Red Dirt Heart 03.5 (5 page)

“Mm, yeah.”

I put my arm around him so he couldn’t escape. “Don’t lie to me, Trav. I’m sorry about before, with Billy and the snake. He was just pulling your leg. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Nah, it’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

He sighed. “Dunno.”

“Are you disappointed?”

He turned his face so he could see me. “In what?”

“That Christmas here is a non-event. I’m sorry we don’t make no fuss over it.”

He smiled a little. “It’s not that… I guess it’s just different here. I dunno. If I were back in Texas, we’d have family for miles and food for days. Christmas in my parents’ house lasts a week.”

I gave him a squeeze. “You’re homesick.”

“A little.”

I kissed the side of his head. “Thank you for telling me.”

“It doesn’t mean I wanna go home, Charlie.”

I laughed quietly. “I know that. I know you’re here for good. We’ve been through enough, and I know when you said this was your home, you meant it.”

“I did. I still do.”

“You’re allowed to be homesick, Trav. You’re allowed to miss your family. It’s only natural.” I kissed his shoulder this time. “Maybe next year we can go and have a Texas Christmas.”

He turned to face me, and with us both lyin’ on the couch, that weren’t the easiest of things. “You mean that?”

“Anything for you.”

He closed his eyes and smiled, all content like my words fixed something inside him. “Thank you.”

I kissed him, just soft and sweet, and the sound of the phone ringing kinda ruined the moment. Ma stuck her head around the doorway not a moment later. “Charlie? It’s Laura.”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit
.

My mother, Laura, and brother, Sam, were critical in the implementation of Travis’s Christmas present bein’ delivered on time. If something went wrong, I’d find myself drivin’ three hours to Alice Springs at midnight on Christmas Eve. Not that I wouldn’t do it…

I peeled myself off the couch in a mass of arms and legs and kinda fell into the hallway. I picked up the phone. “Laura.”

“Oh hi, Charlie,” she replied. “Is Travis there? Can you talk?”

“Yes, and not really.”

She laughed. “Right then. I’ll be quick. Everything’s on time; there’s been no delays from Darwin. Should be there just after five.”

Relief coursed through me. “Oh, that’s great. I can’t thank you enough.”

“It’s no problem. Like I said, I’ve been on nightshift this week so I’m up and awake, and Sam’ll keep me company while I drive. Plus I get to spend my first Christmas with you in too many years.” She sounded a little emotional, and if I were bein’ truthful, it made me happy to hear her say that.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“Okay, we’ll see you in the morning.”

“Drive safe.”

“Will do. Bye, Charlie.”

When she hung up, knowing Trav could hear every word I was saying, I added, “Okay, have a great Christmas. Bye.”

Trav was sitting up watching John McClane kick some arse, but by the over-thinkin’ line between his eyebrows, I guessed he was doing more thinking than watching. “Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, Laura just wanted to say Merry Christmas. She’s on some crazy nightshifts and didn’t want to miss sayin’ hi.”

Trav looked at me kinda funny, and knowin’ I couldn’t lie to save myself, I flicked on the Christmas tree lights, turned off the lounge room lights, and hit the off button on the TV. I held my hand out to Trav and pulled him to his feet, and there by the lights of the Christmas tree, I kissed him.

He put his hand to my face and did that nose nudgin’ thing that normally made my knees buckle. I pulled back. “Ow, Trav. My nose!”

“Oh my God, sorry,” he said with a laugh. He held my face and planted soft kisses on my cheeks, my lips, and my still-sore nose. I was just about to tell him his sorry weren’t real sincere considerin’ he was still smiling, but then something changed. His smile melted into something serious, and his eyes darkened with want. He kissed me again, deeper this time, and he slowly opened my mouth with his. He pushed his hips against mine and groaned into the kiss.

Jesus.

“Take me to bed, Travis,” I whispered.

He took my hand and took care of me, goin’ over every inch of my body, with his hands, with his mouth. I was lyin’ on my stomach and he was between my legs when he pushed into me, but it didn’t seem quite right. Like he felt the same, he rolled me over and had me that way instead. It was better he said, kissin’ me and reminding me of love and promises, looking deep into my eyes when he made me come again.

I thought my heart might just about burst.

Afterwards when he was all sated and nuzzlin’ into me, all wrapped around me, he hummed his contentment. “Mmm, merry Christmas to me.”

Merry, merry Christmas.

I woke up early. Actually, I barely slept at all, maybe three hours at the most. But I was up annoying Nugget at four thirty, putting presents under the Christmas tree, pacing the lounge room, waiting, waiting, waiting.

Finally—
finally
—headlights came down the drive.

My heart was in my throat, and I was prayin’ that Trav wouldn’t wake up when he heard the car or the voices that followed. I shouldn’t have worried though, because he was sleepin’ so hard, not even the smell of coffee under his nose half an hour later woke him up.

