Free Red Dirt Heart 04 - Red Dirt Heart 4 by N.R. Walker

her head high and takes no shit from anyone.” Charlie cringed. “Excuse the language.”
    Peter laughed, obviously not minding at all, but he was called away and we made our goodbyes and left not long after that.
    We treated Nara and Ma to a special lunch and when our plates were empty, I asked Nara, “Where to now? Your choice.”
    Her eyes went wide. “Somewhere else?”
    “Yep.” I nodded. “High school graduate gets to choose. Movies, shopping…”
    “Home.”
    We all looked at her. “You wanna go straight home?” Billy asked.
    Nara nodded. “I have too much to do at home than to be wasting time here. I told Trudy I’d have Gracie this afternoon, and someone’s gotta feed you lot.”
    My shoulders shook with quiet laughter, and Charlie beamed proudly. “A girl after my own heart. Home it is.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Charlie had been quiet through dinner, and it wasn’t until later when we were alone in bed that we had the privacy for me to ask him what was on his mind.
    “Will you tell me?”
    His eyes sparked in the silver light of the room, his fingers touched the side of my face. “Tell you what?”
    “Whatever is going on in that ever-thinking mind of yours.”
    Charlie rolled onto his back and sighed at the ceiling. “Just something that Peter guy said.”
    “The director of the college? With the really bad tie.”
    Charlie smiled at that. “Yes.”
    I waited for him to continue.
    “He said something about the kids he sees,” he said softly, his smile now gone.
    “I liked what you said about them,” I told him. “How it’s not the people helping who don’t see the kids are worth it, but the kids themselves.” I kissed him softly. “I think Greg was right. I think you should consider politics…”
    “I want to help them.”
    I blinked in surprise. “Okay.”
    He rolled on his side to face me. His eyes were bright, even in the darkened room. “Trav, I want to give those kids a chance. I don’t know what good it will do ’em, but…” He shrugged. “I could have been one them kids, Trav. If I didn’t have this place, I would have been one of them. My dad kicked me out, well, he sent me away, but those kids didn’t get that option. I’d have been on the streets too. But I was lucky. I had this place, a home, business, all in one. So I was thinking maybe we could look at running some kinda program for kids. Just a week or two at a time, once or twice a year, especially now we’re not doing the overseas exchange this year. But we could teach ’em how to work, ya know? Riding horses, fixin’ fences, taggin’ cattle, diggin’ fence posts—anything that might get ’em a job. Or even if it just gives ’em something to look forward to. Hell, even if it’s just a warm place to sleep.”
    I smiled at him and probably got a little emotional as well. I put my hand to his face. “You’re something special, you know that, Charlie? I think it’s a great idea.”
    He smiled shyly and kissed the palm of my hand. “It seems right, doesn’t it? That I do something to help them?”
    “I know what seems right,” I said suggestively, rolling onto my front and lifting my ass. “And that’s you doing something to help me.”
    Charlie snorted, but he slid over me and was soon trailing kisses down the length of my spine, not stopping at the crest of my ass. Not stopping once.
     
    * * * *
     
    The next morning as soon as the clock struck nine, Charlie was on the phone. He asked for Peter Wellington by name, a surname I didn’t remember, a testament to Charlie’s business acumen, and a testament to the lack of mine.
    I stood in his office doorway to listen, holding Nugget like the sack of potatoes he was becoming: my forearm across his chest, his hind legs hanging free but his weight against my body. At least he couldn’t bite me when I held him like this. Charlie smiled at me, but the phone must have clicked in his ear. He brightened and spoke to the man who answered, “Hi, it’s