Red Dirt Heart 04 - Red Dirt Heart 4 (24 page)

When Milly was twelve…

Planning birthday parties for twelve-year-old girls was never easy. Milly was an easygoing kid, loved nothing more than putting her nose in a book or riding her horse into the desert.

We’d invited the entire family, which Milly was stoked about.

Laura was there, and Sam and Ainsley and their kids. Trudy and Bacon, and Gracie and Lachy of course, who were like cousins to Milly. Nara and Amos were there and their two kids, and with my parents flying in from Texas, it made for one very full and loud house.

Milly loved it.

Her hair was longer now, halfway down her back, still red but a darker shade. Her face was leaving behind childhood and taking on young adulthood with grace, save the infrequent spot or pimple.

She was beautiful.

She was smart, a testament to Ma’s dedication to homeschooling and Nara’s love of reading. She still wore dresses or skirts with her trademark boots, and she still caught lizards with her bare hands.

And she was turning twelve…

I had no clue where that time went or how to make it stop. She was growin’ up so damn fast.

“You okay?” my mom asked. They’d arrived two days before to help us celebrate Milly’s birthday.

“Just wondering where Milly went,” I said with a sigh.

“She’s outside,” Mom said, looking a bit confused. “The other guests are arriving…”

“No, not that Milly,” I said. “I mean the little Milly, the tiny girl who smelled of baby powder, or the three-year-old Milly with wild red hair and a wicked laugh who’d crawl into our bed at four in the morning. Or who’d fall asleep in Nugget’s bed and wake up with pellets in her hair. Or the five-year-old who painted the shed wall and herself with sump oil.
That
Milly. Can someone please tell me what happened to my baby girl? I swear she was just here yesterday…”

My mom got all teary. “Oh, Travis.”

Charlie gave me a sad smile and put his hand to my face before kissing me softly. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to, because I know he felt the same.

My dad walked in with a huge tray of food. “Ma told me to bring this in here,” he said.

“Right,” I said, making more room on the table. “Here, Dad.” And any sombre thoughts I had about years that flew by too fast were gone when the house started to fill with people.

We’d invited some local kids—ones who only had to drive an hour or two to get here—and for the most part, Milly had a ball. They spent the entire time outside, taking full advantage of a cooler fall day.

One of the kids that made the trip was Logan McPherson. They lived two stations over, about a hundred and fifty miles south of us, and he was in the same online-school class as Milly. His mom and dad both brought him, thankfully not bringing up the time when Milly had socked him in the mouth when she was six.

And the party was going just great, until we heard Milly raise her voice. I followed the sound to find her yet again giving poor Logan a piece of her mind. “I can so,” she yelled at him. He replied with something I couldn’t quite hear, then she turned and stared him down. “Like you’d know anyway.”

She climbed the fence railing and let out a loud whistle. Her horse came cantering over, and with a final glare at Logan, she jumped down off the fence, took hold of the horse’s mane and hauled herself up, no bridle, no saddle.

“Milly!” Charlie called out beside me, but it was too late. She gave the horse a nudge with her heels and it took off.

She rode quite well for about two hundred yards before she lost her hold and fell. Charlie and I both leapt off the veranda, but by the time we were at the fence, Logan was through the fence and halfway there. Man, the kid could run.

Milly was picking herself up and dusting herself off just as Logan got to her. “Milly! Are you okay?” he cried. “Are you hurt? Milly?”

With no more than a hurt pride and a bruised ego, Milly glared at him. Logan put his hand up and brushed some dried grass out of her hair, then, out of what I was certain was relief, the kid laughed.

So Milly closed her fist, pulled it back and punched him in the mouth.

* * * *

When the party was over—and after we’d apologised to the McPhersons three dozen times—we sat out on the veranda enjoying the last of the afternoon sun.

Milly, who had done some time out in her room, now sat with us. She had Nugget on her lap, flat on his back, getting a tummy scratch. She was still pouting.

“Wanna tell us what you and Logan were fighting over this time?” Charlie asked.

She scowled. “We had a class project to do on water preservation. Mine was better than his, because I was right and he was wrong.”

I snorted. “Of course he was.”

“Wanna know what I think?” my dad said, nudging his elbow into hers. “I think Logan might be in love.”

Milly went a dozen shades of scarlet, and Charlie growled.

