Page 27 of Taming His Brat

Starting the day off with punishment probably would have put most people in a bad mood, but for her it was settling. And she’d missed working the ranch, so it was good to have an excuse to go in, even if her mother got annoyed about her not being with her all day. Plus, she was sick of wearing dresses and skirts all the time.

There was no way she was going to work in anything but pants, but she did have a moment of regret when she slipped into jeans. A skirt would have been more comfortable; the denim rubbed harshly across the spanked skin and it chaffed.

But she buttoned them up, threw on her boots and was ready to go. Sam kindly handed her a cup of hot coffee when she came out of the bedroom. It had cream and sugar enough to cool it so she could gulp it fast before he pushed her out the door and they hurried to the warmth of the barn.

Everyone was already working, and the assignments had been given out by Ben, but Sam stepped in and rearranged a few things to make sure she had work to do. She didn’t even bother pulling attitude with him when he gave her the worst job of the morning; she’d expected it.

Wheeling barrows full of horse crap out to the manure pit was zero fun, and it stunk—literally. Going in and out of the barn didn’t make it any better either, though at least outside the crisp cold air kept the smell down. But she’d done it before, and she knew the routine.

Her father had made it clear from her earliest days that no job on the ranch was beneath them. Owner or hand, it all needed to be done. She still remembered how he’d explained it. “Charlie, this might be our place, and we might pay people to work for us, but we still have a responsibility to pitch in. A rancher should know every single job, big or small, on their spread. And they should be willing to do any chore no matter how unpleasant it is.”

He’d made sure the lesson stuck by rotating her through all of the work, just like any other hand. Her chores had always been appropriate for her skills, and in some cases her height, but other than that she’d taken the same share of the garbage jobs that everyone got. Shoveling poop and hauling it away was just one ofmanygross jobs she’d done.

And her father had tended to enforce discipline by giving people he was annoyed at the worst assignments too, so this wasn’t even the first time she’d been punished this way. Her Daddy taking a page out of her father’s book kind of amused her on some level.

She did her best to breathe through her mouth so she didn’t gag and went about getting it done without complaining, the way Jimmy would have expected her to. The approving nod from Sam made it worth it when she finished up and reported back to him. It wasn’t the only task he had for her and her morning was busy and long, but when they stopped for lunch, he pulled her aside.

“I know you’re probably wanting to get up to see your mother, but since you tend to get distracted and lose the whole day up there, I want you to get some other things done first. Head home and start the chores in the house you’ve been skipping to start with.”

She’d been feeling guilty about that, so she didn’t even argue, only sighed and nodded. Sam wasn’t a typical messy guy and he liked things neat. He usually picked up after himself as well as doing his share of the regular cleaning. She was the one who had been slacking on it, but with only three rooms it wouldn’t take long.

“And then after that I want you to put some time into researching your schooling plans. You’re the one who decided you wanted to go back and you’re probably too late to enroll for the next semester now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get things lined up.” He gave her a stern look, eyes piercing as he waited to see how she’d react.

She saw her day vanishing and it was a little frustrating. She did want to get up to see her mother and knew Vicky was going to be sulky about her not showing up until later. But she honestly couldn’t argue with anything he was saying. All her plans had gone into stasis since her mother had arrived. She’d just completely dropped the ball on everything and part of her was feeling relieved that Sam was taking charge.

“Yes Daddy… then can I go visit?”

He seemed to be considering. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully, but finally he gave a reluctant nod. “Yeah, then you can go and if you want to have dinner with her that’s fine, but I want you home by seven. I’m done with barely seeing you for days at a time, got it?” There was a clear warning there and she had a feeling she wouldn’t like the consequences if she forgot to be home on time.

Later, after she’d finished her work she stopped before she left the house and set the alarm on her phone, just to make sure. It wasn’t the best visit. Vicky was mad she’d come late and seemed even more annoyed when she found out that Charlie had spent the morning working on the ranch.

“You’re the owner. You don’t need to do that,” she complained.

Charlie definitely wasn’t going to explain that she hadn’t had a choice because it was punishment. She also knew that Jimmy’s philosophy about how owners needed to do their share wasn’t going to fly with her mother. Vicky wanted no part of any dirty ranch work, so she just tried to guide the conversation into other topics.

Her mother was pleased that Charlie was staying for dinner, right up until she suggested they go out to eat. “I’d like to Mom, but I need to go by 6:45 so there won’t be time.”

She was expecting more irritation and she wasn’t wrong. What she wasn’t expecting was for Vicky to suddenly turn cold. She was used to her mother being whiney, and at times petulant. She’d seen anger too, though only in small doses that Vicky quickly suppressed.

This was new. Her mother looked hurt and turned away from Charlie to walk into the kitchen. She was silent as she pulled groceries from the fridge and started making dinner. Vicky didn’t cook, not really. She seemed to live mostly on salads and that was what she was lining up on the counter.

Charlie had followed along behind her, but Vicky seemed to be ignoring her. Finally, she couldn’t take the silence any longer. “Mom?”

“What is it, Charlie?” she said, without looking up.

“Are you upset?”

Vicky brought a knife down harder than necessary and sent a chunk of onion skittering across the counter and onto the floor. “Of course I’m upset. I barely saw you all day, and now you tell me you have to leave. I’m starting to wonder if I’ve overstayed my welcome.”

It struck Charlie hard like a punch in the gut. “No! No, of course not! Mom, you know I want to spend as much time with you as I can. I’ve been having such a great time getting to know you it’s just… there are other things I’ve got to do too.”

“I just thought after almost twenty years apart you’d be able to put things aside for me. It’s not like you have a nine-to-five job that you have to be at, or you’ll get fired. You only work when you want to. So, you must want to.” The tone was ice-cold, and Vicky still wasn’t looking at her.

Charlie’s stomach churned and she felt queasy. “It’s not—that’s not … Sam needed me today. We both own the ranch, and he works every day so it’s not really fair if I don’t help out.” It was the most vanilla explanation she could think of that might soothe her mother, but Vicky was having none of it.

“He’s the foreman, you said. Seems to me like he should have things under control without needing my little girl to go pitch in.” She sniffed derisively.

“Hedoeshave things under control, mom …” She sighed. It was becoming clear that Vicky wasn’t a big fan of Sam, and vice versa and she really hated to be between them. “Being in control means knowing when you need an extra pair of hands, and I’m not a little girl anymore. I’m a skilled worker who just happens to also own half of the ranch.”

---