Page 21 of Keeping His Brat

“It’s phlegm, Charlie. It’s not supposed to look good.”

“You know what I mean. Who’s being the smart ass now?” She scowled at him, both hands on her hips. “You’re not taking me seriously.”

“Charlie girl, I’m fine. It’s just a cold or something.” He tried to brush off her concerns, avoiding her gaze as he returned to drying off. The truth was, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so bad. Even standing up was tiring him out.

“You never get sick like this, Sam. So, I’m taking this seriously and you are too, or else I’ll throw such a tantrum they’ll hear me screaming in town.”

That was a little bossier than he could excuse. One eyebrow went up as he narrowed his eyes and swept a stern look in her direction. “Have you forgotten who’s in charge here, little girl?” The effect was ruined when he wobbled and had to grab the edge of the counter for balance.

“Apparently me since you’re too sick to do anything about it right now.” The smug look on her face dared him to prove otherwise, but she was right. They both knew it. “I guess if you want to whup my butt for this, you’ll just have to get better quick. C’mon, the bed is changed let’s get you back into it.”

He couldn’t really argue with much of that. He didn’t fuss when she took his arm to support him back to the bed either, but he did have enough energy to land a good hard swat on her ass for being uppity with him. It was more for his own pride than anything.

She yelped and shot him a dirty look, but the swat must have settled her worries some because he could feel the tension relaxing in her body.

“I’ll never be too sick to spank your ass, Charlie. Just watch yourself,” he said, warning her. Once he was settled down on the clean crisp sheets the last of his strength ebbed away and he felt limp with exhaustion. By the time she climbed in besides him he was half asleep, but her warm body cuddled up against him felt good.

Chapter 6

Charlie struggled to sleep for a long time after Sam’s breathing evened out. She was worried, and aside from that she was also feeling a little guilty again. They’d both gotten a good dousing in icy rain the night before. Chilled skin and shivering that went on for ages couldn’t have been good for him.

No doubt it had made whatever he had worse, and that was her fault. All of it. If she hadn’t made a whole series of small mistakes that had led to him having to rescue her in the middle of a violent storm, she was sure he wouldn’t be as sick as he was.

The spanking the night before had been enough to cancel out the guilt she’d felt about worrying him and messing up. It didn’t really cover this and that was something she was going to have to deal with on her own. She shoved all of those feeling down as she cuddled against his body.

His temperature was going up again. She could feel the fever rising against her skin and she was worried. Colds and flus were normal things in the winter, but Sam was resilient. He could toss things like that off easily. And the coughing he’d been doing … it sounded thick and liquid.

She hated the sound of it. It made her stomach clench in fear.

In all the years she’d known Sam, she’d never seen a sickness take him down so hard. Maybe it had happened during the years they weren’t together, when she was off at school, but she was used to him being so strong and healthy. He rarely took days off even when he had a bug. He might hole up alone in the office to work so he didn’t pass it around to everyone else, but he rarely let sickness hold him back.

The way he sounded and looked right now, there was no way in hell she was going to let him go to work in the morning. And Daddy or not she was going to make him stay in bed. Being the determined woman she was, Charlie was semi-confident she could make that stick and the knowledge helped her relax enough to sleep.

She woke hours later when she felt him struggling to get out of bed. It took nearly a minute for the sleep fog to clear enough for her to remember. It probably would have taken longer if sitting up hadn’t set him to hacking away. The paroxysm of coughing was so loud and violent that she was instantly reminded.

Charlie sat up quickly and crawled over to kneel behind him. Her hand settled on his bare back and rubbed slow circles there, subconsciously imitating the way he soothed her. “Want some water?” she asked, when there was a pause.

He shook his head but didn’t try to speak. There was another long round of harsh coughing before he could finally catch his breath to say something. The first word out of his mouth was, “Damn.”

“Yeah, you’re not going to work today,” Charlie said firmly. Her arms slid around his chest, and she hugged his body.

“Gotta at least make an appearance, darlin’. Once I get things going, I’ll come back home and lay down.”

“No. Not a chance.” She let go of him and scooted around to the side to get off the bed. “I’ll go. And don’t tell me no. I can talk to Ben. I’ll let him know you’re sick. He knows what to do. It’s not like he’s never handled things without you before.”

“Charlie, you’re overreacting. I’m fine,” Sam said as he stood up, swayed, and then sat back down hard.

She glared at him, and he said nothing for a long moment.

He gave in with a sigh. “Okay, you’re right. I guess taking one day off won’t hurt.”

They’d see if one day off was enough, but she doubted it. She shelved the argument until they knew more. She grabbed some clothes and yanked them on quickly. His alarm hadn’t gone off and it was later than he usually headed over, so she hurried.

She wondered why—Oh right, his phone is dead. There was a certain irony to him not having a working phone, but she kept that to herself. He wouldn’t be too weak to spank her forever, and she didn’t want him to have a list when he got better. Instead, she took a more productive tack.

“Sam where’s your old phone?”

“Huh?” His eyes were half-closed, and he’d fallen back, already almost asleep.

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