Page 35 of Forever His Brat

“Same here. Sure. I can swing over and pick you up in about ten minutes.” She was already dressed, and she didn’t need another shower so getting ready was just a matter of running a brush through her hair and maybe some make-up.

“Perfect, see you soon, Charlie.” Katie didn’t wait for Charlie’s reply and the phone went dead.

She supposed that was a sign that Katie was eager to go, so she got up and hurried to get herself ready. This was, she hoped, a sign that their friendship was off to a good start. She was beginning to feel like today was going to be the best day in a long time.

CHAPTER8

Sam didn’t realize his good mood was so obvious until Nick showed up just after lunch. He whistled some half-remembered song as they moved through the barn, barely aware of it until Nick shot him an amused look.

Sam stopped whistling and tilted his head. “What?”

“Someone got lucky last night,” Nick said in a sing-song tone of teasing.

Sam snorted and waved him off. “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, but he couldn’t keep the look of satisfaction from creeping into his expression. Lucky was one way to put it.

Despite the interrupted sleep he felt good, well-rested. After they’d showered away the evidence of their midnight fun, a wave of lethargy had hit him hard. He barely took the time to towel off before he collapsed back in the bed.

He was out almost immediately and managed a few hours of deep dreamless sleep. On top of what he’d gotten earlier it was more than enough to leave him refreshed. It totaled more than he got most nights anyway.

It was nice to feel energetic for a change. It had been ages since he could honestly say he wasn’t tired. Though he had to wonder if it was the extra sleep that made him feel good, or Charlie.

Nick shrugged, not bothering to hide his grin. “If you say so, boss. But if you don’t want everyone to know you got some last night you might want to stop walking around here like you’re floating two feet off the ground.”

Had he been doing that? Probably. It had been a few weeks since he’d felt so connected to Charlie. Maybe longer since things had felt completely right.

“You’re imagining things, Nicky.” Saying it didn’t do anything to wipe the amusement from the new foreman’s face. Sam held back a sigh and quickly changed the subject. “C’mon pay attention so we can get through this.”

Figuring the best way to integrate Nick was to go through the actual work, they had taken on a basic chore list together. A lot of it was stuff the hands were usually assigned to do. The scut work, the crap jobs (in some cases literally) but Jimmy had always believed a man should learn a job from the ground up, so that was how Sam taught.

Nick was no amateur, of course. Sam wouldn’t have hired him as foreman if he didn’t already know how to do everything. But there were a thousand ways to do the job and every ranch had their own style.

The hands were already thrown off balance by suddenly having a new boss, changing up how everything was done wouldn’t help them settle. So Nick was going to learn their way of doing the job. Later, if he felt like some things needed to be changed, well, that would be up to him.

Until then it wouldn’t take long to get him up to speed, but Sam was walking him through the job one chore at a time. To his surprise he enjoyed it. It took him back to his days as a regular old ranch hand and gave him and Nick things to reminisce over.

“Man, remember that one ranch we worked for a week out in Utah? The foreman was five kinds of an asshole and he always made us—”

“Hey, do you remember when we lost all our money at poker in that little town out Aspen way? I can’t forget how we had to pick up a weekend job in that diner so we could cover the bus fare back—”

“Hey Nick, remember that old rodeo clown who used to set up a still whenever—”

The hours of work passed quickly as the stories went back and forth. It had been way too long since he’d been able to relax and gab with an old friend like this. He’d lost touch with most of them. Nick was the only one he’d ever really bonded closely with.

It was their mutual interest in kink that did it, Sam figured. They had worked the rodeo circuit together several years in a row, but it was after hours that they’d really connected. Once it came up that they were both interested in BDSM, both Doms, it was only natural that they’d check out local events together as they traveled.

It wasn’t always easy to get into parties and events as single men, especially strangers passing through. A lot of vetting was required but it got easier over time. They ended up being fairly well known as decent guys who didn’t push. It had been a great way to explore.

That had all changed when Jimmy got sick. He needed Sam on the ranch all year after that. Taking the quieter months to go play in the rodeo just wasn’t possible. So he’d lost touch with most of the other cowboys, but not Nick.

Turned out that was a damn good thing too, all things considered. Extra rest, Charlie slowly being tucked back into her place, and now an afternoon working with his best buddy from the old days—it was turning out to be a good day.

It was about that time things usually went sideways. When his phone rang and he saw it was Charlie he winced, wondering if that was going to be the end of his good mood. He squinted at the phone and then sighed and figured he might as well get the bad news out of the way.

But it wasn’t bad news at all. It was just Charlie checking in.

“Hey Daddy, Katie just asked me out to lunch, so we’re heading into town for a couple hours, okay?”

She wasn’t required to ask his permission to go out, but she did have to let him know when she left the ranch, otherwise he would worry. “Sure thing, Charlie girl. Have fun—just be careful on the back roads.”

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