With love and thanks to Jodi McLeod for leaving you silver nokia to Stevie, and your share of Drovers Run to Regan and her sisters
(and nothing to your best friend Kate?? Oh well, Miss you Jodi xoxo)
For Tess, for your love and loyalty to those you considered family.
For Regan, ever standing strong to solve everyone else's problems, ever standing as a backdrop to everyone else's life story, a story just for you... (miss you already Regs xoxo)
ForGrace, because Regan loves you. That's all.
and last but not least
For Stevie, a chance to make things right.
CHAPTER 1
Stevie and Regan walked side by side into the showground. Neither could stop smiling. After the turmoil of the last weeks thinking they had lost Jodi, and then the relief of finding out she was alive and safe, life seemed so good. Simple things brought so much joy, and it seemed everything was at peace with the world.
Behind Stevie's smile was more than joy over Jodi. Her long awaited dreams of being with Alex had finally come true. She could scarcely believe that after the years of longing for him, crying over him, hurting him and being hurt by him, that finally he had come to her and told her that he loved her. Her joy overtook all her senses and she threw herself head first into the relationship without a second thought for the consequences, for all the pain they had caused one another, or where it was all going to end up one day. She lived for the moment, and the moment was beyond her wildest dreams.
Regan smiled at finally having found her place at home on Drovers Run. At the generosity of her cousins gift of a substantial stake in Drovers Run. It was her chance to make something of her life, to leave behind the bad memories from her previous career. After the mining accident where those men were killed, she knew she could not go back to her previous job, that she didn't want to. And it seemed she had nothing left. That was the only job she was trained to do, she spent so much of her life in her profession that she had no time for relationships. She had nothing left to her life, and she wished more than once it was herself that had been killed, and not those men who seemed to have so much more to live for.
That was when she remembered Drovers Run. And Tess her cousin who showed her kindness after kindness even when Regan threatened everything precious to her. And Dave.
Regan silently scolded herself for thinking of Dave. It was over. He was in Africa. With Kate. For a short time they had fun, he had been something she needed, but not needed enough to compromise herself. She was not enough for him to make that commitment, and she wouldn't settle for anything less.
Now all her energies focused on Drovers Run-To make her mark in McLeod history.
Stevie felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. Jodi's phone. Her inheritance. What she once though of as a piece of useless junk was now so special. That soft beep beep noise made her heart skip, and she couldn't help the way her eyes lit up at the thought of the man who had sent that message.
Regan noticed the smile on Stevie's face as that phone beeped, and gave her friend a knowing look, although they hadn't uttered a word about Alex. Regan could sense from her friend some excitement. A peace that only seemed to come from Alex. She was glad for her friend, but she was cautious too. She had seen it one too many times, Stevie fall apart because of that man, and she wondered how many times he could shatter her before she broke completely.
Stevie immediately and carefully pulled the phone from her pocket, careful to shield the phone from Regan's curious eyes.
"Come on you can tell me Stevie, What's going on??" Regan tried to get her friend to spill the latest news of Alex. Stevie had always told her what was going on with Alex, be it good or bad, and she sensed something was somehow different this time that Stevie didn't want to share it with her.
"Trust me, you'll be the first person I'll tell." Stevie replied, but her eyes and her attention were glued to that phone.
It was then Regan looked up and saw something that made stop dead in her tracks, causing Stevie to divert her attention from her phone for a moment.
"What's up?" Stevie asked
Regan stood speechless and stunned, and not very much like Regan at all, who always seemed so composed. Something had rocked her. Stevie followed her gaze trying to imagine what it was that startled her friend, she looked towards the horses and competitors, expecting to see an alien landing. But there were just people, horses, every day life. She turned puzzled back to her friend, her mouth open to ask again what was up, but Regan was gone. Just like that.
Regan turned and quickly walked away from what she had seen, what she thought she had seen, or more to the point who. Jodi's words rang in her ears "iFor you and your sisters." /i
i"I don't have sisters." Regan wanted to reply. "Only one sister, Jasmine, and that's bad enough thank you." /i
Why had Jodi said isisters?/i Had Jasmine mentioned something about Grace? Regan had never mentioned it that's for sure. And thankfully Jodi was in such a rush to escape that the conversation never went further.