“Well,” George said in his usual slow, dry way of talking. “If he’s brave enough to cop two right hooks to the mouth and keep coming back for more…”

Charlie growled again. I petted his leg and shook my head in a leave-well-enough-alone way.

“Hey, you know what?” I said, changing the subject. I looked at Charlie and smiled. “I don’t think we’ve given Milly a birthday gift from us.”

“Yes, you did.” She was still scratching a snoring Nugget’s tummy “You got me new boots and the latest e-reader.”

I shook my head. “No, I mean our real gift.”

Her eyes widened and she smiled. “Really?”

Charlie got up and went inside, coming back out a moment later with a small jewellery box. Milly put a very disgruntled Nugget down on the floor and sat up. She opened the box and her smile was instantaneous. “Thank you, thank you,” she cried. She leapt out of her chair and threw her arms around Charlie first, then me. Milly sat on my lap and pulled the chain from the box. “Can you put it on me, Dada?”

I took the silver necklace from her and fumbled with the clasp a little before getting it fastened. She put her hand to the pendant, the small silver pendant with Sutton branding on one side, Craig on the other. The very same pendant that matched the ones her fathers still wore to this very day.

“I love it!” she cried. “Now we all have one.”

I put my arms around her and gave my little girl a squeeze, just as Charlie hooked his foot around mine.

When Milly was seventeen…

It didn’t seem too long ago that we watched as Nara graduated high school, and now there we were, watching Milly do the same.

Charlie stood up, teary-eyed and proud as hell, and clapped when they called her name, with me right beside him. He had grey hair at his temples and laugh lines at the corner of his eyes. His hands were rough and callused, workin’-hard hands that still made my breath catch when he touched me.

Ma and George were with us, much older now, but still a part of the Sutton family. George had slowed up with his work on the station, but still pottered around every day, sunup ’til sundown, doin’ what he could.

Ma still worked in the kitchen, still yelled at Charlie for stealin’ scones off her table like she did when he was twenty-five.

It wouldn’t be home without them.

Charlie had been dreading this day, the day that Milly would finish high school and, in all likelihood, want to venture out into the big wide world. Not that he’d tell Milly he was dreading it. He didn’t want to clip her wings should she want to fly.

But we certainly didn’t want to see her go.

She collected her certificate, her long hair all shiny and sleek, dressed in a beautiful summer dress and her trademark boots. With her red hair, brown eyes and pale skin, she turned heads from boys and girls alike. But she wasn’t interested in any of them.

Well, except for one boy…

Logan McPherson collected his certificate, and after formalities and photos, they stood around talking.

They’d skirted around each other since they were six years old. Quite often paired in online study groups for classes, they’d phoned, Skyped, texted each other for years. They were both remote station kids; they understood each other, but of late the phone calls were getting longer, the text messages more frequent.

It was clear Logan was smitten, and I think he had been from the first time she punched him. But lately, Milly would blush and smile when his name was mentioned, and it was pretty obvious that smitten was now a two-way street.

We tried to give them some privacy as they talked after the graduation ceremony. Well, I did. Charlie didn’t. He stood facing me so he had a clear line of sight past my shoulder.

“Let them talk,” I said to him. “She needs this.”

Charlie sipped his cup of tea and huffed. Which was Charlie speak for over-my-dead-body.

Then he straightened and kind of smiled, and Milly stormed over to us. “Ugh. Boys.” She glared at me and Charlie. “Why are you so difficult?”

Ma laughed. “I recall a similar conversation with your daddy.”

Charlie rolled his eyes. “What did he do now?”

Milly fumed. “He wanted to know if I’d be his girlfriend.”

Charlie almost dropped his cup of tea. “He what?”

“I know, right?” she said, glaring at a poor, dejected Logan.

“Milly, sweetie,” I tried to calm her down. “What did you say to him? He looks heartbroken.”

She lifted her chin, much like Charlie does when pride was about to answer instead of logic or reason. “I told him no. Because he said if I didn’t want to be, then Ashley Johnson would. Like he was trying to make me jealous or something, because Ashley Johnson is a two-faced cow who told me she doesn’t like him so that was complete bullshit.”

Charlie smiled proudly at our daughter. “And you didn’t punch him in the mouth?”

Milly paused for a moment, then turned on her heel and started heading back to Logan. “No, but that’s a really good idea.”

I grabbed her arm before she could get too far. “Milly, there’ll be no punching anyone. Not today.”

