Page 1 of Keeping His Brat

Chapter 1

“Charlotte McGee! What the hell are you doing!” Sam yelled from inside the truck. He knew she couldn’t hear him, not just because the window was up but also because the heavy black storm clouds had thrown out a massive roll of thunder at just that moment.

The immense sound of it rumbled on and on and obscured anything else he might have yelled. He glared through the water-streaked window and banged on the glass uselessly. The winter was wearing him down and the last thing he wanted to do was go out into the downpour to get her.

When she hadn’t returned by the time the storm started, he’d gotten worried and gone looking for her. If he hadn’t been driving so slow because of the heavy rain he would have gone right by, because she had no business being where she was to begin with.

He’d still almost driven right past her; visibility was just about zero but luckily the headlights picked up the white fur collar on her coat and he’d stopped to get a closer look. He’d expected to find some loose heads of cattle in the unused field, not his girl.

He fumbled the door open and tumbled out into the torrential downpour. He hadn’t taken the time to grab a coat and his shirt was instantly soaked through by the chilling icy rain as he slogged his way over to the fence. “Charlie!” His hands were cupped around his mouth to make himself heard, and she stopped and looked up, shielding her eyes from the water that poured over her face.

“Sam? Thank god, I need help over here!” she yelled back, pointing desperately at the struggling shape in front of her. He couldn’t see more than a giant shadow, but it wasn’t hard to guess what it was.

He moved down to the gate and let himself into the pasture. Between the rain and the darkness, he had to pick his way carefully across the field. Breaking an ankle wouldn’t help anyone. By the time he made it to her he was almost frozen and gasping from the shock of cold. The temperature was low enough to turn the water to ice before too much longer and the biting wind made it even worse.

It blew the rain straight into his face with such a heavy blast that he inhaled it and choked at least twice. Raising his arm in front of his face did almost nothing to protect him as he tried to get to her.

When he finally got close, he could see the problem immediately. One of their beef cows had stumbled into the barbed wire fence and had somehow gotten tangled and caught. She’d pulled part of the fence down when she fell, but the barbed wire was still attached to the poles. It was wrapped tightly around her neck and every time she thrashed it cut in deeper.

Charlie was half kneeling on the panicking cow, trying to hold her still so it didn’t get worse. It left her stuck. She couldn’t do thatandreach the pole to unhook the wire—not with her hands shaking from the cold, and not without tools.

“She’s stuck and I can’t get her loose.” She was nearly shouting and even so he had to lean in to make out what she was saying, the roar of the storm was just too loud.

“Charlie—fuck, hold on.” He wanted to drag her back to the truck and take her home before they both turned into blocks of ice. Storms were dangerous near the mountains and the only light was the dim headlights from the truck back on the road. What Charlie was doing was risky as hell.

It wasn’t unusual to lose a few cows over the course of the winter, but he knew his Charlie and he knew she wasn’t going to walk away to leave the animal struggling. Hell, for that matter he probably wouldn’t either. He hated seeing an animal in pain; acceptable losses or not, he wouldn’t have been able to leave the poor thing stuck.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to whup Charlie’s ass later for risking herself, but for now he just needed to help her.

It took him about two seconds to cut himself on the barbed wire and he hissed angrily as the blood welled up and was washed away immediately. His hands weren’t working properly, and the metal strands were slippery and wrapped so tight he could barely fit a finger underneath. “We’re going to have to cut the wire,” he said.

“What?” She tilted her head, trying to hear him.

“Hold on! I’ll get the clippers!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs, trying to be heard over the loud rumbling from the sky.

She nodded and got a better grip on the heaving animal. Luckily the cow had nearly worn herself out with all the struggling and had given up. She cried plaintively as she lay on her side. Sam made his way to the vehicle as fast as he could and a few seconds of frantic digging in back had recovered a pair of heavy wire clippers, and a flashlight. The light made the trip back across the field a lot easier.

It took several snips to loosen the barbed wire, and the second the animal felt the strands start to give, she began thrashing again and wailing loudly. A full-grown cow was no lightweight and it took all of Charlie’s strength to keep her pinned down so that Sam could carefully unwrap the metal from around her neck with the flashlight held between his teeth so he could see.

As soon as it was off, he dropped the light and warned Charlie, shouting, “Move! She’s free!” as he jumped back. On the other side Charlie scrambled to get out of the way as the cow heaved herself to her feet and then stood there panting and shaking her head in confusion. After a few seconds she ambled off to find the herd and Charlie bent down to grab the loose barbed wire.

“Leave it,” Sam said, grabbing her arm.

“We need to fix the fence.”

“Fuck the fence! We’ll fix it tomorrow when the storm’s over.” He pulled and she reluctantly dropped the coil and followed him back to the truck. As soon as they were both inside, he blasted the heat while they huddled close to the vents, shaking violently.

He didn’t even have the energy to yell at her, yet.

It didn’t take long for heat to fill the truck and the shivering slowed down enough to be bearable. His hands still felt like chunks of ice, but he could flex his fingers now. The cut he’d taken from the barbed wire was bleeding sluggishly but a quick check showed it wasn’t deep enough to worry about. His tetanus shots were up to date; working on a ranch meant keeping on top of things like that.

The storm raged on and showed no signs of stopping as he carefully turned the battered old truck around and headed home. Even with the gravel topping the dirt road it was rapidly turning to mud, and between that and the low visibility he had no choice but to drive back at a crawl.

He pulled up next to the small cabin and parked, shutting it off and leaving the keys in the ignition where they always stayed. There was no danger of anyone stealing it and he liked to keep it ready for problems that popped up. A few minutes searching for keys could make a big difference when something went wrong.

Something like having to track down his girlfriend when she ignored an oncoming storm and didn’t return with the rest of the ranch hands.

They’d remained silent until that point. At first it was because their teeth were chattering too hard to talk and the roads were starting to ice over. He had to keep his full concentration on driving. Once they were safely parked it was because he was furious, and Charlie knew it. He could feel her sneaking quick nervous glances at him.

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