Page 50 of Forever His Brat

She gulped down the mouthful. “Twenty-three? I don’t remember it being so high.”

Sam shrugged. “Just because you don’t hear me counting doesn’t mean I’m not adding up all the little things.”

“Are you, um—adding punishment for last night?” She’d been afraid to ask.

He sat back and looked at her, slinging one arm casually over the back of his chair. “Don’t you think I should?”

Charlie absolutely hated questions like that. There was no right answer. If she said yes, then he’d take that to mean she was feeling guilty, so she needed the punishment.

If she said no, when he’d already decided on yes, he’d make her spell out in detail why she was wrong and did deserve it. It was excruciating to have to detail the mistakes she’d made. She could only hope it was rhetorical and he wasn’t expecting her to answer.

“Well?”

Damn it.“I—I think that I should have talked to you, but I also think that not getting to scene with you was already a punishment.” He was quiet and she waited.

“I agree. Maybe if you didn’t already have a date with me scheduled tomorrow, I would have added more, but as it is I think going without was enough. I know how disappointed you were.”

She relaxed and blew out the breath she’d been holding. “Thank you, Daddy.”

Sam and Nick left after breakfast. The women stayed behind with firm warnings to behave, this time. Charlie waved as they drove off, almost wishing she was leaving with Sam.

The trip had ended up being a gigantic mess and it felt awkward between her and Katie. She was worried they’d end up fighting.

But things went right for a change. As soon as they were out of sight, Katie grabbed her by the arm. “C’mon we’ve got a few hours before check-out. Let’s visit the spa!”

And just like that the tension started to dissolve. Katie didn’t seem to mind taking most of the blame for the trip. She wasn’t mad that Charlie, at least as far as she’d seen, got away without being punished.

And knowing that Sam was planning to bring her back to the city soon had eased some of the envy Charlie had felt about Katie getting to play. They had a relaxing morning full of beauty treatments and pampering intermixed with occasional moments of privacy to talk about things.

“I’m sorry you didn’t get to play last night. I could tell you wanted to. Your Daddy was being mean,” Katie whispered at one point.

Charlie looked around to make sure the attendant was still on the other side of the room. “He reallywasbeing mean,” she agreed. “I was so upset, but he said we’re going to come back soon and then we’ll play. I guess that’s better than nothing.”

Katie wrinkled her nose. “Nick tried the ‘not spanking me because I acted up to get it thing’ but it didn’t work. I just kept acting up for a while but when he didn’t spank, I started to—curl up inside? I don’t really know how to describe it. I sort of equate spanking with love.”

Charlie thought she understood where Katie was going. “So, he was trying to punish you by not giving you the thing he knew you wanted, but to you it felt like he didn’t love you?”

Katie nodded and started to continue but—

“Alright ladies, I’m going to apply these face masks, and some cucumber slices for the eyes to reduce puffiness.” The attendant’s cheerful announcement made them both jump.

After that they didn’t have much more time to talk, but that was okay, Charlie knew they had a long ride home to really work through things.

Katie wasn’t what she expected, and they weren’t as similar as Sam had assumed they would be. But despite the way things had turned out, the trip had done a lot to bring the women closer together. On the way back she realized she felt…goodabout where everything was going.

And she was pretty sure that this wouldn’t be the first time she got in trouble with Katie. She’d been honest when she’d told Sam she didn’t think this kind of brat was what she wanted to be all the time. But in small doses she expected it would be a lot of fun.

She had her ranch. She had Sam. And she had a friend who understood everything—that was enough for now.

CHAPTER12

Monday morning Sam got to sleep in, at least in theory. Nick would be running things from the day’s start for the first time. He’d pop his head in later to make sure everything was going okay, but he was sure it would be fine.

Nick knew his job and the men were used to him now. Even Ben had come around for the most part. He didn’t intend to be a hands-on type of owner like Jimmy—because Nick wasn’t a kid who needed to be micromanaged from the start, like Sam had been.

He’d set aside specific duties for himself and those had been laid out for Nick, so he knew where his authority lay. Eventually maybe he’d pass those on too, but he was going to have to wean himself off the control.

Plus, until the event business took off, he needed something to keep himself busy. He wasn’t used to a lot of downtime, and he had a feeling all the leisure would drive him nuts. But he wasn’t going to need to worry about keeping busy today.

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