Page 36 of Forever His Brat

“I will, Daddy. Don’t worry,” she assured him. And then she made a kissing sound into the phone.

He normally would have made the sound back, but one look over at Nick’s grinning face and he decided he wasn’t into being teased over it for the rest of the afternoon. “I always worry, girl. Need to get back to work now, but I love you.”

She’d sounded upbeat and chipper. He liked hearing her happy. He slipped the phone back into his pocket, and then picked up the pitchfork and went back to work shoveling hay as he casually filled Nick in, “Guess the girls are going into town.”

Nick paused and frowned. “Katie didn’t mention it before I left.” There was just a slightly ominous note in his voice.

Sam wondered if someone was going to be in trouble over this. “Charlie said Katie asked her out to lunch. Maybe she was bored?”

“Maybe. No harm in it, I guess.” It was clear there was some irritation there.

It wasn’t Sam’s business, so he didn’t feel right asking about it. He did wonder if he didn’t approve of Katie going off without him.

He tried to be subtle as he worked it into the conversation. “Charlie doesn’t have to ask my permission to go out. I figure she’s a big girl, but we’re kind of out of the way here and I always worry. I gave her a few rules for my own peace, you know? She has to have her phone with her, and she has to let me know when she leaves the ranch.”

Nick was quiet for a minute. His work pace had picked up like he was trying to burn off the annoyance. “Katie can be a little wild. I swear she’s like a teenager sometimes and she doesn’t think things through so after a few ‘incidents’ I slapped some heavier rules on her.”

He didn’t elaborate on what those incidents had been, and Sam tried not to look too curious. “Yeah? I’m guessing she broke one of those today?”

“Not… quite. She’s supposed to ask before she goes anywhere alone, but Charlie’s with her so I guess she’s not alone. She loves a loophole. She’s also meant to let me know her plans for the day—got a feeling I’ll just hear that the idea suddenly came to her after I left though.” He shook his head and then laughed a bit ruefully.

“Sounds like you’ve got your hands full,” Sam said. He felt a little bit awkward. These weren’t conversations he was used to having with anyone.

In the past when he’d talked to Nick about rules and dynamics it had all been theoretical. Neither of them were in relationships back then. They had been casual players for the most part. Now part of him really wanted to know how a couple managed these issues.

Nick laughed. He had a soft, almost bewildered expression on his face. Like he wasn’t sure how he’d ended up in this position. “Brother, you don’t even know. She’s—more of an armful but I love the hell out of her. I didn’t know what I was missing in my life until I met her and then it was like getting run over by a steamroller.”

Sam had never seen Nick like that. It had to be love and it was beautiful to see it. “Seems like you needed it. Happiness suits you, Nicky.”

“I could say the same thing about you and Charlie. You two obviously belong together. Though—not to pry but a couple things you said on our last phone call did have me worried. If you need to talk…”

He didn’t see any hands around. He could have poured it all out to Nick. Hell, maybe he needed to, but he didn’t feel comfortable spilling all their personal secrets where anyone might walk by.

He hesitated, and then decided to just spit it out. “Charlie had some trouble dealing with me getting sick. Seeing me in the hospital really shook her. And since I’ve been home our dynamic has been struggling. I’m exhausted and way too busy all the time. And she keeps trying to control things under the guise of keeping me healthy.”

Nick paused, leaning on the handle of his pitchfork. “That why you hit me up for this job out of the blue?”

Sam shrugged. “One of the reasons, yeah. I think even without that I would have realized eventually that I’d ended up with two full-time jobs and I couldn’t manage both forever. Ever since Charlie’s dad got real sick, I’ve been managing it, but it wears on you after a while.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Nick said. “Real sorry it took us so long to get here. Honestly thought we could wrap everything up and be here in two weeks—just didn’t turn out like that.”

“Hey, no worries. The job was short notice, I know. And it’s hard to uproot with a wife and all… especially with you two being newlyweds.”

“Newlyweds… heh. Yeah, I guess we are. I mean we lived together for a while before we filed the paperwork, so it doesn’t feel new to me, but there is something about making it official that kind of tugs everything tighter,” he mused.

“Kind of hoping for that once Charlie and I get hitched, to be honest. We were so tight back in the day and then breaking up—that was hard on me, on both of us, I think. I’ve got her back now and part of me feels like if I don’t seal the deal she’ll be gone.” Sam was surprised to hear himself admit to that.

He actually had never put the thoughts into words before and it wasn’t until that moment that he realized it had been part of his stress. The change in their dynamic since his hospital stay had shaken him and raised old fears. It was all groundless.

Sam had no reason to think anything like that would happen. Charlie wasn’t going to run off anywhere with the ranch and house to keep her pinned down. She was settled now, probably more settled than she’d ever been.

That didn’t keep him from worrying, but it was far more than he wanted to get into today. He changed the subject again. “So, what did hold you up?”

“Money.”

Sam’s head tilted, eyebrows going up. “Money? Ah hell, I should have offered you moving expenses. I didn’t even think—”

Nick shook his head, cutting him off. “Naw, not that. Didn’t cost us much to throw everything in the car and drive here. It was just that the last job paid more if you agreed to monthly paydays instead of weekly, something about the paperwork. They owed me on close to three weeks when I quit and were threatening not to pay.”

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