I put the cup on the side table and climbed onto the bed. Now if it were any other day, I’d watch him and the way moonlight touched his face like it were my favourite thing. Because it was.

But not today.

“Trav. Wake up.”

“Mm mm,” he mumbled. “Sleep in.”

“You can’t. It’s pressies time.”

He cracked one eye open. His voice was thick with sleep. “Pressies? What the hell are pressies?”

“Presents. You know, gifts.”

He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Australians really shorten the word presents?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Why? It takes just as much effort to say pressies as it does to say presents. There’s the same amount of syllables.”

I snorted. “Come on. I need you to get up.”

“Why?” he grumbled. He sat up and noticed the window. “The sun ain’t even freakin’ up, Charlie. What the hell time is it?” he asked.

“It’s just after five o’clock. It’s gettin’ up time.”

He glared at me. “You’re serious.” He fell back onto the bed and pulled a pillow over his face. “Ya know, if Christmas is no big deal, it can be no big deal after six freakin’ a.m.”

I threw his shorts on the bed. “Hurry up, Trav. I made you coffee. The fancy stuff, not the instant powder stuff.”

He pulled the pillow down. “What have you done?”

I grinned. He was gonna shit bricks. “Come on, get up. Trudy and Gracie have been up for a while. Bacon’s just joined ’em. Nara and Billy are on their way.” I heard voices down the hall. “That’s them. Come on, Trav. We’re waitin’ on you.”

He looked at me for three long not-speakin’ seconds before he threw back the covers and grumbled the whole time he was pullin’ on his shorts. I handed him his coffee and took his other hand and all but dragged him out to the lounge room. Everyone was there, kinda bleary eyed but smilin’, all sitting around the lounge room lookin’ at the presents under the tree. They were watching Travis, knowing what was waiting for him in the kitchen.

He sat on the lounge and sipped his coffee, still half asleep and grumbling, and I stood in front of the tree. “Thank you all for being here this early,” I said. My heart was in my throat. “Merry Christmas, everyone. I know we’ve never really done Christmas here before, but this year is different. Everything's different now…” I swallowed hard. “So without wasting any more time, I want to give Travis his Christmas present first.”

Travis looked confused, all bleary-eyed and sleep-messed hair, and it was then Travis noticed the presents under the tree. Or more specifically, he noticed there were about twenty wrapped gifts that weren’t there last night. He stared at me. “You said there were no presents.” His stare became a scowl. “You told me no presents. You said we don’t do presents. You made that rule, and now you’re telling me you got me something?”

“Well—”

“Jesus Christ, Charlie.” He was mad. “I mean I got you something, but it’s only little and it didn’t cost me anything because you said
no gifts
!”

“Well, what I meant was you didn’t have to get me anything,” I said quickly. His jaw bulged and his nostrils flared. Well, apparently that wasn’t the right answer. I cringed. “Just put your coffee down and close your eyes. Please.”

He didn’t move. He just did that still-pissed, staring-without-speaking thing.

Ma, who was sitting next to him, took his coffee from him. “I’ll take that.”

“You know what it is,” he mumbled, looking at Ma. Then he saw everyone was smiling. “You all know what it is.” His gaze shot to mine. “What have you done?”

“Close your eyes.”

I waited until he’d put his hands over his face, mumbling words I couldn’t hear. I dashed off to the kitchen and came back with his present in tow. Unable to stop from grinning, I took a deep breath. “Okay. Open your eyes.”

He did.

The moment he saw his mum and dad, he instantly teared up, and he jumped out of his seat, almost tackling his parents through the door.

Mr and Mrs Craig had flown from Texas to spend Christmas with their son. Actually, I’d paid to fly them out. It was my present to Travis.

“Oh my God,” he said, letting his parents go so he could hug his mum then his dad in turn. He bounced, like he wasn’t sure what to do with his hands and wiped his tears. “Oh my God.”

Then he looked at me. “You did this?” I nodded, but before I could say anything, he hugged me too. “I hate you so much right now,” he mumbled into my neck, which made me laugh. He let go of me and hugged his mum again. She was still crying. It was like Trav couldn’t keep still. “How did this happen?”

Mrs Craig said, “Well, it was Charlie’s idea. He phoned us up a few weeks ago and asked us if we’d like to visit.”

“It was a long flight,” his dad said. “Feels like we left three days ago.”

Mrs Craig wiped her face and added, “We
did
leave three days ago.”

“We flew into Darwin last night at some ungodly hour,” Mr Craig explained, then into Alice Springs, where Charlie’s mother Laura and Sam kindly drove us out here. I have to admit, Travis, I thought you were exaggerating when you said you were three hours from the closest town.”

Trav looked around the room. “Laura and Sam are here?”

