Page 26 of Forever His Brat

Nick knocked on the doorframe and lingered there. “Hey, Sam. You ready for me?”

“Yep, just finishing something up. C’mon in and have a seat. There’s coffee in the pot if you want some—can’t vouch for how long it’s been sitting there.”

Nick laughed and looked at the fancy coffee machine. “You guys must drink a lot of coffee around here to need a monstrosity like this.”

Sam chuckled. “Charlie’s idea. She had it in the break room, but I got tired of chasing people back to work.”

Nick poured himself a coffee, sniffed it, swirled it around in the cup and then shrugged and dumped a bunch of sugar in. He brought it over with him as he dropped into the seat. “So, where are we starting?”

Sam leaned back and rolled his head on his neck to release the tightness. “Well, first off… how are you settling in? Need anything?”

Nick shrugged, a slight grin curving his lips at one side. “We’re good. Everything was clean and stocked. Gotta tell you it’s one of the nicest crew quarters I’ve ever had.”

“That’s because you’re not crew. You’re the foreman.” Sam laughed. “Not that we have a bunkhouse for the hands around here anymore. They used to back in Charlie’s grandad’s time, but no one wants to live like that anymore and everyone has their own vehicles so by the time I moved in as a kid the building was falling down.”

“Really? Seems like with the weather and all it might be smart to have more people living on the ranch,” Nick commented. He took a long draw of the coffee and then winced.

“I know and you’re right. Truth is Charlie’s dad downsized so he could focus on more premium stock. He let natural attrition take care of the extra hands until we were down to where we are now. A lot of them have families and places nearby, but—”

He paused and shook his head. “We’ve got a few who are looking at retiring soon and I’ve been wondering if it might be time to consider expanding again. It’s one of the projects we’re considering for the future and if we end up bringing on more hands then it might be worth considering some mobile homes for live-ins. Biggest problem with that is going to be Charlie.”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “You did say she was nervous about having people on the ranch at night. Likes her privacy huh?”

“She does and I do too.” He smirked. “Barns are handy things for kinky people and sometimes we like to play over here.” He’d already warned Nick about that. The new foreman knew sometimes the barn would be off-limits after dark.

Nick chuckled. “You’re not wrong. Before Katie I may have snuck girls onto a ranch or two for that reason…”

Sam wasn’t even a little surprised to hear that. “Well, I told you about the event area we’ve been planning. We’ll be putting in a direct road for that, with parking so those guests won’t be over here getting in the way. No reason why we couldn’t extend it in the other direction to put in some trailers or cabins if we decide to hire on.”

Nick nodded, looking thoughtful as he drank his coffee. “Can’t give you much advice on that at this point. Not until I know the lay of the land. If you’re looking for advice that is. You being the boss and all, I’ll follow your lead.”

Sam hadn’t expected that topic to come up so soon. He got up, using the excuse of his own cup of coffee to pace off some nerves. It conveniently allowed him to keep his back to Nick as he spoke. “Glad you brought that up, Nick. This is a weird situation for me. I’ve never hired a friend before.”

“Don’t need to be weird unless we make it that way, Sam. Work is work. Off hours we keep things the way they are. Shouldn’t be a problem—not for me anyhow.”

Sam turned to see Nick looking at him. “Good. I mean that’s what I was hoping. I had friends on the ranch; growing up here and all, of course I knew all the hands. When I was made foreman, it seemed like there was suddenly a wall between us.”

Nick tilted his head, brow furrowed. “Yeah, I mean I can see that. You being ‘the kid’ and then suddenly the boss. People probably backed off because they didn’t know how things would go. And most people are always gonna struggle with relaxing around the boss.”

“Even you?’

Nick snorted and rolled his eyes. “In case you ain’t noticed I don’t have a ton of respect for authority figures. How many spreads booted my ass for refusing to kowtow?”

That drew a real belly laugh from Sam. It was another thing that didn’t surprise him at all. Nick was a law unto himself. “That mean you’re going to give me a hard time?”

Nick shrugged. “Probably. But respecting someone just because they’re the boss is one thing. Respecting someone because they know what they’re doing is something else entirely. You know your ass from your elbow; I doubt we’ll have a problem.”

Sam relaxed. Tension he hadn’t realized he was carrying dissipated and with it the tightness in his neck. He took a sip of coffee and now he knew why Nick had winced. It was bitter and about two minutes away from turning into sludge.

Still, caffeine was caffeine, he poured in a large amount of cream and sugar and forced it down as he settled back in his seat to go over the basic routines with Nick. He’d spent the last few weeks setting up well-organized binders that had pretty much everything Nick would need. Now he slid them across the desk feeling pleased with himself.

“These are your bibles. Everything you need to know is in them. Alphabetized by section so any time you need to look something up you’ll have it at your fingertips.” He sat back with a grin plastered across his face.

Nick let one eyebrow go high while the other eye narrowed. He pulled the top binder closer and began to flip through. After a second, he shook his head. “I see you’re still a nerd.”

“Hey! Keeping things organized doesn’t make me a nerd,” Sam retorted.

“Yeah, it does. But these’ll be useful anyway. Thanks.” He pushed the binder aside and opened the next in the stack.

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