Page 14 of Taming His Brat

She didn’t speak for a while, and he was starting to think she’d fallen asleep in his lap when she finally spoke up again. “I think maybe it will be good for me. One way or the other it could clear up some of my baggage.”

“Maybe, but Charlie, you do need to be careful. I don’t want you getting hurt and you really don’t know this woman, even if she’s your mom—wait… are you actually sure she’s your mom? I mean, did she show you proof?”

It suddenly occurred to him that Charlie was now fairly well-off. She wasn’t going to be buying mansions, but she had a decent chunk of change tied up in stocks and investments. That kind of money tended to lure in predators like a wounded cow attracted coyotes.

She shifted, leaning back to look up at him with a frown on her face. “No … I guess I didn’t think to ask. I mean it would have been rude, but I suppose I need to make sure.” She rolled her bottom lip under and bit it as she thought about it. “Oh, Mike would know. I mean he’s been here forever. He must have met her back then.”

Sam nodded, “Might be a good idea to bring him over to the house tomorrow for a ‘reunion’ just to be sure and then we can go from there.”

Just having a next step in place seemed to make Charlie feel better and she relaxed back against him while they watched the fire. Sam wasn’t feeling nearly as relaxed and his thoughts were turbulent as he considered the many ways that this could end up hurting his girl.

She did finally fall asleep in his arms and he picked her up carefully and carried her into the bedroom. She barely roused as he undressed her and tucked her under the covers. He slipped her stuffed bunny into her arms in case her dreams turned dark, and then he went to make himself dinner.

His stomach growled angrily, not surprising since he’d gotten used to eating as soon as he walked in the door. He dug around in the fridge and threw together a few sandwiches as a quick meal. He ate them in front of the fire, so lost in thought he barely noticed them disappearing bite by bite until the plate was empty.

If Charlie’s mother was there to get to know her daughter, then he was all for them reconnecting. If she just needed a place to stay for a few weeks he was fine with that too. The big house had plenty of space and it would probably take at least that long for construction work to start.

But if this woman, who had appeared out of nowhere, was there to cause Charlie pain then he was going to have to find a way to deal with the situation. She would want to handle this on her own; she was stubborn that way. He had no choice but to let her, but that wasn’t going to stop him from doing some snooping in the meantime just to make sure things were legit.

She’d had a good idea about talking to Mike, and he planned to have a conversation with him as well. If that didn’t pan out, he could always hit up the lawyer who managed the estate. With the way the trust was set up, Sam had no choice but to confer with the lawyer on a monthly basis about the budget and over time he’d come to respect Morris.

He went to bed planning to take care of both of those things first thing in the morning, but things didn’t end up going that way. Instead, they woke up to a whole passel of new problems, not unusual ones for a ranch, but it kept him busy the whole morning.

The weather had taken a turn and the blustery autumn winds had switched to rain, which at some point early in the morning had frozen over into a solid sheet of ice. He discovered this when he set foot outside the door and promptly landed on his ass with a bellow of pain that had Charlie running to see what happened.

“Sam! Are you okay?” She leaned out, to get a better look but seemed hesitant to try to get to him in case she ended up landing in the same situation. “The weatherman needs a new job. He didn’t say anything about freezing temperatures yesterday.”

But they both knew that the reports could be wildly unpredictable in their area. The mountains created their own little weather system. “I’m alright. Just my pride, I think. I landed on my ass.”

“Usually when someone gets a sore butt it means they were naughty. Were you a bad Daddy?” Charlie asked, with innocence dripping from every word.

He growled. “Girl, you’re lucky I can’t get to you right now or I’d show you a sore butt. Go get the salt for the stairs.” There was a big bag of it just inside the door and he was glad he’d thought to stock up early.

As she started sprinkling the steps liberally, he made a second attempt to get up. He gave her credit for not laughing outright as she watched him do a wild flailing dance before he crashed back down again. After the second fall he just lay there on his back, staring up at the foreboding grey sky and let out a long sigh. “It’s way too early for this shit,” he grumbled.

But the salt started to work, just not as fast as he would have liked. He was freezing and, in the end, he still had to half-crawl back into the house to avoid another slip. He ignored the expression on Charlie’s face as she made every effort not to laugh at how comical he’d looked.

“Okay, I’m officially starting this morning over. I’m getting back in the shower, and I’m going to pretend like this never happened,” he said. He needed another hot shower too, mostly because he was chilled to the bone and his clothes were soaked anyway.

He took a minute to grab his phone and call Ben to warn him about the ice. Chances were good he’d already noticed, but sometimes they got hit with very localized weather effects, so it was better to let him know. His second had gate keys and was usually the first in, so he could go out and sand the dirt road if it needed it.

By the time he was out of his second shower of the day, dressed, and ready to make another attempt he was running nearly an hour later than usual. But the salt had pitted the ice until it was safer, and Charlie had filled a thermos with hot coffee for him to take.

“I take it the horses are staying in today?” she asked.

Normally the horses were out all day but stabled at night. They tried to keep them in the stalls as little as possible because they didn’t get much exercise in there but once the weather changed the balance shifted.

“Yeah, not risking a leg while it’s this slippery. Maybe in the afternoon if the ice melts. I guess we’ll have to move the cows over to the winter fields sooner than planned too.” He was resigned but not happy about the speeding timetable. It had been almost a sure bet that they had a few more weeks to prepare, but he’d manage.

He dug his ice grips out of the closet and wrapped them around the bottom of his work boots. There wouldn’t be any slipping with those in place.

“Do you think you can get by without me today? I know I was supposed to work, but …”

He knew exactly what the but was. She wanted to go see her mother, and since he wanted to have a talk with Mike privately that worked out for him. “I think we can get by,” he said.

“Thanks, Sam! If you need me just send someone to the big house to let me know.” She threw her arms around his shoulders in a grateful hug and he turned to drop a light kiss on her cheek.

“Just remember what I said and be careful until we know what’s going on, okay?”

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