She stopped and huffed loudly. “Fine.”

“Do you want him to be your boyfriend?” I asked quietly.

Her blush gave her away.

“Then you go set the rules. Not him,” I offered.

She seemed to like that idea, because with a nod, a deep breath and a flick of her hair, she made a beeline over to him.

We couldn’t hear what she said, but we watched. She was clearly layin’ down some ground rules, punctuated with a jab at his chest every now and then, but at least she didn’t punch him.

When she was finished, she turned with a satisfied smile and walked over to us. Logan, red-faced, watched her walk away with something close to wonder in his eyes. And a whole lot of respect.

The next day, when our work was done and the sun was low, the three of us sat on the veranda. Charlie took a deep breath and spoke to the horizon. “So… Miss I-finished-high-school Amelia Sutton,” he started. He cleared his throat and struggled to speak. “I guess we should start looking at universities.”

Her eyes shot to Charlie’s, then to mine.

“We’ve talked about it,” I added. And we had. Lord knows we had. “And we want you to follow your heart, chase your dreams. There’s great colleges in Sydney or Melbourne. I’m sure Ryanne would like to see you some more. Or there’s always colleges in the States. You know Grams and Pop would love to have you stay with them.”

“What?” she said, blinking.

“University,” Charlie said. “If you want to, that is. There’s a whole world out there just waiting for Milly Sutton to put her stamp on it.”

She shook her head, her brown eyes big and wide. “I don’t want to go.” She looked at Charlie. “I can do uni online, Dad, if I have to.”

Charlie sat up straight and took her hand. “You don’t have to do anything,” he said. “Believe me, Milly. I would never,
ever
send you away to uni against your wishes. Don’t ever think that for a second.” He shook his head. “My father sent me away a long time ago… I would never do that to you.”

Milly squeezed his hand. “I don’t want to go. I can’t imagine being anywhere else. This is my home.
Here
. This station, this desert. The cattle, the horses, the red dirt. It will always be here.”

Charlie blinked back tears, and he smiled like I’d never seen.

Milly’s phone rang, and she smiled when she saw who was calling. She held it up and showed us Logan’s name. “He wants to know if he can take me into town one day for lunch and a movie, now that school’s finished.”

Charlie ignored the ringing phone for a long second. “Is that what you want?”

Milly nodded and smiled. “It is, Daddy.”

“Then tell the boy yes.”

Milly kissed Charlie’s forehead before she answered the phone, then walked down the veranda steps toward the stables to talk in private. Charlie and I sat on the veranda, our chairs facing west, the orange and pink sky showing off for the setting sun, taking in what had just happened.

“She wants to stay,” he whispered.

I reached over and took his hand; the rough warm skin felt like home. “Can’t say I’m surprised,” I told him. “She’s half you.”

He turned his head to face me. “And she’s half you.”

I leaned over, waiting for him to do the same. When his face was close to mine, I gave him an almost kiss and nudged his nose to mine. More than twenty years on and it still made his breath catch. He smiled and ducked his head, sitting back in his chair.

Milly brought her horse around to where we were sitting. She put her foot in the stirrup and launched herself into the saddle easily. “I’m just goin’ for a quick ride,” she said.

“It’s almost sunset,” I reasoned.

“I know,” she replied with a smile. “It’s my favourite time to ride.”

I couldn’t argue with that. It was our favourite too…

“What did Logan say?” Charlie called out.

“Next Monday,” she replied, turning her horse in a tight circle with skill. “I told him we’ve got drenching this week and we’re branding the yearlings, so he’d just have to wait.” She grinned. “Oh, and I told him he needed to come and introduce himself properly to both of you. Officially.”

Charlie snorted. “Trying to make a gentleman out of him?”

“Nope,” she called back. “Just seein’ if he’s got a spine.”

With that, she took off at a trot to the western paddock. Charlie looked at me and smiled. “Did I ever worry about who would run this place when we were gone?”

I looked back over to where Milly was just a flame of horse and red hair against the sunset. There wasn’t any doubt about it; her heart was as red dirt as ours.

“Yep. Sutton Station is gonna be just fine.”

~The End

Author note: Thank you all for taking this journey with me to the red dirt and blistering heat of the Outback. Charlie and Travis have been a huge part of my life this last year, and I have loved giving them life with words.

Thank you for reading…