Disclaimer: All characters depicted in this work of fiction are property of Stephanie Meyer. No copyright infringement intended. Some of the ideas in this story come from an Australian TV series called McLeod's Daughters, again no copyright infringement intended. If you haven't already seen McLeod's Daughters watch it, it's no longer running but went for eight seasons and was a delight to watch.

AN - This is my first attempt at a story and it's a little different to most of what I have read on here. Set entirely in Australia, everyone is Aussie. I will try to update weekly but that is subject to change. I use the UK version of spelling some words so if it's incorrect for you I apologise. Also there will be some Aussie slang in this story, if I think something is confusing ill explain it at the end of each chapter but if I forget something or you have no idea what I am blabbing on about just ask me what I mean and ill explain it to you.

Rated M for foul language and eventual lemons.

Chapter 1

BELLA POV

I pulled the girth on the saddle tight so it fit snugly around my horse, Tucker. My sister Alice was, as always, complaining about something.

"I can't believe we have to bring the cattle in now. We're not supposed to be selling them for another two weeks!"

"Look Alice, I know it isn't ideal. Frankly I would prefer to do this when it isn't pissing down rain but we need the money from this sale now."

My two sisters, Alice, Rose and I run a cattle and sheep farm 230 kilometres from the nearest city Melbourne, Australia. We are heading out in the middle of a storm to bring 150 head of cattle in and load them onto trucks to make the local sales. Our farm, Kispers Ridge, wasn't exactly in trouble, but it seemed all I had these days were bills and barely any money to pay them. The bank was on my back about loan repayments.

I had lived on Kispers my entire life with my dad Charlie. My mum, Renee, died during my birth and Charlie remarried Alice and Rose's mother, Sue, when I was four. Before I was nine Charlie and Sue had two daughters and divorced, leaving me again with no mother figure and devoid of my beloved two sisters. Growing up without a mother figure left me as one of the guys, I could ride, drink and swear as well as your average Aussie bloke.

Kispers was the most beautiful place I had ever been, albeit I hadn't travelled much, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else on this planet.

"Do you wanna see this place go down the drain?"

"You know we don't Bella, we love this place nearly as much as you do now," Rosalie replied.

After Charlie died three months ago from a sudden heart attack, he left Kispers to his three daughters. Alice and Rose had moved here from the city after finding out about their share in the property. At first I was concerned about if they wanted to sell their shares but after two weeks they fell in love with the place, and the people.

I had my two sisters back, and I couldn't be happier, well actually, I could, if they stopped playing Bella Barbie. I was happiest in a pair of dirty jeans and boots than covered in make-up and getting a manicure.

"Come on, let's bring these cattle in before my fingers fall off," Alice complained.

The ride to the south paddock would have taken me 10 minutes by myself, but Rose and Alice had only been on a horse for a few weeks. We took it slow in the wet, the last thing I needed was Rose or Alice taking a spill of their horses. When we arrived at the paddock I took in the scenery I knew like the back of my hand. A grassy stretch of mostly flat land with a hilly ridge scattered with trees, 150 head of cattle grazing through sheets of rain. The rain was good, I couldn't complain. Rain meant grass, grass meant fat healthy cattle and sheep, fat healthy cattle and sheep meant more dollars in my bank account.

"Rose, you take the left, Alice go right. I'll round up the stragglers and bring up the rear."

I was proud, Alice and Rose were getting the hang of things much quicker than I expected.

Suddenly I heard a familiar deep voice ring out through the rain.

"You ladies need a hand?"

I looked up through the rain and groaned. Great, just what I needed. My best mates and neighbours Jasper and Emmett Cullen sat atop the ridge on two dirt bikes under the cover of a particularly bushy gum tree, helmets under their arms. Alice was in love, the tall skinny blonde Jasper was just her type. The first time she met him three weeks ago she began planning their wedding. Jasper was the strong, silent type of guy, the total opposite of Alice herself. He said what needed to be said and not too much more.

Rosalie was a little less enthusiastic about her feelings for Jasper's younger brother, Emmett. Emmett was like the world's most inappropriately annoying, hyper teddy bear. Emmett was full of pranks, jokes about me being a guy and rib crushing hugs. Rose had first met him bent over unpacking the boot of her car when she received a firm smack on her protruding rear. Emmett left that day with a very pink cheek and a huge grin on his face. She had bitched about his rudeness for hours after he left.

Alice and Rosalie spoke at the same time, each with opposing answers to Emmett's offer of a hand. Alice with an excited yes and Rose with a blunt no.

I sighed; there was no room in my life for the games of relationships. "Just make yourselves useful why don't you?"

Emmett grinned; they both slapped on their helmets and got to work. In just under half an hour we had the cattle yarded and loaded onto the trucks.

"Thanks boys, wanna come in for a beer?" I offered.

