Read Online Red Dirt Heart 3 by N.R. Walker - Free Book Online Page B

“Don’t ever apologise for that. I like that I have to keep guessing,” he said. “I thought you once told me that life out here was boring.”
    I scoffed out a laugh. “My life used to be boring! I can still remember thinkin’ nothing ever happened out here. It wasn’t that long ago.”
    His eyes went wide. It matched his smile. “You make it sound like it’s my fault!”
    “It is!” I told him. “Since you got here, it’s been not-boring every day.”
    Travis laughed again. “Sorry about that.”
    I squeezed his hand. “You deciding to come here was the best thing to ever happen to me.”
    “Ah,” he said. “I’ve told you before. I didn’t decide to come here. I had to come here. Once I saw the list I got to pick from, the name Sutton Station wouldn’t let me go anywhere else.”
    “Like fate or something.”
    “Exactly like fate or something.”
    I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “What do you think he’s like?”
    He didn’t even have to ask who I was talking about. “I don’t know. If he’s anything like you, he’ll be pretty great,” Travis said.
    “Like me?”
    Travis squeezed my hand. “Laura said he’s your full brother. Didn’t you hear her say that?”
    I shook my head. “I didn’t hear much of anything…”
    Trav took my hand in his other hand and rubbed my back with his other. “She said you could be twins you look so alike.”
    “I didn’t hear that,” I said, my voice just a whisper.
    “He grew up in Darwin, where they still live. They moved there when he was five. He doesn’t know about you,” he said, shaking his head. “She said she never told him, or so she said, because he’d only ask questions she didn’t have answers to.”
    “I didn’t hear any of that,” I admitted. “Is that what she said?”
    Travis nodded.
    “I don’t know what happened to me back there,” I whispered.
    “That’s what you call freaking out,” Trav said. “And freaking out is a perfectly rational response, Charlie. To be honest, I thought you’d freak out before, when you were sitting in the front room with her, but you were so calm.”
    “You were pissed,” I told him. “I ain’t ever seen you look so mad.”
    He shook his head. “I was mad. I’m still mad. She shouldn’t have just turned up. That’s so outta line, and if she thinks she can just come back after dropping the ‘oh by the way, you have a brother’ bombshell, I’ll gladly tell her otherwise.”
    I found myself smiling. “You’re cute when you’re all pissy.”
    Travis glared at me, which just made me laugh more. It felt good to laugh, like the smilin’ muscles hadn’t been stretched in too long. Then I remembered something. “Oh shit,” I said, jumping up.
    Trav got to his feet just as quickly. “What’s wrong?”
    “Nugget. He’ll think he’s starvin’. Probably annoyin’ everyone, scratching and fussing lookin’ for me.”
    Travis smiled his you-ain’t-fooling-anyone smile.
    I stopped just before I was about pull myself up onto Shelby. “Trav,” I said. “Thank you. For bringing me out here, for… everything.”
    “You’re most welcome,” he said with an almost shy smile. He leapt up, swinging his long leg over Texas, and grinned. “Race you home.”
    * * * *
    “You did not let me win,” Travis griped. “I beat you through the gate fair and square.”
    I held the back door open for him and laughed. “You had a twenty-metre head start, and we were right on your tail through that gate, which means, speed over distance, we won.”
    He shook his head and walked inside. “That is the biggest crock of shit I’ve ever heard.”
    I followed him in and ran into his back when he stopped suddenly at the kitchen door. Nara was sitting at the table holding Nugget, but Ma was sitting there too.
    I walked straight in and put my hand on her shoulder. She was wrapped up in her dressing gown, looking not much better than she did this morning. “How are you feeling? Should you