Page 87 of Giddy Up, Daddy

“Where did you go so early?” he’d asked, frowning.

“I was just picking up a few things at the store, for dinner,” she explained. She rattled the plastic bags in her hand andblessed the forethought she’d had to take care of that errand while she was in town.

One eyebrow slowly headed toward his hairline as he looked at her. “Uh, did you forget something, darlin?”

She froze. “I don’t… think so?” She frowned and looked down. “I think I got it all…”

“I’m the one cooking dinner tonight.”

Oh. Right.Well, that explained the suspicious look. “Oh, I did forget! Well, I guess I’ll save it for tomorrow. We needed some other stuff anyway.”

“I thought you were going to work on your coursework this morning. Why the rush to go into town?”

“I was, I mean, I am—now that I’m back. I was just a little restless this morning. Besides, the shopping had to get done too. Figured I’d use up my procrastination doing something useful this way.” That was a reasonable excuse, at least she thought so.

Sam nodded and then took a deep breath. “You wouldn’t happen to be hiding something from me, would you, Charlie girl?”

Her heart gave an extra-hard thump, and her pulse began to race. “What? Me? Of course not, Daddy.”

He was quiet for a second. “You know, I’ve noticed some odd stuff going on around here lately.” And then he began to list the various things he’d noticed. Some were connected to her plan, some weren’t, but she was surprised at how much he’d noticed.

He ended by flipping to the classified section of the paper, holding it up so she could see the gaping hole cut out of the pages. “And then there’s this. You know anything about how my paper got cut up? It only arrived the other day. Hadn’t even had a chance to look at it yet, and it’s missing pieces.”

Whoops. If she’d known he hadn’t had a chance to read the paper yet, she’d have left the ad, with its pictures and detailed information there. But it was easier to cut it out, so she had itall handy. And, not that she thought he would, but just in case Sam went against everything she knew about him, and actually tried to buy the truck… she wanted to make sure they weren’t outbidding each other.

It turned out to be a mistake and a hard one to explain. Her mind raced, grabbing at the first thought that popped into her head. “Sorry! I thought it was an old one and I had to make a collage for an assignment.”

“A… collage.”

It hadn’t been the best excuse. Her classes didn’t normally assign that kind of coursework, but she couldn’t change her story now. “I know, dumb right? It was just a little extra credit thing, but every point counts, right?”

His lips thinned and his eyes narrowed. “Can I see it?”

“It?”

“The collage?”

Shit. “Uh, sure. It’s not done yet, but I’ll show you when it’s finished.” She plastered a bright smile onto her face and hurried over to set the groceries on the counter. She pretended to be busy putting things away and hoped he wouldn’t notice her hands shaking.

She sucked at lying and she hated lying to him. It was going to come back and bite her in the ass, she just knew it. Plus, now she had to come up with a vaguely believable topic to base the collage on. Something at least tangentially connected to her major.

“Charlie, you know you’re not allowed to hide things from me. And you know if I find out you’ve gone behind my back to do something… you’re going to regret it.”

She drew in a deep breath through her nose, letting it out as she slowly turned back to face him. “Daddy, what could I possibly be hiding?” It was a question, so it didn’t count as a lie.

“I couldn’t begin to guess. The sky’s the limit with you, darlin. If I find out you’ve made some decision about the ranch without my agreement, I’ll put a belt across your ass.”

Her butt flexed and tightened. A phantom tingle reminded her of the last time she’d earned a real punishment from the belt.Ouch. “Daddy, I swear I’m not doing anything with the ranch. I learned my lesson last time!”

And she had, mostly. They’d developed a good working relationship as co-owners, and now that she was learning so much about ranch management, he actually listened to her. That made a difference.

Even when he said ‘no,’ it mattered that he considered it. If that changed, well, then, maybe she’d go back to her old ways.

“I hope so, girly.” He didn’t sound convinced.

“It’s true.” She blew out an exasperated breath. “It’s like you don’t trust me.” There was a whine to the words, and it wasn’t entirely fake.

It hurt that he was so suspicious. It wasn’t logical, since he had good reason to be, but still. And then she realized she had the perfect way to get him out of the house.

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