Page 36 of Taming His Brat

“I was only trying to help, honey.” Vicky sniffed and then dabbed at her eyes again. “I didn’t mean to cause so much trouble.”

“I know. It’s— I understand, but please, don’t do it again. I’m glad you’re here but these are my decisions to make.” Charlie sighed and rubbed her forehead as she looked around the nearly empty room. There was a line of boxes by the wall and she went over to look inside. Her father’s clothes, all neatly folded, filled them.

“You’re right. I guess I have to accept that you’re an adult now. I suppose I can’t really protect you from the hard things. I missed my chance for that when you were younger, and we can’t turn back the clock. My fault…” There was a soft sound, like a muffled sob and Charlie knew without looking that Vicky was crying.

A mean thought rushed through her mind that if Vicky really wanted to help, she’d be the one comforting Charlie instead of the other way around. She felt a stab of guilt for thinking it. She pushed aside her own upset to pull her mother into a hug. “You can’t make decisions for me, but I appreciate you trying to help. I do.”

Vicky clung to her. “I don’t think your boyfriend likes me much at all… I don’t understand why; he barely knows me. He accused me of terrible things before you got here. I think—maybe I should just go. I would hate to cause trouble between the two of you.”

Charlie stiffened and pulled back. That was exactly what she was afraid of, but she tried to stay calm. “Don’t be silly, Mom. You can stay as long as you want. Sam’s just … he’s protective of me. He always has been since we were kids.”

“But I really think he wants me to leave. I know I interrupted your plans on the house and I—”

“It’sfine. The construction will happen, and Sam will relax when he gets to know you.” Charlie somehow doubted that, but it would be nice if it did happen.

The look on Vicky’s face said she didn’t believe that either. Her pretty mouth turned into a frown. “I don’t know…”

Charlie could feel her stress levels rising. The thought of losing her mother now was enough to make her stomach churn. “Mom, promise you won’t vanish on me. Not after we’re finally getting a chance to know each other.”

“I—”

“Please?” Charlie poured everything into that plea. All her emotions and the need for Vicky to stay echoed in the single word, and she watched the older woman’s waffling expression resolve into a slight smile.

“If that’s what you want, honey. I guess I can stay a little longer.” She sniffed and shook her head. “Not like I have any place to go yet anyway. I’m still working on a few things, but in two weeks I should have a place.”

“Well, until you do, you can stay here,” Charlie said firmly.

Vicky acquiesced, and Charlie okayed the moving van’s departure. It felt weird saying goodbye to the heavy old furniture that had been in the house longer than she had. In a way it was like saying goodbye to her father again and she turned away long before the truck was out of sight.

She spent the early afternoon with Vicky and neither of them brought up what had happened. Her mother didn’t even complain when she left before sunset, and Charlie appreciated that because she wanted to get home before Sam. Having dinner ready on the table would probably help to calm him down.

She had no doubt he was still going to be mad about what happened, and she was right. Dinner was strained as they both ate in silence. She kept thinking about what Vicky had said and wondered if Sam had really accused her of something. Had he been rude to her mother? Or was Vicky just overreacting from upset, as she was prone to doing.

She’d hoped being home when he arrived, with dinner ready, would soothe the problems so they could just move on, but it didn’t work. Talking about it didn’t help either and she kept thinking about what Vicky had said. She was starting to feel like maybe Sam did have issues with Vicky that he couldn’t look past. It was painful and she didn’t know what to do.

Over the next few weeks Vicky behaved like the perfect mom. She went out of her way to plan fun things for them to do together, even things that obviously weren’t her cup of tea. A disastrous attempt at baking cookies together had them both waving the smoke out the back door and laughing. But despite the failure to create snacks, Charlie felt closer than ever to her mother.

Vicky even seemed to be making an effort about Sam. She stopped sneaking in underhanded criticisms and even asked how he was.

Sam on the other hand … well, he didn’t bring up Vicky but the stern worried look on his face all the time was probably related. Anytime she mentioned her mother it made him twitch and his answers were always careful and neutral.

She appreciated not having to fight about it, but what she wanted was for Vicky and Sam to be friends, if not family. And she couldn’t help but see Sam’s stubbornness as the barrier to that happening, because Vicky was at least willing to pretend.

Sam wasn’t really the problem in this situation, and she knew it. She just couldn’t admit it because then she’d have to explain that she wanted Vicky there enough to overlook the problems. She wasn’t stupid and she had occasional moments of clarity about who was causing the trouble, but they were fleeting and vanished when she spent time with her mother.

She was sure eventually things would get better, but then it all came crashing down. She’d been picking up at least two days a week at the ranch and that morning she’d ridden out to the winter pastures with a few of the hands, just to check on things.

The herds had shelter and water, and there was no snow yet so they would still be able to forage for food. But if the grazing was getting lean, they’d need to cut open bales to add to the feed. Halfway there the hands split up and headed off in different directions. That’s when she realized she’d forgotten her pocketknife on Sam’s desk. It was a dumbass mistake and she cursed herself as she turned the horse around and headed back to the main barn to snag it.

But just outside of Sam’s office she heard her name mentioned, and then Vicky’s. Naturally she stopped to listen. Sam sounded so angry, so cold as the two men talked. His theory that Vicky had been the one calling around about selling the ranch came out.

Charlie covered her mouth to muffle the gasp. She couldn’t really even process that possibility at first. The idea that Vicky would step that far over the line hit her hard, but Sam believing that and not telling her was just as painful.

She couldn’t handle confronting him about it, especially not with Mike there in full agreement that Vicky was a horrible person. She backed out of the barn feeling numb and was faced with the waiting horse. As much as she wanted to run away, she still had a job to do.

With a borrowed knife she headed back out to the field. She went through the mental checklist without conscious thought, barely paying attention to the cattle that crowded around her to get at the hay she released. Once she was done, she took care of her horse and then went home.

She waited for the expected panic attack, but it didn’t come. Instead, there was just a complete lack of emotion as she sat at the kitchen table lost in thought. She felt detached from her body, but not in a good way. It wasn’t the fun floating separation that came from a good scene. This was a cold emptiness.

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