Page 10 of Forever His Brat

“Thanks babe. I’m going to need to get out and plow the road.” He sighed. “Good thing I left the gate open last night. It would be buried and frozen shut.”

A very good thing. She remembered that happening once as a child when a surprise storm had come in the middle of the night. It had taken an hour of shoveling to free the gate so the hands who’d showed up could get in. Not something she felt like dealing with this morning.

They hadn’t bothered to set up the coffee maker the night before, but it didn’t take long to get a pot perking. As the strong aroma filled the room, she went over to the window to look out on a winter wonderland with snow piled high.

“Ugh.” Snow days had been so much fun as a child. As an adult they were a gigantic pain in the ass. The roads were going to suck, and they’d be lucky if any of the hands made it in. She and Sam would be stuck with all the—

But wait… that wasn’t the case anymore. They were no longer the only two people on the ranch. Yet another reason to welcome the new foreman. She filled two mugs with coffee and brought them back to the bedroom.

When she didn’t see Sam, she headed for the open bathroom door. Charlie set his mug down on the counter and then leaned against the doorway to watch as he shaved. “You think it’s too much to ask for Nick to jump in today? I’m not sure we’re going to get much help otherwise. It looks about a foot deep out there.”

Sam paused, frowning at himself in the mirror. “They had a pretty long day of traveling. I wanted to wait and let them settle in, but if no one else shows up I’m sure he won’t mind.”

“Well, maybe they cleared the main roads by now.”

Sam stopped to stare at her. They both laughed. This far from town, at this hour of the morning that was extremely unlikely.

He tapped the razor under the water, did a quick check for missing spots and then wiped the remnants of shaving cream from his neck. “Not looking forward to an ice-cold truck.”

“I told you we should get a remote starter for it.” The singsong ‘I told you so’ in the words was deliberate.

“It’s not too early in the morning to spank you,” he warned. “Anyway, I tried. Mike says the truck is too old.”

“We’re going to have to replace it one of these days.” She hesitated, knowing what he would say, but unable to resist, “I could use some of my—”

“No.”

She sighed. Sam was dead set on keeping her inheritance out of the business. A ranch should be able to support itself, he said. And he was right.

The ranchshouldsupport itself, and it did. But she couldn’t help feeling like a little extra investment money would make things a lot easier on both of them.

Her father had kept a number of secrets. Things she hadn’t found out until after his death. Some were more pleasant than others…

One of them was a whole lot of very lucrative investments funded by his early gambling days. Now those accounts were all hers and she lived off the interest alone.

Even the house remodel hadn’t touched the principal, despite all the luxuries. She had a huge sum of money just sitting around doing nothing and she saw no reason not to use it to make life more pleasant.

No reason but Sam’s stubbornness anyway.

“Fine, then I guess you’re just going to have to freeze your ass off.” She shrugged and took a sip of her coffee, looking at him over the rim to make sure he noticed the attitude.

He noticed all right and he wasn’t pleased about it. “Woke up and decided to choose violence today, I see. Keep it up, Charlie. I’ll take a belt to your ass until it’s hot enough to melt the snow and then drag you out with me.”

As he spoke, he approached the doorway and she moved back quickly. There was a growl to the words that made it clear it was only partly a joke. She really didn’t want to test him. Not first thing in the morning anyway.

“I just think you’re being overly stubborn.” But now her tone had some give in it and she’d dropped the attitude. The words almost sighed.

“I know you do.” He yanked on a heavy flannel overshirt, buttoning it. “If it was an emergency that would be one thing. But we can’t just throw your inheritance at every little thing, or you’ll end up with nothing left.”

Charlie sniffed and rolled her eyes as she dropped onto the end of the bed. She cradled her coffee cup in both hands as she watched him pull on a pair of sturdy work boots. “There’s plenty of money. You’re just afraid people will think you’re a kept man.”

He stopped to squint at her and then laughed. “Oh, I insist on you keeping me. I’m just not letting you pay for everything. We’ll split things evenly unless something comes up, then we’ll talk.”

Charlie muttered something about stubborn male pride under her breath so he wouldn’t hear it. It was one step too far for the grumpy cowboy.

If he hadn’t heard the exact words, he must have guessed it was something sassy because she suddenly found him taking the cup from her hands and setting it aside. He dropped down on the bed and before she could protest, he’d dumped her across his lap.

“Nothing like starting the day off spanking a brat,” Sam said as he flipped her robe up in back. She was naked underneath and the palm of his hand swept down with a hard slap that made her jerk and kick up both legs.

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