Page 41 of Keeping His Brat

“Not in the past couple of weeks anyway.” She laughed and took a small bite. “I guess I do okay, might be a little too much garlic though.”

“Nope. It’s perfect. Best meal I’ve had in … I can’t even remember.” He had to be careful with the swallowing. His throat was still raw from all the coughing, but that did mean he got to enjoy the meal longer than usual.

He was the first to admit he had a habit of wolfing down the food to get on with other things. Usually because he was exhausted and wanted time with Charlie before bed, or because he had to go back to work. If he was going to set new habits today was a good day to do it.

“It’s not like you have a lot to compare it to, Sam. I mean hospital food is a pretty low bar to beat,” she said.

He snorted. He pointed his fork at her, narrowing his eyes. “Woman, would you just let me give you a compliment?”

She raised both hands in surrender. “Fine, Idomake an excellent steak! Happy?” Her eyes sparkled and her mouth tilted up with a pleased smile making it clear she did appreciate the praise.

“Good girl.” He sat back, satisfied with her response. “Charlie, how would you feel about making some changes around here?”

The smile dropped from her face, and he had a glimpse of her eyes going big before she looked down at her plate and began picking at her food. He wasn’t sure why the question had upset her.

“Changes? Like um, what did you have in mind?” she asked after a long pause.

“I had a lot of time to think while I was stuck in bed. It seemed like there were some things that maybe needed to change around here. Figured we should talk about it before things got back to normal.” He watched her carefully, trying to figure out what was wrong.

“You mean … with us?” Her voice trembled a little.

He frowned, and then it hit him. She had to be thinking he wanted to change their relationship. He reached across the table and settled his large hand over hers. “No, darlin’. I mostly meant with the ranch but there is one big change between us I would like to make.”

Not wanting her to panic over what that meant if he drew out the suspense, he quickly rushed through what he had planned to mention later. “I know I said I’d wait for you to let me know, or to propose to me again, but being sick made me think about how fast time flies. I’d like to revisit the marriage conversation sometime soon.”

She looked up and he could see she’d been worrying at her bottom lip again. “Well, technically you did already ask me.”

He frowned, tilting his head, confused. “I what?”

“In the hospital that first night when you kept going in and out. You said ‘Charlie, I’m going to marry you. Call the preacher over,’ actually you apparently said it a few times. The nurses were all in giggles because they thought you were gay.”

Both eyebrows shot straight up. “They thought I was gay?”

“Yeah well, you kept yelling about ‘Charlie’ and talking about love and marriage. They didn’t know I was a woman at the time.” The drawn look was leaving her face to be replaced by pure amusement.

He just stared at her for a long moment and then sat back as a laugh bellowed out of him. It was a deep laugh, the kind he’d tried to avoid because it always stirred up the coughing—and it did, but he was able to get it under control quickly.

It didn’t ruin the amusing moment and both of them were still smiling as he cleared his throat with a long drink of water. “Well. Damn, I guess I can see where they got the idea. I s’pose I’d still want to marry you even if you were a guy, but I admit I’m pretty fond of your girl parts.”

She laughed. “I’m fond of those parts too and I … I would also like to revisit the marriage conversation.” She hesitated, but it was obvious she had something else to add. He waited patiently as she stabbed a bite of heavily buttered baked potato and ate it with a thoughtful look on her face.

“When I got to the hospital and tried to go in, they said I couldn’t make any decisions because we weren’t married. They said you had to be awake to ask since I wasn’t your next of kin. I know it’s a stupid practical reason instead of romantic one, but …” She trailed off and shrugged. “I started to think about what would have happened and I realized I can’t really see my future without you in it.”

He squeezed her hand. “There’s nothing wrong with having practical reasons for it too, as long as the main one is I love you, and you love me.”

“So… who’s proposing this time?”There was a teasing note to the question but underneath that he could sense she was serious.

“Well, now … it seems like it’s my turn, but I did promise it would be up to you. Do you want to wait for me to find the right moment to give you a real proposal? Or do you want to propose to me again?”

She sat back with a short bark of laughter. “You know I … I don’t know!” She shook her head and her ponytail fell forward over her shoulder. “I kind of like the idea of being the one to propose, being a modern woman and all. But then I think about our relationship and how it’s um, well, a little bit more on the old-fashioned side so maybe you proposing makes more sense.”

She paused. “I guess … there’s something sweet and romantic about a surprise proposal coming when you least expect it. And it’s not like you don’t know what the answer will be so maybe you can take a turn.”

Sam gave her hand another squeeze and then released it and sat back. He was grinning as he picked up his fork, because he already had a good idea of when to do it. “Sounds fair. I’ll come up with the right time.” He couldn’t quite keep the note of teasing out of his tone and he could tell she picked up on it by the suspicious look she shot him.

“You’re not going to do something embarrassing are you?”

“You’ll see, darlin’.” That was all he would say about the matter no matter how much she prodded him throughout the meal. The conversation turned to lighter things then and he figured the marriage topic was heavy enough that the rest could wait.

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