Page 54 of Keeping His Brat

“Okay, I can see where that could happen. And I can understand why you’d be afraid of riling me while I was in the hospital. I know it was hard for you to see me like that.”

“So … so I’m not in trouble?’

“Well, I’ll tell you what,” he paused, narrowing his eyes as he thought. “If your ideas don’t pan out, I’m going to make you undo them yourself. That includes moving the supplies back around if it’s necessary, but it also includes telling Ben you were wrong—” She started to interrupt, cutting him off to assure him she wasn’t. But he held up one hand and she went silent.

“—ifyou turn out to be wrong, because that’s what the boss does. She takes responsibility for her choices and if she has to back down then she does it gracefully. That fair?”

“Yes!” This was going so much better than she’d expected.

“I imagine that will be enough punishment if it doesn’t work. If it does then, well, good job.”

She jumped up and ran around to his side of the table to hug him. His arms slid around her for a gentle squeeze and then he pushed his chair back and pulled her into his lap.

“Is there anything else you need to tell me? Anything I missed?” he asked. His lips brushed her ear and she shivered.

But maybe the shiver was because of the question. There was that one last thing. It was a big one. “Well … maybe.” The whole conversation had gone well so far. She hated to ruin that.

He waited. “Maybe?”

She couldn’t tell if he knew something, or if he was just checking. Hiding it would literally be impossible, this was too big. She had to tell him either way.

Charlie took a deep breath, gathering up her courage and then blurted it out, “I sold a horse.”

Sam stiffened and pulled back to stare at her in shock. His mouth dropped open and hung there for a moment.

“You … what? Which one?”

“I –I sold Devil.”

Chapter 16

Sam headed home early as planned. He was excited to tell Charlie the news. To his surprise she wasn’t there.

She hadn’t left a note either, but it was daylight, and the weather was fine, so he wasn’t concerned. He made a note to remind her of the rule about telling him where she was going. It was one of many she had apparently forgotten.

He was still irritated at her highhandedness in switching things around, but he’d had some time to think it through and get over it. He hadn’t decided yet if she was in trouble. That would come later after they talked.

It was a struggle sometimes to wait to talk to her before making assumptions. She tended to do things impulsively. Other times she just decided that she knew best and was going to proceed despite the rule.

But he’d jumped on her once for something that hadn’t been her fault. They were both being manipulated by her mother at the time. There was precedent for his reaction since Charlie had done something in a similar vein not long before, so it had been an easy assumption to make. He’d felt guilty anyway.

Besides at this point in their relationship, ridiculous misunderstandings where they both overreacted and stormed off were getting old. They’d been working hard to improve their communication skills, and he felt like they were making progress. He didn’t want to set that back.

So, he’d talk to her first. Once he had the whole story he could decide if she was in trouble and how much. Of course, it was easy to say that. It was harder to actually put aside his frustration at what she’d done, but seeing the results helped a lot.

Charlie had done an amazing job with the day-to-day stuff. He expected piles of work to catch up on, but everything was done. Pay had gone out on time each week. Bills had been paid, and orders placed. All the invoices were in a neat stack on his desk for him to look through.

She’d even kept up the daily log. Her neat hand replaced his scrawled notes indicating what work had been finished, what was currently in progress, and what needed some attention in the near future. Flipping through the pages put him in a much better mood.

They were actually ahead of schedule, and it seemed like Charlie’s efforts at updating things had helped with that. For such a short period of time, a lot had been accomplished. They were currently in good shape for birthing season which was a weight off his mind.

He sat back in his chair and shook his head. “Huh. Kind of hard to be mad now.” And he realized he really wasn’t anymore, except that she had kept things hidden from him. That was never going to be okay, not as long as he was her Daddy.

With everything all caught up Sam had time to work on his new agenda. He pulled out his phone and scrolled through to find a number he hadn’t called in a while. It rang twice.

“Yeah?” The word was impatient, rushed, but the voice was familiar.

“Hey Nick. It’s been a while, but this is Sam—”

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