Red Dirt Heart 3 (17 page)

I fell asleep and only woke up when Travis shoved a fussing wombat into my arms and said, “The little shit
still
won’t let me feed him.”

* * * *

Both Trudy and Bacon looked a little happier at breakfast. Well, they looked like they’d gotten some sleep at least. When I’d gone to the stables, she thanked me again on the quiet for last night, to which I said she was more than welcome. I told her to take as much time as she needed and to take it easy.

“I’m not handicapped,” she replied, a bit snappish. “I can still work.”

“I never said you couldn’t. In fact, I insist that you do,” I said. “It’s what I’m payin’ ya for, isn’t it?”

“Sure is, boss.” She smiled, like I’d hoped she would. I figured she just wanted me to treat her like I would any other day. So I did.

“Good.” I led Shelby out of the stable. “Stables need mucking out, Ma’s garden could do with some mulch, help with the poddy calves, or you can service the quad runner. We’re not using it today,” I told her as I tightened the girth on Shelby’s saddle. “The others will be workin’ on the roof again, so if they need a hand, give them one. But stay off ladders and no gettin’ up on the roof.”

Trudy rolled her eyes. “You sound like Bacon.”

“Well, his concerns are different to mine,” I said. “You’ve got a lot on your mind right now, and that leads to stupid mistakes. I’d prefer you not be five metres off the ground, okay?” I smiled at her. “I don’t have time to be fillin’ out all the worker’s compensation forms if you were to fall.”

She smiled now, knowin’ full well what I really meant. But as she turned to leave, she stopped. “You know, same could be said for you.” She looked like she’d said too much already, but must have figured in for a penny, in for a pound, because she kept on talking. “You’ve got a lot on your mind too, with Ma, and George not being here. All that meeting stuff with Greg, and now the buyer’s contract. Not to mention your mother and a so-called brother, and now with me addin’ to your worries.”

I smiled. “You forgot to mention a uni degree I won’t be able to finish and a certain wombat who keeps me on three-hour shifts.” I gave Shelby a pat on the neck, scratched behind her ear, and let out a long sigh. “That’s why I’m taking Shelby. I was gonna take the chopper, but Travis wouldn’t let me. Said troubled minds often make aircraft fall outta the sky.”

Trudy looked at me like I was pulling her leg. As if Travis had any say in what I, the boss of this station, could do.

“True as I stand here,” I said. And it
was
the truth. Travis had done his I’m-being-serious eye-staring-thing along with his don’t-fucking-argue jaw-bulging-thing, and I didn’t have the fight in me. “He knows spending the day with Shelby helps clear my head,” I said with a shrug. “So maybe if I can listen to him, maybe you can listen to Bacon and not go climbin’ on the roof.”

I lifted my foot into the stirrup and hauled my ass up into the saddle, giving Trudy a smile before pulling Shelby around and moving out. It wasn’t like I could tell her that Trav had wanted to come with me but I’d said no. I’d reasoned that I needed him at home fixin’ the roof and making sure everything ran smoothly. What I didn’t say, though he saw straight through me, was that spending the day in the saddle would only aggravate his already bruised hips.

He took a deep breath, and pinching my chin between his thumb and finger and pushing me against the bathroom counter, he kissed me hard. “I said the bruises don’t hurt.”

I laughed because he knew me well enough to know what I wasn’t saying, and then I groaned because he was pressing his dick against mine. Even through our jeans, the sensation made me buck into him.

He grinned wickedly. “I’ll stay here today, but just so you know,” he whispered gruffly, “tonight you’re adding to those bruises. Either over your desk again or by your thumbs digging into my hips when I skull-fuck you.”

Then he stepped back, and I almost fell forward, out of breath. I palmed the heavy ache in my dick, and he threw his head back and laughed as he walked down the hall.

“Ugh,” I groaned, squeezing my hardening cock. “I’m gonna have this all damn day.”

“That’s why I did it,” he replied, and I could even hear him laugh as he walked out the front door. He obviously didn’t want to stay here while I rode out on horseback, but he would do it because I’d asked. He was just going to make me pay for it.

As I rounded the house on Shelby, heading out for the day, Travis was already on the roof of the homestead. He looked up and grinned when he saw me, so I glared at him, which just made him laugh some more.

