Page 13 of Taming His Brat

She was tucked in a corner with her legs pulled up to her chest. He couldn’t see her face, with her hair spilling forward to cover it—for a second, he had a flashback to the night before as he reached out to push it back behind her ear. But the look on her face at the moment was far from happy. Her eyes were red and swollen and it was clear she’d been crying for a while.

He sat down next to her and scooped her into his lap. “Hey, what happened, darlin’?” He thought maybe something had reminded her of her father and set her off. That happened sometimes. She was still processing the grief and the pain would sneak up on her.

She shook her head and buried her face against his chest. As she clung to him a fresh spate of tears erupted, and he was left feeling helpless. He rubbed her back in slow gentle circles and whispered soothing things to her, but until she told him what was going on there was nothing else he could do.

The words came slowly, in short bursts, and they were hard to understand. At first, he couldn’t figure out what she was trying to say. But when it all clicked, he understood why she was so upset. Anyone would be shocked to have a long-lost parent suddenly show up out of the blue. And the revelation that maybe she hadn’t been lost by her own choice, but by Jimmy’s—well, that had to be painful.

Charlie was taking his death hard and struggling with guilt over her (in his opinion) reasonable anger at him. This wasn’t going to make any of it easier. “Damn. I—I’m sorry, Charlie girl. That’s a whole hell of a lot to take in.” He sighed and settled back, shifting her in his arms until she was lying against him in a more comfortable position.

“So, is she staying in town? Or did she just go back to wherever she came from?” He smoothed her hair.

Charlie stiffened in his arms, going tense. She mumbled something he couldn’t hear, and he had to ask her to repeat it.

“I t-told her she could stay in the house for a while,” she admitted in a small voice.

“You … what? Charlie, are you sure that’s a good idea?” He did his best not to sound like he was mad or judging her for the decision. If it had been his to make, he wasn’t sure what he would have done either.

“No, no I’m not but I didn’t know what else to do. She’s in a bad place and she was expecting my father to help. I don’t—I don’t know if he would have helped her, but she seemed to think he owed her, and you know how Jimmy was about his debts and promises.”

Her father was an honorable sort who did his best to keep his word and always paid off his debts, so yes, if he owed Charlie’s mother, he might have put her up for a while. But the truth was, and he didn’t want to point this out to Charlie, they didn’t know if she was telling them the whole story.

“I don’t know, Charlie girl. It all sounds kind of …” He trailed off, and then sighed. It was one of those times when being her Daddy and bossing her around conflicted with decisions she needed to make for herself. He would have sent the woman packing because he had a bad feeling about the whole thing.

But it was her house and her mother. It was a complicated mess and as much as he wanted to step in and take the burden from her, he knew he couldn’t—not unless she asked him to.

“I know, Sam. I do know. It’s just … aside from that it’s my chance to maybe get to know her. Is that wrong? I know I shouldn’t get invested in this, but I’ve always wondered what it would have been like if she stayed. And I just …” The words were cut off, replaced with muffled sobbing as she pressed her face against his work shirt.

He had a sense of foreboding. He’d known Jimmy as well as anyone and his instincts told him that if Jimmy had kept her mom out of the picture there was a reason. Still, it wasn’t what Charlie wanted to hear just then. All he could do was comfort her as she cried and listen as she vented her feelings.

Eventually she wore herself out. She didn’t seem sleepy so instead of tucking her in he tried something else. “Why don’t you let me take care of you tonight, Charlie. Just relax and let me handle things, okay?”

She sniffled and nodded. He released her, tucking her back into the corner of the couch and covering her with a blanket.

“I’m going to make some hot cocoa,” he explained as he got up. Her face brightened immediately, and he ruffled her hair before heading to the kitchen. He could see her easily from where he was and could be by her side in a second if she started to cry again.

Charlie’s inner child only peeked out on rare occasions, mostly when she was upset, but he cherished those moments because it meant he got to take care of her. He’d come to realize that their relationship went beyond Daddy kink for him. He was very much a Daddy Dom and while Charlie wasn’t a Little, she did sometimes need that kind of affectionate parental care.

They didn’t really try to define it any deeper than that and there was no reason to. When she was sad or scared, she slipped into a more vulnerable mindset. It felt younger to him, though not in an ageplay way. It was more that she needed him deeply, needed him to take over and he was happy to do so.

When he brought the hot cocoa back to her, she reached for the steaming mug eagerly. “Be careful, Charlie girl. Don’t burn yourself,” he warned her.

She rolled her eyes at that, but when his eyebrow went up, she immediately settled down and remembered her manners. “Thank you, Daddy. This is exactly what I needed.”

She blew on it gently, but he knew her patience would give out before it was cool, and she’d end up burning her mouth on it. She always did and he always shook his head with a complete lack of surprise.

And just as he completed that thought she gave up blowing and took a hasty sip. It played out exactly as expected and he couldn’t help laughing. “Every time, Charlie. Every single time.”

“I can’t help it. It smells too good to wait.”

“Uh-huh.” He turned to the cold fireplace and went to work building a fire. Nothing relaxed Charlie more than a fire; he felt the same. It took him a few minutes to get the kindling going before he could add in some larger pieces of wood, but once it was crackling cheerfully, he settled back on the couch and pulled her into his lap again.

She nestled against his chest, tucking her head under his chin as his arms wrapped around her. Their sex life was fantastic, the kinky parts were always exciting and never ceased to be interesting, but this… these quiet moments where they could just be together meant everything to him.

He loved her with all his heart and their relationship was growing into more than he could ever have hoped for. He just hoped her mother showing up wasn’t going to cause a problem.

Almost as if she knew where his thoughts had gone, she sighed. “You think it was a mistake to let her stay, don’t you?”

He rubbed her back in small gentle circles and thought about how to answer the question without upsetting her. “I think that Jimmy usually had reasons for the things he did, but I can’t always say I agree with them. Without knowing the whole story … I just can’t say, Charlie.”

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