Page 38 of Keeping His Brat

As usual Marilee had helped her to the right conclusion, but that didn’t solve the time problem. She promised herself and her therapist that when things slowed down, she’d work on it. That was good enough for the moment. It had to be. She didn’t have any other ideas.

Taking Sam’s place in the ranch office did give her some insight into how things were done. She’d never really seen this side of things before. This work had always been done by her father or Sam. Now, she was getting hands-on experience with being a manager.

The perspective made her appreciate Sam more. She wasn’t sure she had quite the right touch when it came to dealing with the workers, especially the men. They listened to her, of course. They knew she was half-owner, so they could hardly do anything else. But there was always that pause… that look that said, ‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing?’.

Charlie didn’t know if it was because she was a woman or because most of them had seen her grow up. It wasn’t a problem they seemed to have with Sam running things and he’d grown up there too. He’d also been foreman for many years though; maybe it had been hard for him at the start too.

She stuffed down the irritation and tried not to show how annoyed she was. It made her want to try new things. She had so many ideas and going back to school to learn more about ranching had only given her more. There were things she knew would make the ranch more efficient.

The temptation to introduce a few of the less shocking changes was almost overwhelming and on Sam’s fourth day in the hospital she gave in. It might not have happened if Ben hadn’t paused to question her on a fairly simple order. She knew that Jeff was one of their worst workers, prone to slacking off whenever he wasn’t watched. Hadn’t she heard Sam complain about him enough times?

But she also knew that Jeff was good with his hands. She wanted him pulled off the stable scutwork and moved over to do repairs on one of the winter cow shelters. The storm had torn off a chunk of roofing and left one side buckled. The structure was now in danger of falling over. The weather was unpredictable at this time of year, and she wanted it fixed fast by someone who was good at building.

“But Charlie, you know … Jeff isn’t really good without supervision.”

“Yes, I know that. He also hates to freeze his ass off out in the cold. So, you tell him that he’s going to be out there all day until it’s done. If it’s not done today, he’ll be out there all day tomorrow too.”

“But if you want it done fast …” Ben was all frowns and uncertainty.

“I do. That’s why we’re sending someone who is skilled enough to do it fast and would prefer to be working in the nice warm barn. Make it clear he’s going to be out there until it’s finished, and he’ll get it done as fast as he can.”

His expression cleared like the dawning of the sun. “Ohhhh. Right, yeah. Good thinking!” And off he went to tell Jeff the good news.

This was one of the reasons Ben would never make a good foreman. He followed the rules and what he knew in a linear fashion. Thinking outside the box was beyond him. Once she’d explained it, he was happy to comply, but she was tired of explaining things. She’d never seen Sam questioned like that.

If someone tried, he probably wouldn’t have bothered to explain it and they knew it, so therewasthat. She needed to stop feeling like she had to show them her reasoning and just tell them to do it. It was hard. She didn’t have the confidence Sam had.

It pushed her into going ahead and making some changes that she knew would show results. In her mind it seemed like it was the best way to convince the hands she knew what she was doing. It started with small things, like reorganizing the tack room and supply rooms in ways that made more sense.

After his first day in the hospital, Sam had insisted she come and visit only after the workday ended at the ranch. He told her that one of them needed to be there and she didn’t like it, but it did make sense.

It was an hour roundtrip to the hospital, on top of a long workday. That left her tired when she arrived and unable to stay more than an hour or two. By eight she would start to yawn, and he would send her packing. “I don’t want you driving in the dark when you’re tired,” he said each time.

That was logical. It made sense, but she wasn’t sure that was the whole story. Charlie tried to accept it. It was clearly hard for him to relax when she was there, and part of her understood that.

She just didn’t like it much. It gave her a good excuse not to tell him what she was doing at home. After all, since they had so little time, there was no sense focusing on work.

“How are things running? Having any problems?” Sam would ask.

“Nope, everything is going just fine. It’s too early for problems and you’ll be home before calving season starts. Don’t worry,” she would reply with a sweet smile of reassurance.

That was all he needed to hear to relax and then they would move on to other topics. Unfortunately finding a topic they could discuss that didn’t involve hiding the truth from him wasn’t easy. He asked about her schoolwork, and she had to exaggerate how much she was getting done. If he knew how slowly her projects were coming, he would make her work on them while she was there. Worse, he might not let her visit at all.

So, she omitted a lot, while doing her best not to let him see she wasn’t being honest with him. It would never have worked normally. Being sick made his attention spotty and the massive doses of antibiotics had his stomach a mess on top of it. It was much easier than usual to distract him from any unpleasant topics.

The one difficult discussion they did need to have each day was the one about his health. He was recovering more slowly than the doctor had hoped. A few days turned into a week before they even allowed him to move to a regular room.

Charlie had a feeling there had been at least one crisis during the hours she wasn’t there. Sam wouldn’t talk about it and without his permission the nurses wouldn’t either, but his medications had been changed. The new antibiotics seemed to be working better but made him miserable.

To help him rest easier they’d added anti-nausea pills and other things she wasn’t sure about. She was there one night when a nurse came in with his medication. Charlie was shocked at how many pills he had to swallow. That was on top of what he was getting from the IV too.

But eventually, Sam started to get better. Moving to a regular room was the first concrete proof and she was overjoyed. It came with a downside since he no longer had a private room, and with his neighbor just on the other side of the curtain they’d had to be more discrete with the playful bantering.

She didn’t care. She wanted to dance around the room, singing at the top of her lungs. Sam was getting better. He was going to be fine!

Charlie still climbed into the bed for cuddle time each night before she reluctantly left him. It no longer mattered who looked put out or disapproving when they saw her there. They both needed the touch.

And finally, almost two weeks after the ambulance had taken him away, Charlie drove him home. The difference those days had made was astounding. Sam looked tired. No surprise since he’d constantly complained about how hard it was to sleep in the hospital. But aside from that he seemed perfectly fine when she snuck glances at him all the way back to the ranch.

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