Chapter 20
Tess rubbed her eyes and turned off the alarm that was blaring from her phone. It was Saturday, which meant she was on breakfast duty.
She got up, washed up in the bathroom, and put on her usual work clothes. She headed up to the big house to make breakfast. She left Claire sleeping.
Growing young women need their sleep. Maybe her weird outbursts last night were from exhaustion, Tess wondered.
Tess walked into the kitchen doorway and smiled. Meggie and Katie were sitting together at the table eating cereal. No one else was around. They haden't seen her yet.
"Thanks, Meggie. I can do it myself next time." said Katie.
"Don't forget about the milk, though," warned Meggie.
"I won't." said Katie.
"Good morning girls. How are my lovely nieces doing?" Tess said, to announce her presence.
"Good morning, Aunt Tess. Are you supposed to make breakfast today?" Meggie asked.
"We already made our breakfast. See!" Katie said proudly and held up her bowl of cereal for Tess's examination.
"I see that. Good on ya!" replied Tess.
"I still want you to make us breakfast though. Will you make us pancakes?" asked Meggie.
"I'll do even better. We're having fancy pancakes called crepes! They're French."
"But we're Australian," said Katie, worried.
"We are worldly women and can eat food from anywhere!" Tess explained as she got to work.
Tess prioritized. The first thing she did was get the coffee maker going. Next, she put together several different additional components for breakfast, then, she started making the crepe batter.
"Do you girls want to help with the crepes? Here Meggie, crack this egg into the bowl. Katie, it's your turn now. Yup, tap it lightly on the counter. Now we stick your thumb in the crack and open it into the bowl. Good job."
Tess and the girls made the batter together. After each girl had had a chance to use the whisk, Tess got to work cooking each crepe. When one finished, she folded it and placed it on a plate slowly making a stack.
Jodi walked in and poured some coffee.
"How was the pub last night? Did you and Claire have a good girls night?" Jodi asked as she sipped her coffee.
"No, I did not. It was very weird. First off, we ran into Stevie and Xander. That part was great, not weird. We sat together." said Tess.
"Aw, that is great. What made it weird?" asked Jodi
"Well, Finn O'Hara was there." Tess added.
"The handsome American organic beef buyer?" Jodi asked, looking for clarification even though she didn't need it, she just wanted Tess to admit he was handsome.
"Yeah. I guess he's staying there while he visits farms in the area."
"Okay, so what's weird about that?' asked Jodi.
"Well, Claire insisted on inviting him to join us for dinner." said Tess.
"Why did she do that? It's not customary for prospective buyers and suppliers to socialize like that," Jodi questioned.
"I know, it's weird. He tried to politely decline, but she kind of made a scene about it. He finally just sat down to end the awkwardness. From there, both Xander and Claire acted really odd. First, Xander and Claire just laid out all the relationships to him right off the bat. They talked about how they're dads were brothers, but Xander's dad died before he was born, and a lot of our dirty laundry," Tess said as she shook her head in bewilderment.
"Okay, so you are having dinner with your sort of ex-sister-in-law, your ex-nephew, your daughter, and the random American organic beef buyer. Yes. I see where things are getting awkward."
"You know, I don't think of Stevie and Xander as my ex anything. They are my family forever," Tess declared.
"I know that, Stevie and Xander know that, but Finn doesn't know that." Jodi pointed out.
"The conversation turned to some very personal things. Nick's accident came up. Claire proudly explained he could still ride well and that he was on horseback most of the day. She also added that her step-mom massages his leg and hip every night."
"Ugg. Tess, I'm sorry." Jodi groaned at the thought of being there for that.
"That's not even the worst of it. