Chapter 6

The obnoxious beeping of her phone woke up Jodi. She needed to get up extra early today because she needed to get the breakfast made, the girls fed, the animals fed and watered, fences inspected and stalls mucked out before they could even start on dealing with their water issue. Figures it's my day for breakfast duty, she thought.

Matt rolled over and in his sleep, murmured "I love you," and cuddled up to her, wrapping his arm over her as if to prevent her from getting up.

"If only honey, not this morning though," Jodi said, sounding disappointed she couldn't allow herself to be seduced.

Matt blinked his eyes at the rebuff and slowly sat up, wiping the sleep from his eyes. He grabbed his phone and looked at the time. "Baby, it's so early. Not even five yet. Come back to bed," he suggested.

"Mommy, I'm hungry," A young voice spoke from outside of the door.

"Just a minute Katie. I'll fix something for you in a moment," Jodi begrudgingly replied. She quickly threw on some work clothes, threw her hair back and put on her hat.

"Duty calls, babe. I'll see you down there." She gave Matt a quick kiss and headed out the bedroom door.

Once in the kitchen, she got things going quickly. She poured Katie a glass of orange juice and spread some vegemite on toast for her. Placated, Katie happily ate the toast and Jodi got to work. She got a kilo of bacon going in the oven. She pulled out a loaf of whole wheat bread and started making a pile of toast. She grabbed a dozen eggs and added some milk. She whipped them up to get ready for the scrambled eggs. She put a big frying pan on the stove with some butter. As she was pouring the eggs into the pan, Meggie walked in.

"Did you girls brush your teeth yet?" Jodi asked

"Yes Mom," Meggie answered. Katie just looked guiltily at her while finishing off her second piece of vegemite toast.

"Katie, finish that orange juice and then go back upstairs to brush your teeth and get dressed. Meggie, will you help Katie with her hair please? And make sure she brushes her teeth. Breakfast will be ready by the time you get back."

Jodi started the coffee maker. It's going to be a two or three cup type of day, she thought. Most days were with two kids and a farm. Jodi laughed to herself.

Matt came down looking as ruggedly handsome as ever. She gave him a kiss while she cooked the eggs.

He grabbed a mug from the cupboard and helped himself to some coffee.

"Can I help you with breakfast honey?" Matt asked.

"I'm good with cooking, but could you make sure the girls' hair is brushed and pulled back into ponytails. Meggie is usually pretty good, but just check on them. That would be helpful."

"No problem. I'm on it."

"Morning Sis." Tess said as she walked into the kitchen looking a bit disheveled. "Is the coffee ready?"

"Should be ready to go. Matt just grabbed a cup. Can you check the toast? I hate to burn it again like last time," asked Jodi.

Tess grabbed a tall mug from the cupboard and poured herself a cup of coffee with milk and sugar. She took a big gulp and closed her eyes while she swallowed.

"Ah, the nectar of the gods," she whispered to herself.

Jodi always thought it was fascinating how just one sip of coffee could change Tess's actual physical appearance. Her eyes seemed brighter, her cheeks rosier and the bags under her eyes seemed to go away. It was a transformation like nothing she had seen in anyone else, ever.

"Is Claire up yet?" Jodi asked

"Nope. Teenagers, you know how it is. They hate the mornings. I remember your mom having to pull you out of bed at one point too. My mom had to do the same for me as well. I'll bring her a plate on my way out. She needs more sleep than we do. She is a growing young woman." said Tess.

"Yes. fourteen and half years old, mending fences on her own. Doing nearly a full share of farm work when she doesn't have school. She is growing up so fast. She really is a lovely young woman now. You've done a wonderful job with your daughter, Tess."

"You know I couldn't have done it without you and Matt. When I came back, without Nick, the two of you, and Stevie, were everything. You had a toddler of your own to deal with, and a broken hearted sister and a little niece who was desperately missing her dad. You've been an extra set of parents to her. Jodi, I'm so glad you're my sister." Tess hesitated before she went on. "She was... uh, she was asking me some weird questions last night. She sounded a bit like you, to be honest."

"What type of questions?" Jodi asked.

"She was asking me if I wanted to fall in love, and told me that Aunt Meg got married again when she was about my age, and that I could too. Did you put her up to that?"

"Well, she's not wrong. You could get married again and you are about the same age my mom was when she finally married Terry, but no, I didn't put her up to it. She is fourteen now. She's thinking about boys and love and marriage. I was totally boycrazy at that age too. I thought I was going to marry Prince William, and become the Australian Princess. Damn that Katherine Middleton for getting him first. Maybe she just thinks you should be more boycrazy too," teased Jodi.

"You were boycrazy well past fourteen. I didn't meet you till you were seventeen, nearly eighteen and you were still boycrazy then. At least you settled down as you got older. But anyway, we watched 'Clueless' last night and she told me she wanted to fall in love with a nice guy like Josh. Then she asked me if I wanted to fall in love with a nice guy. She told me I could fall in love again and marry again. She said it was okay, that Dad did and that he seemed happy about it. She said she worried I'd be lonely if she fell in love and got married and lived somewhere else. I hope I've got at least ten years before that happens!" Tess told Jodi.

They were interrupted by a racket coming from upstairs.

"The pink scrunchie is mine! She can't wear it. It's mine!"

"Yes I can, we have to share. I get to wear it today. You wore it yesterday."

Matt's voice then came through. "Girls! Neither of you are wearing the pink hair scrunchie today. If you can't share it without fighting, I'm going to wear it!" he declared.

Tess giggled. "You've got a great one there Jodi. You got over being boy crazy and picked a great man."

"It certainly wasn't always easy being with Matt, but I always believed it would be worth it. I gave up everything for him. It was a huge risk, but it was worth it. I'll let him hang around a little longer I reckon. It doesn't hurt that I was able to get my life back, and my whole family back." Jodi joked.

"I'm just sorry I never got to bicker with you over stuff like that growing up. Being an only child was pretty lonely sometimes. At least you had Claire around growing up, even if you didn't know she was your actual sister. I was so young when I lived here with Claire. I don't remember much of our time being raised as sisters," Tess admitted.

"I tried stealing some earrings from Claire once. She never wore them, so I didn't think she'd notice if I borrowed them. She did. She was about eighteen. I was eight. She told me, as her honorary little sister, she'd let it go this one time, but, if I ever did it again, she would kick my ass. Those were her actual words! I was only eight. I never did it again. Claire kind of scared me back then. She was so tough and so good at farm stuff and so ridiculously beautiful without trying or even realizing it." said Jodi "I was sort of in awe of her."

"Yeah, Claire didn't like sharing her things with me much either. I tried "borrowing" a scarf of hers about a year after I moved in and she wasn't happy about it. She told me, if I lost it, she would kick my ass. Those same exact words. I guess we both got knocked down a peg or two by our big sister," said Tess.

Matt and the girls stomped down the stairs. The girls were wearing purple and green scrunchies respectively, and Matt was looking quite dapper himself with the tiniest little pony tail of curly brown hair pulled back in a pink scrunchie. He looked very proud of it.

"Nice ponytail there, stud." Jodi winked and whistled at him. He winked back.

Jodi scooped the scrambled eggs out of the pan and into a big bowl. The cheese she had sprinkled over the top had melted. She got the bacon out of the oven and put it all onto a plate. She piled toast up into a basket. She placed butter, jam and vegemite onto the table. There was a jug of orange juice set out and fresh milk poured for the girls. The three adults topped off their coffee and they all dug in.

As they all finished, Jodi asked, "So who's on the schedule for the washing up?"

"Ah, that would be Claire. I've put a breakfast plate together for her. I'll go get her. It's time she got up anyway. The rest of you can start on your chores, I'll make sure Claire handles the breakfast dishes before she heads out," Tess replied.

Tess walked back out to the cottage and roused Claire. "Time to get up sleepyhead. It's your day for the washing up." said Tess.

"Uh, what time is it?" Claire groaned

"It's late. The rest of us have already eaten. I let you sleep late. I put a breakfast plate aside for you on the counter, but you've got a mountain of dishes waiting for you, missy." said Tess.

"Aw Man, okay. Okay. I'm up. I'm going. I hate when I'm on dish duty." said Claire.

"Come meet us in the south paddock when you're done." Tess said on her way out.