With Ernie on a motorbike and Billy in the old ute, I spent the morning inspecting the herd of cows. After the winter muster, we’d sectioned off the pregnant cows into the closest western paddock. It made birthing easier come springtime. The paddock itself was still big—some thirty square kilometres—but there were only two bore-fed watering troughs so it basically localised the herd into two smaller areas.

I had said I’d be back around lunch time, but it didn’t quite go to plan. We found three more abandoned calves, no older than a day or two. But there were also two cows whose calves hadn’t survived, so the trip home was longer than I had anticipated.

We’d radioed the homestead and told them we were walking the calf-less cows home, so it would take twice as long to return. If nature would have it, these cows who lost their calves would be surrogates, but we’d need to keep a close eye on them.

It was mid-afternoon by the time I got back. I left Shelby’s reins hanging over the fence, knowing she wouldn’t go far, and I headed straight inside. Being three hours late, I knew that Nugget would think he was starving and would make everyone’s life hell.

I raced inside and found Nara and Travis in the kitchen. Travis was holding a sound-asleep Nugget and there was an empty bottle on the table.

“You got him to feed?” I asked.

Trav grinned. “I didn’t, Nara did. This is his second bottle since you’ve been gone. Nara fed him the first time, and I got to do it the second time.”

I was stunned. Literally stunned and almost speechless. I looked at Nara and it took a second for my brain and mouth to kick into gear. “How?”

Nara smiled shyly. “I didn’t know how long you’d be gone, and I had to do something—he was makin’ me mental.” Then she did a mix of frownin’ and cringin’. “I thought maybe if he could just smell you, he’d eat, so I found your shirt in your bathroom. I checked the laundry first, but couldn’t find nothin’. I didn’t go into your room, I promise.”

I hadn’t even noticed the silly wombat was wrapped up, all happy and smug, in a different-coloured pouch. It was the shirt I’d worn yesterday.

I don’t know if she thought I’d be mad that she went into my bathroom—and truthfully, I didn’t particularly like the idea of anyone but us goin’ in there—but all I could do was smile.

“Nara, you don’t need to apologise. It’s a great idea!” I said, rubbing my finger on the little wombat’s forehead. “Man, if I hadda known that’s all it would’ve taken, I’d have done it weeks ago. Then Travis could help me do the night feeds.”

“Pfft,” he scoffed. “Not likely.”

“You got up to him last night,” I countered.

“Only because you didn’t,” he said. “But I couldn’t get him to even look at the bottle.” Travis stared down at the little sleeping baby wombat. “But now that he thinks I’m you…”

Travis just looked a dozen different shades of perfect sitting there with Nugget all cosy and sleepy in his arms. “So you don’t hate him so much now he’ll let you feed him?” I asked, unable to stop the smile.

“I never hated him,” he said defensively. “It’s just that he… preferred you, and you were all caught up in him, and…”

Holy shit.
“Trav, please tell me you weren’t jealous of Nugget.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “No.”

Oh my God. He so was. “Well, give him to me and then you can go sort out the other three poddy calves we bought back with us today.”

“Three more?” Trav asked.

“And two cows. Hopefully they’ll surrogate for one or two of the newborns.”

Trav sighed and stood up, and reluctantly handed Nugget over like he was the most precious thing. I hadn’t noticed Trudy behind me, and when I turned to see her, she was watching us. I know how it must have looked—with me and Trav treating the baby wombat like it was human—but that’s not what it was.

Trav must have felt the same, because he lightly touched her shoulder as he walked out. I quickly put the bottle in the sink, and when I turned to face her, she smiled sadly. “You don’t have to pretend,” she said quietly.

Nara walked out of the dry-store pantry with ingredients to make dinner, so I nodded toward the hall and Trudy followed. I went into the lounge room and put the still sleeping wombat in his bed box. “I’m not pretending,” I told her. “You mentioned before that it was hard to see me treating Nugget like an infant. That’s not how I see him. I don’t. He’s more like a puppy. A boot-chewing, furniture-scratchin’, pain-in-the-arse puppy.”

Trudy smiled. “It’s okay, Charlie,” she said. “You don’t have to try and justify anything. Nugget’s cute. He
is
like a puppy.”

“A pain-in-the-arse puppy,” I corrected her.

Her smile faded as she sighed. “Just seems like everywhere I see babies. Baby wombat, baby calves, baby bottles for feeding. I know it’s spring, but I guess I never took notice before. Now it’s all I see.”