Regan sighed, slowing her pace. It was not that she didn't love Grace, or even Jasmine. Well, at the very least, she didn't hate them. She often wished she would be more like Tess, like Tess who took her in even after she tried to destroy that property, Tess who loved her even before she laid eyes on her, because Tess just loved her family so much. Regan's own sisters were difficult to love like that. But Regan reminded herself that she has probably not been very easy to love when she tried to destroy Drovers either, but Tess had managed it somehow, and even Jodi, Kate and Stevie had accepted her back into their lives. And now Jodi, who once hated her so fiercely, had left this piece of inheritance to her….iand to her sisters. /i
Jasmine was like a stranger to her, someone she wouldn't recognise if she passed on the street except for the photo she had seen hanging at Drovers. That didn't bother her so much. It didn't bother Jasmine either. They had gone their separate ways and that was all there was to it. There never seemed to be this longing that Tess described as she grew up apart form Claire, never any sadness at what was lost. It was just the way it was. There were no hard feeling, no feelings at all really. Not even any regret. If Jasmine turned up tomorrow at Drovers, Regan would be polite, and no doubt Jasmine would too, and for a few days they could maintain polite conversation, then Jasmine would have to leave, or Regan would. That was all there was to it. They were never meant to be in close proximity to one another. It's a good thing Jasmine showed no interest in Drovers, and Regan was sure it would stay that way as long as she was around the place.
But Grace, Grace was different. Different altogether on every level and for so many reasons that it was impossible to even imagine Jasmine and Grace both fell into that same category as isister./i Regan had tried hard with Grace, again and again, and then given up. Because it turned her into a bitter angry hurt person that she didn't want to be. So she had walked away. But unlike her shattered relationship with Jasmine, this time there was regret, and anger, and pain, and a whole lot if wishing things would have been somehow different. Her own mistakes hung over her head, as well as those of Grace. It was a mutual war and both had given as good as they received over the years. There had been no winner, only two battle scarred sisters, who had lost the most precious thing of all, each other.
There wasn't anyone on the planet who hurt her like Grace could. Sure other people hurt her- Dave for example. But Regan had brushed him off, walked away, and never gave him the chance to hurt her again. And that was the pattern with anyone who hurt her. It was simple and effective. But the one person she couldn't seem to just brush out of her life like that, was Grace.
Grace was impossible to walk away from, impossible to say no to, and impossible to forget. When she had called only weeks ago, Regan had come running, no questions asked. Not because of the huge weight Grace held over her head, but simply because that's was what she had always done. She had told the others she was visiting her sick mother. No one paid much attention to her absence. Tayler missed her that was clear, but the others showed little interest. Even Stevie didn't seem to notice there was something else going on. That hurt Regan more than a little, after all the times she had been there for Stevie over the years. But in a way she was glad Stevie hadn't noticed, then there was no need to explain anything.
Regan knew she was far from innocent, and had enough insight to realise that Grace was not entirely to blame. There were times her own conscience convicted her more harshly than any words from Grace ever could. But there were things that could not be changed, and couldn't be made up for. And it seemed that they would forever be stuck on opposite sides of a great big something. There were times she hated Grace throughout the years. Grace was the only person on the planet she felt the need to use that word for. But even when she was younger, and angrier, Regan knew it was all so complicated. That there was such a fine line between love and hate. And that what she and Grace had was still better somehow than what she had with Jasmine, because at least she and Grace didn't have nothing.
Stevie turned to follow Regan, but was interrupted as a stranger took her hand and introduced herself.
"Hi I'm Grace." The blond woman said cheerily.
Stevie responded with a confused look, her thoughts still with the strange disappearance of her friend Regan, and before that to the message from Alex she had yet to read.
"I'm competing against you today." The strange blond woman continued.
"Oh Right, Stevie Hall, well good luck out there." Stevie said, hoping to make a quick get away, but stopping long enough to notice there was something odd about her fellow competitor. iGrace/i she repeated the name to herself. It didn't seem to fit this woman, who did not appear graceful in the least.
"Sorry I gotta go, my friend is waiting for me." Stevie finished hastily and hurried off to follow Regan, not stopping long enough to figure out what it was about this woman that seemed somewhat familiar.