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

Charlie Sutton. I spoke to you yesterday at the graduation day. We talked about kids not having a fair go. Do you remember?
    “Well, it got me thinking,” he went on to say. “And I have a proposition for you.”

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Two steps forward, one step back.
     
    Whether Charlie busied himself with his new venture in this disadvantaged kids program as a distraction or as compensation for losing Shelby, I decided it didn’t matter.
    He was busy and back to smiling, and that was enough for me.
    He had more phone calls and another meeting with Peter about his proposed week stay for no more than two carefully selected troubled teens. And the week after that, he had meetings with Greg and Allan and had to fly to Tennant Creek for another overnight Beef Farmers meeting.
    He was right when he said he had a busy time coming up, but a busy Charlie was a happy Charlie. He’d always said it was me that couldn’t sit still, but he was no different. He thrived under pressure, handled it all in stride and made it look so easy.
    Yes, we had the station running smoothly. Things were streamlined and managed well. Even with Charlie not there, for just a one-night meeting or longer, everyone did their part and pulled their weight. The cattle collars and bore pump regulators helped more than we thought possible. Charlie could, as much as he disliked it, spend more time in the office getting the paperwork done.
    We were getting things ready for the winter muster. It was just a few weeks away now, and I knew when Charlie got back from Tennant Creek, organising and planning for it would go into full swing.
    And I loved mustering.
    Loved it.
    Being out there in the middle of the desert, sleeping on the dirt, riding horses and motorbikes, corralling cattle, talking and laughing around a campfire at night and by the end of the week, being so bone-tired you could barely spit.
    And I loved doing it with Charlie.
    I’d been here over two years, and this muster would be my fifth. Each time, Charlie and I would spend the first few days with the guys and then branch off and take the herd of cattle from a different tack. It gave us a few days of just us, riding our horses side by side, working together during the day, curling up to one another by the fire at night.
    But this year, there was no Shelby.
    I didn’t know what that meant for our muster. Would he ride Lizard, George’s horse? Would he take a dirt bike instead, or maybe the old ute? Would he come at all?
    It was something I would have to broach with him, and as much as he didn’t want to talk about the possibility of getting another horse, it was something he’d have to consider soon.
    He needed to grieve and move on.
    It’d been months since he’d been on a horse. It was time.
    It was late in the afternoon, not far from dinnertime, when Charlie got back to the homestead. I crossed the yard from the shed where I was working and met his overnight bag in the hall. The bathroom door was shut.
    I waited for him to come out, and he found me leaning against the hall wall, smiling at him. “Hello, stranger.”
    He gave me a tired smile. “I’ve been gone one night.”
    “One night,” I conceded, “but two long and lonely days.”
    He took some slow, tired and stressed steps to stand in front of me, and he leaned in and melted against me. He took a deep breath as his lips kissed my neck. “You know the best thing about going away?” he asked, nuzzling into my neck.
    My head fell back, giving him more skin to kiss and lick. “What’s that?” I whispered, trying not to moan.
    “Coming home to you.”
    My body reacted to him, his touch, his words. “Charlie?” I breathed his name.
    “Hmm?”
    “Bathroom? Bedroom?”
    “Boys?” Ma called out from the kitchen.
    Charlie didn’t care. With a burst of renewed energy, he pushed me into our room. “Five minutes,” he called back to Ma and the door shut loudly behind us.
    Laughing, I pulled him onto the bed with me. “Just five