“You’ve got a lot to think about,” I said. I wasn’t any good at these kinds of conversations.

“It’s
all
I think about,” she amended.

I wanted to ask if she’d made a decision, but not only was it not my place to ask such a personal question, I figured she’d tell me when she was ready. So instead, I said, “Take as long as you need. It’s not an easy decision. Just know that your job here is yours for as long as you want it.”

She smiled a little easier this time. “Thanks. It helps to keep busy.”

Then I remembered that she’d come into the house, probably to tell or ask me something. “Was there something you needed?” I asked.

“Oh,” she said. “Yeah, just wanted to let you know I’ve done what you asked.”

Geez. I think I gave her a list of five things to do. “Everything?”

“Stables are done, garden’s done, I fed the calves once, Travis did the other feed, and I did a basic service on the quad runner: grease and oil change, cleaned the air filter and spark plugs.”

I looked at my watch. It wasn’t even three o’clock. I smiled at her. “And that is why I’d have you on my team any day of the week.” I walked toward the door. “Come on, let’s go see how these calves are going. Travis has already probably named them.”

It turns out he had. He pointed to each individual calf as he told us, “Stills, Crosby and Nash.”

Leaning my forearms on the fence, I put my head down and let out a good-lord-help-me sigh. “Are you serious?” I asked, finally looking up at him.

“I couldn’t think of any other three-people bands,” he answered simply.

“What about the Bee Gees?” Ernie asked.

Travis looked horrified. “Uh, no.”

“What are you gonna do if we bring back ten calves tomorrow?” Bacon asked.

Travis was looking over the small Brahman calf, and he looked up, confused. “Yeah well, I’ll have to Google bands for that.”

Not believing that this was actually a serious conversation, I put my head back down. Trudy patted my shoulder and laughed as she walked away.

* * * *

Travis dragged me from my office when it was too-damn-tired o’clock. The house was quiet after dinner, where Travis’s taste in music and subsequent calf-naming ability was still a topic of conversation. He reminded me that he’d made a promise of sorts this morning—that I could add to those hip-bruises tonight by taking him over the desk again or by holding onto him as he skull-fucked me, I believe was the term he used.

I refused the desk option point blank. So he sat me against the headboard of our bed, knelt over my chest, and holding my face in his two hands, he fucked my mouth.

I worked my fingers into his arse, and it wasn’t long before his thrusts got quicker, his groans got lower and he shot into my throat. He slumped against me, heavy and pliable, squirming and chuckling, so I pulled him down onto the mattress. I clambered off, stood at the side of the bed, and pulled him by his legs over to me.

He was on his stomach, bent over the bed with his feet on the floor and his arse at the perfect height.

I poured lube down his crack and smeared it inside him with my fingers, stretching him even further, then slicked my length as well. Trav groaned and lifted his arse for me in a hurry-and-just-fucking-do-it-already kind of way. I leaned over him, pressed against where he wanted me most, and kissed his shoulder. “The bed’s much softer,” I murmured.

He gripped the bedcovers in his fists, his knuckles white. “Charlie, I swear to God, if you don’t fuck me—”

His words stopped dead when I pushed in to him, and he pressed his forehead against the bed as he moaned.

I eased the rest of the way into him, giving us both time to adjust, until he beg-beg-begged me to move, to just “hurry-up-and-fuck-me-please-please-Charlie”, so I did.

I gave him everything he demanded, and when he pleaded with me to come deep-deep-deeper inside him, I gave him that too.

He was almost asleep before I’d finished cleaning him up, and when I pulled him against me, he snuggled right in. I dragged the covers over us and ran my fingers through his hair, and he mumbled something I didn’t quite catch.

“What was that?”

He sighed contentedly and mumbled, “Just said that if I were a cat, I’d be purring right now.”

I fell asleep smiling, until Travis pushed me out of bed to go feed Nugget. Just because he now
could
feed him, didn’t mean—at 1am—he wanted to.

* * * *

It was Thursday, the day before Trav and I were going to head back to Alice to pick up Ma and George. I’d gone out again on Shelby, checking the herd. Calving season was relatively short. Normally the majority were born within a two-to-three week period, but not always. With a herd of pregnant cows approximately a thousand strong, there was always enough to keep us busy.