Page 1 of Forever His Brat

CHAPTER1

Charlie had been pacing around the newly remodeled kitchen for nearly an hour, long enough to have memorized the exact number of steps it took to get to the window and then back to the oven. The snow was coming down in thick swirls and it was piling up outside. It worried her.

They were used to bad weather and deep snow. It was still pretty early in the year, and they weren’t that far from the mountains so the weather could swing wildly. It wasn’t the first time they’d been buried in drifts in early April.

Normally it wasn’t a big concern. Everyone would just hunker down until it passed and then go out to check on the animals and fix any damage as soon as they could. The timing on it wasn’t ideal with baby season in full swing, but the herd had shelter and there was extra care taken with the pregnant heifers and nursing calves.

It wasn’t just the weather that was worrying her at the moment anyway. It was the fact that the snow was delaying a meeting that she’d been anxious over for weeks. Their new foreman, Nick, and his wife, Katie, were originally supposed to arrive a while back but some last-minute problems had delayed them.

Now they were finally on their way to the ranch and should be arriving at any time. Actually, they would have arrived already, if not for the storm.

Cell phone reception was spotty especially in bad weather. Between the mountains and thick tree lines it was sometimes difficult to navigate by GPS or to get calls through. The snowalwaysmade it worse. When Nick had last checked in, they’d been about ninety minutes away. That was three hours ago.

Of course, it hadn’t been snowing that hard yet when he’d checked in. Since then, the occasional snowflake had turned into a real storm. It was several inches deep already.

Sam had taken the old truck down to the main road when he realized the snow was going to make it hard to see the turn off. He’d been down there ever since, leaving Charlie to fuss alone.

When she pressed her forehead to the glass, she could barely see anything but whiteness. No headlights yet. She sighed.

The oven timer blared and she jumped, thumping her forehead against the chilled glass. “Damn it.” She straightened quickly and hurried over to the oven to pull out the last batch of cookies.

Charlie had started this morning with some vague idea of presenting them with a plate of home baked sweets when they arrived. She thought it would make a nice welcome to the couple. She really wanted this to work out. It would solve so many problems if it did.

And baking had seemed like a fun way to keep busy, but her anxiety had turned it into a full-on baking frenzy. Now every surface was covered with plates and platters full of cookies. Six different kinds so far, but this was the last.

It had to be.

The final batch had been an old depression era recipe from her grandmother’s cookbook. It didn’t need eggs or milk, both of which she was out of by then. Now she was out of everything else too. The sugar and flour bags were crumpled and empty.

It was probably for the best since they had enough treats to last them for the next decade. She sighed as she looked around. If they came in now, they’d either think she was preparing for a bake sale or just plain crazy. It wasn’t exactly the first impression she’d hoped for.

She pulled out the freezer bags and began shoveling the cookies in. One good thing about living on a ranch was the huge freezer in the basement. It was for storing meat, but there was plenty of room for the cookies too.

Having a few hundred frozen cookies around could be useful anyway. They froze well. She could parcel them out to the hands, and they’d always be there for guests—not that they had company often. Maybe that would be changing soon though.

Between trips to the window she cleaned up the kitchen, packaged treats, and hauled the bags downstairs. It might have been her hundredth trip to look outside, when she finally caught sight of a pair of headlights crawling up the road.

The loud scraping sounds could only be from the plow on the front of the truck, clearing the road, which meant it was Sam. She couldn’t see if there was anyone behind him, but she hurried to finish cleaning up the kitchen just in case. One large plate, piled high with assorted cookies, remained out for them.

Maybe she’d overdone it alittle, but she’d really wanted to make a good first impression. What was more welcoming to a new neighbor than something home baked? Still, she was starting to second guess herself.

She hoped it wouldn’t look like she was trying too hard. She started to take some of the cookies off the plate, thinking less would be better. Then she decided it might be a good idea to just give them one type and not let them know she’d baked six different kinds—that was definitely trying too hard right?

“Ahhhh! I need to stop.” She blew out an exasperated breath, pushed all the cookies back onto the plate and made herself go sit down at the table. She was just so darn nervous. Over the past year her life had been upended and this was yet another major change.

It had started with sadness due to the death of her father, but that had led to her reuniting with Sam. That had ended up being a good thing—thebestthing that could have happened to her.

There’d been some rough spots, but it had all been worth it. Charlie was finally fully committed to her relationship with Sam—as strange as that felt after being anti-romance for so long. She’d known all along that they were meant to be together, she’d just refused to accept it for so many wasted years, but that was over now.

The house was newly renovated, with luxurious little touches that made life easier, and they had settled in comfortably together. She didn’t begrudge the expense of the extras one bit. Thanks to her father’s investments she had plenty of money to cover it without making a dent.

The ranch was running as well as it ever had, but they had plenty of plans in mind that would open up new opportunities for them. She’d been working with Sam to flesh out some of their goals and she had a strong sense that it was going to work out well.

They’d even begun to plan the wedding, thinking of late summer when things would be a little slower. It would be held outdoors; the first event in their new gazebo. The plans had been approved and the building would start as soon as weather allowed.

They’d talked about a long honeymoon with some traveling— neither of them had ever traveled much and never together.

A lot depended on whether things worked out with the new foreman. It all came down to Nick and Katie being a good fit. If they weren’t it would throw everything off, and that was at least part of her nervousness.

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