"Sure." Jasper, ever one to use one worded sentences.

We all sat on the front porch of Kispers modest homestead drinking stubbies and watching the rain. Jasper, Alice, Emmett and an indignant looking Rosalie sat at the table while I rested on the porch swing, trying not to look too uncomfortable at the blatant obviousness of my friends towards my sisters.

Jasper stood and joined me on the swing. We were a few metres from the others and he spoke in a quiet voice.

"You okay?"

"What makes you think I'm not?" I replied.

"You're quiet"

"I guess I'm just feeling a little on the outs" I confessed.

"Remember my cousin Edward?" he asked.

I had only met him once at high school graduation. Jasper and I both graduated in the same year and Edward had come to see him graduate. I remembered a tall, good looking guy with striking red-brown hair. "Sure, what about him?"

"He's coming to visit soon, reckon you two could be mates" he said quietly.

"You're setting me up?"I asked shocked.

"Absolutely not! I just think you two could easily be friendly towards one another. I gotta warn you though; you remember how you used to have to beat girls off of me with a stick in high school? Yeah well, it's like that every day for him, but there is no one to do the beating."

"So I'm just meant to be some kind of chick repellent for him?" I was offended.

"Yeah kind of, I mean he's sick of it apparently," Jasper responded, clueless.

"Great, fantastic. Well ill be sure to get my chick beating stick ready for his arrival then," I replied sarcastically.

I stood up out of the swing and dumped the remainder of my beer in the dirt at the edge of the porch.

"I'm off to bed all, night."

I stormed through the door to the living room faintly hearing Jaspers voice over the rain.

"What did I do?"

I knew I shouldn't be offended, and if my sisters weren't here I probably wouldn't be. It's just I have lived my whole life as one of the boys and now that my sisters were here I felt more masculine than I'd ever felt. Alice and Rose were both beautiful women. Alice was short and sweet, with short black hair and a skinny figure; she didn't have a lot to work with but somehow managed to look like a goddess with the clothes she wore and the way she held herself. Rosalie on the other hand was god's gift to men, huge boobs, long blonde hair and legs that went on for miles. When Rose went on her first supply run to our local town, Minyip, she rendered people speechless. All of a sudden my best mates were seeing how the majority of woman, besides me, looked, dressed and acted.

I mean for 24 years I was okay with dressing in dirty jeans and an old grubby checked shirt. However, I suddenly had an urge to wear a frilly pink top and show off that yes, I did in fact have tits. It's not that I was jealous of my sisters; I had no feelings what so ever for my best mates, I just felt kind of invisible.

I climbed the stairs and entered the bathroom, I striped off my wet dirty clothes and looked at myself in the mirror. I was average height with a medium build, I had relatively big breasts but I always wore sports bra's that strapped them down to my chest, there is nothing worse than riding a horse with your boobs bouncing everywhere. I had a slim waist with wider hips and medium length slim legs. I liked my body enough but I wasn't confident wearing tight fitting clothes. Most probably because my dad had always been adamant that only easy women wore short skirts and low cut tops.

I held up the ends of my limp brown hair. I liked my hair but knew it could do with some improvements. The ends were all dead and one length.

I turned on the water and was met with the weak water pressure that is country showers. I sighed and climbed under the spray. As I washed up, I came to a decision. If I was sick of being one of the boys I would stop acting like one. Step one, my hair.

Once I had finished my shower I jumped out of the spray and wrapped my towel around myself. I left the bathroom and made my way to where I knew my sisters would be having their debrief of this evening, my room. I barged in to the middle of their conversation about Jaspers 'dreamy' blue eyes and demanded to know which one of them could give me a haircut.

"And I mean a nice one with layers and all that girly crap?"

"I spose I could do it," Alice replied, "I have been cutting my own hair for years."

"Great, I don't want it too short, I need to still be able to tie it up." I said decisively.

"What brought this on?" Rose asked, with a curious glance my way.

"I am sick and tired of being one of the boys!" I huffily admitted.

"Finally!" Alice squealed, bursting one of my ear drums as she squeezed me.

"Right, let's get this over with" I grumbled.

After two hours of Alice poking and prodding my head with a pair of scissors, I was finally allowed to look at myself in the mirror. My hair was still long but fell in soft waves against my back, it felt lighter though as Alice had thinned it out and added layers all through it. The short layers had fallen forward and framed my face lightly. I loved it.

"Oh Alice, thank you!" I said as I stood and gave her a hug.

"It looks great Bella," Rosalie complemented me.

I looked at myself in the mirror again, I don't think I was ready to make drastic changes like what I wore every day, but getting rid of my dull hairstyle made me feel a little less masculine standing next to my two gorgeous sisters.

...