Laura was leaning against the hall doorway, and Sam, who was standing behind her, gave him a wave. “Merry Christmas, Travis.”

So of course, he hugged them too. “You drove them out here at midnight? After you called here last night to say you were working…” Travis spun to look at me. “You’re the worst liar.”

I laughed. “I kept this from you just fine.”

He put his hands to my face, and in front of everyone, he kissed me.

Ma cleared her throat. “Right then. Everyone else’s presents?”

Within ten minutes, everyone had opened their gifts. There was fishing gear, books, clothes, and wrapping paper everywhere. But the very best gift was the laughter. I was beginning to see why Trav liked to make a thing of Christmas.

I got a rocking horse for Gracie. I explained she was too little for it yet, but she’d grow into it, just in time for next Christmas when I got her a real pony. I ignored the death-stares from Trudy and the eye-rollin’ from Bacon, and figured now probably wasn’t the best time to tell them I’d already started lookin’ for the perfect pony.

Travis handed me a box with a Christmas bow. “This is your non-gift. Which pales in comparison really rather spectacularly compared to your non-gift, I just have to say.”

I opened my present with a stupid grin on my face that died when I saw what it was. Inside was the old photograph of my dad holding a three-year-old me. It was the photo we found in the roof, along with other things my father had put away… I loved this photo. My dad was laughing at someone off camera. He looked so happy. The frame was wood and rustic and suited the age of the photo.

“It’s nothing much,” Travis said.

I swallowed hard. “It’s perfect.”

“George helped me make the frame. There was some old palings in the shed and a sheet of glass I cleaned up. I oiled the wood and it didn’t come up too bad.” Trav shrugged. “I wanted you to remember him smiling like that,” he said quietly.

In the last year, I’d let go of a lot of resentment toward my father. Travis was the sole reason for that. So a photo of my old man in a frame made by Travis and George from old bits and pieces from this farm made to be something new again was just about as fitting as a gift could get. “Trav, it really is perfect,” I whispered, blinking back tears.

Trav pulled me in for a hug. He kissed the side of my head. “Love you, Charlie.”

I put the frame on the mantelpiece, because part of me hoped my father could somehow look around the lounge room and see what a different home Sutton Station was now. I slid my hand over Travis’s and gave his fingers a squeeze. “Love you too, Trav.”

* * * *

We talked the morning away, over breakfast, and then morning tea. But Laura claimed the week of nightshifts had caught up with her, so she went to get some sleep. Sam crashed on the couch for a bit and woke up in time for lunch.

I could tell Travis’s parents were beat, but they were excited and hadn’t stopped talking to Trav or stopped touching him yet. It was like they could barely believe they were actually seeing him.

As the afternoon wore on and the back of the homestead fell into shade, we all sat out the back. The cooler breeze was a godsend and made for good weather for a game of backyard cricket. Ernie and Billy, Bacon and George, and me, Sam, and Trav played, making The Three Stooges look boring, while everyone else looked on, but by God we laughed.

Ma and Nara had outdone themselves with the food. It was a real Australian Christmas dinner. There was honey-glazed baked ham, salads, and fresh-baked breads, and as the sun was setting, we had tea and scones with homemade jam and cream and a berry Pavlova for dessert.

It was pretty much perfect.

Travis’s mum, Laura, and Ma talked and talked, and Mr Craig and George talked farming, making plans for their week-long stay. Nugget rolled and did burn-outs in the dirt while me and Trav kicked back with our bare feet up. We watched our families all laughing and smiling, and he took hold of my hand. “I thought you said you didn’t do anything special for Christmas.”

“We don’t normally. Nothing fancy anyway. Just this.”

“Charlie, this right here is perfect.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

“Why did you do it?” he asked. “Fly my parents out here?”

“Remember on December first, you asked about putting up a Christmas tree? And I kinda laughed, because well, we haven’t done that in years.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, your face… you were disappointed. You tried to hide it and you acted like you didn’t care, but I could tell you did.”

“You flew my parents here from the States because I looked disappointed?”

I nodded. “Yep. I never want to disappoint you, Travis,” I said quietly. “And doin’ stuff to make your partner happy is what being in a relationship is all about, yeah? And it was your first Christmas here. I wanted you to be happy. That’s all.”

He gave me that God-I-love-you look. He leaned in close, so only I could hear him speak. “Charlie, just so you know, you’re getting
so
lucky tonight.”

It made me laugh. “Merry Christmas to me.”

He smiled and sat back in his chair, keepin’ a hold of my hand. He watched his momma laugh at something Ma said, and Trav let out one of his contented sighs. “I think this is my best Christmas yet.”

“Mine too, Trav.” He really had no idea just how true it was. “Mine too.”
Merry Christmas to me, indeed.

~The End.