weren’t like that. They kept punishment and fun kink pretty separate, and she actually tried to avoid getting in real trouble for the most part. Not that it kept her from stumbling over his knee from time to time, but discipline wasn’t usually her goal.

She just sometimes decided she wanted to do something regardless of what would happen as a result. And sometimes… what she wanted involved business decisions for the ranch.

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