"Rise and shine sleepy heads!" I yelled through the doors of Rose and Alice's bedrooms at 6:15am the next morning. Rose and Alice still weren't used to the early mornings even though they had been here for three weeks. I heard a thump from Alice's room followed by a groan of protest. Light footfalls made their way to the door before it cracked and a bedraggled Alice poked her head out.

"Bella, it's a Sunday," she told me, like I didn't know what day it was.

"I know what day it is loser, there was a storm last night, we have to go out and check the fences. A downed fence means loose cattle or sheep and a big problem later. Come on we will take the Ute so you don't have to bother saddling the horses, and then I promise, the rest of the day is yours." I bargained.

I started down the stairs, "Oh and tell Rose for me, I'll start on breakfast," I said with a smirk.

Alice groaned and I heard her little fist bash against Rose's door. "Get up, bitch!"

10 minutes later, after I had finished cooking eggs and bacon, a put together Rose and Alice strutted into the kitchen, I have no idea how they managed to look so good before a coffee.

With the breakfast eaten and the tray of the Ute loaded with fencing supplies, the three of us set off around the exterior roads to do a boundary fence check. We quickly found a fence down on a paddock with no stock in it. I set the girls up there with the fencing gear and took off to check the rest of the fence line, not expecting anymore fences to be down as the storm wasn't that bad. I was wrong.

I had been driving for about 10 minutes before I found the other downed fence. There were about 100 head of sheep on the road.

"Great! Fantastic! You stupid sheep, why couldn't you just stay in the bloody paddock" I groaned as I pulled the Ute to the side of the road.

I got out of the car and started herding the sheep towards the opening in the fence, using my arms and my voice. It didn't take me too long to get them all in and I turned back to the car to get the fence gear. The side of the road I had stopped near had gotten very muddy during the night and I had failed to notice a ewe stuck, deep in the mud.

"This day could not get any worse," I grumbled.

I took off my shirt, leaving me something dry to put on, just in case I went arse over tit into the mud. Wearing my jeans and a white singlet I climbed into the mud with little hesitation. The ewe was good and stuck, leaving me no choice but to get muddy. I heard a car pull up but paid no attention, I was focused on getting this stupid sheep out of the damn mud.

The next series of events happened very quickly and I had no chance of stopping them.

"You need a hand, beautiful?" A deep voice startled me so much that I slipped on my feet backwards and landed on my arse in a puddle of water and mud so deep that it splashed the front of my white singlet and left me sputtering with mud all over my face. At that exact moment the stupid sheep decided it would be a good time to free itself from the mud and join its stupid friends.

"Stupid sheep!" I yelled at it as it ran off.

A deep rumbling laugh made me look up into the most beautiful green eyes I had ever seen. The tall good looking, man walked over and offered me a hand up; I took it gratefully and suddenly felt weightless as he pulled me up of the ground.

"Whoa," I yelled as I lost my balance with the momentum and fell into the man helping me up. I stepped back out of arms and winced at the dark brown stains I had made down the length of him.

"Oh god, I'm sorry. I'll pay to get your clothes cleaned," I apologised. I reached for my shirt on the bonnet of the car to wipe off the mud on the front of his jeans. He hissed at the contact and grabbed my hands stilling the motion of them. He pulled the shirt from my hands and wrapped it around my now shivering shoulders.

"It's okay, I'm sorry for startling you. My names Edward Masen, nice to meet you," he introduced himself, smiling.

"Jaspers cousin!" I exclaimed. "I'm Bella, Jaspers best mate, likewise."

"Oh great, you'll be able to point me in the direction of Weblers then," he said with relief written across his face, Weblers being the name of Jaspers fathers property. "I feel like I have been driving in circles for hours. I stopped when I saw you to ask for directions."

I have no idea what overcame me in that moment, but I Bella Swan flirted with a guy.

"Oh, so it wasn't because you saw a beautiful damsel in distress then?"

He stood back and winked, "that too Bella, that too."

"So, Weblers?" he asked, waiting for directions.

"Of course, keep going straight till you hit the main road, turn left and it should be a couple of k's up on your right." I directed.

"Thanks Bella, I guess I'll see you around."

Another wink and he was gone.

I pulled the two halves of the broken fence together, smiling stupidly at the stupid sheep. It would have to do until I picked up the girls and the fencing gear.

I climbed into the Ute in a daze, still mystified by what came over me. I drove to pick up the girls from where I had dropped them off. They chucked the gear in the tray and climbed into the car.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Rose asked bluntly.

I smiled like a fool, "sheep, mud, puddle" I replied.

Alice stared at me from the back seat with wide eyes, "she has finally gone mad."

...

Aussie Slang:

Pissing down: heavy rain, not literal piss.

'Head' of cattle: 1 head = 1 cow

Bloke: a man

Boot of a car: Trunk of a car

Arse over tit: means exactly what is says, falling over, so that your arse ends up over your tits

Thank you for reading, hoped you enjoyed it xx d