Page 49 of Claiming His Brat

“Sam! That’s not fair.” She pouted, letting her bottom lip roll out dramatically.

“Might as well just go ahead and call me Daddy since you’re going to be over my knee in a minute if you keep going that way.” The tone was bland, emotionless, but his blue eyes were starting to ice over, and she knew she better pull back.

“It’s just… what if…” She stopped as his eyebrow went up in warning.

“It’s just so fast I…” The eyebrow climbed even further. “Ugh! I can’t say it without getting in trouble,” she said in a whining tone. The fact that he knew the script by rote meant she was using the same excuses over and over and she knew it. They weren’t valid and she knew that, too.

“Exactly. So just get it done.” The order had a tone of finality. It was her last warning.

She sighed, “Yes Daddy.”

So, there she was packing her things and trying to decide what to take and what to put in boxes. His place was so small; just the one bedroom and the main room that served as both kitchen and living room, so there wasn’t a lot of room for her things. It didn’t matter; she was only packing what she needed for the present.

Moving in with him had become a topic of conversation when she mentioned that she’d really like to hire a crew to renovate the house. The painting she’d been trying to do room-by-room was nice, but the old place needed more than that.

The bathrooms could use a facelift and the wiring really needed an upgrade, but those were the practical issues. Emotionally, she wanted a different look so she wouldn’t be seeing her father’s ghost every time she turned around. A fresh start was the key to moving on with her life, she decided.

But living there while all that work was being done would be exhausting, so he’d suggested she stay with him. It had snowballed and now the plan was for her to live in his place until the big house was redone, and then they’d both move there where there was more room.

They had even discussed offering his place to Mike. It would probably be good to have someone else on the spread overnight, in case of emergencies, especially if Sam was going to be further from the barn. Mike wasn’t the type to gossip about anything he happened to see, either.

Neither of them liked the idea of giving up their privacy at night, especially not since the barn had become an intriguing destination for punishments, both real and pretend, but they didn’t have to decide for a while yet. Renovations on the big house would take time.

Especially if they never started because she kept procrastinating on packing things up. She sighed long and loud as she looked at the chaos surrounding her. She’d spent more time walking down memory lane than she had actually getting much accomplished. The sort pile was still huge and the box to go to Sam’s was almost empty.

She hadn’t yet unpacked everything from when she’d painted her bedroom at least, so those had been shoved into the closet safely out of the way during the work. She started through her drawers, dividing things into three waiting boxes marked: take, donate, and store. Since a lot of the clothes in her dresser were from before she’d left for grad school it was easy to dump most of that in the donate pile.

When she got to the bottom of her underwear drawer, she was hit with a surprise that knocked the breath out of her. The letter from her father sat there, slightly crumpled and still unopened. She’d forgotten all about it.

It might have been deliberate because looking down at it now she could feel the tears welling.Why was it so hard to open it, she wondered? She should want to read his last words, if only to solve the mystery of why he’d chosen to leave Sam half of the ranch, but she just…

She couldn’t.

Still, after months she wasn’t ready to know what was in there. And wouldn’t she feel like a complete idiot if it were just something simple like ‘I felt like Sam deserved half for taking care of me.’ But she had a feeling there was more hiding in that thick envelope than that. Whatever his reasons had been, they probably weren’t going to be explained in a few quick sentences.

But long or short, the letter in there was just going to have to wait a little longer. Maybe once things were more settled with Sam, she’d bring it to him and they could open it together, but not now.

She dropped it in the box marked ‘Store’ and moved a shirt over it so it wouldn’t be sitting there grabbing her attention constantly. Maybe it was a mistake to ignore it, but if it was time sensitive than she’d already blown it anyway. All she knew was it wasn’t the right time for dealing with secrets from the past. Not when she finally felt like her future was on track.

Oddly the reappearance of the letter seemed to make her mind easier about her decision to move in with Sam, and with new motivation and energy she got back to sorting and packing. She decided to surprise him, and while he was working, she would move over the boxes she was bringing with her and get them unpacked—to show him that she was fully committed. But when she entered his house, she found he’d decided to surprise her as well.

Right there, in the living room, was a heavy, old saddle rack. She couldn’t be positive because there were several and they all looked pretty much identical, but she had a feeling it wastherack. There was a note taped to the top and she set down the box she was carrying to go read it.

“We’re replacing these with new stacking stands for convenience, but I thought we might keep this one for ourpersonaluse. I’ll be home at 5. Be naked.

Love, Daddy”

Her eyes settled on the aged wood and she blew out a slow breath, feeling her nipples harden against her shirt. Her legs felt weak, but a quick glance at the clock told her she had just enough time to bring over the other boxes, and then jump in the shower so she could be naked and clean when he got home.

Of course…while she absolutely was going to need the shower after all the packing and carrying boxes, shecouldput clean pajamas on afterwards instead of staying naked. After all, she couldn’t have Daddy expecting to get what he wantedeverytime—at least not without a little effort first, right?

She grinned and dashed off to get things done. It was going to be a long night, butnota boring one.

The End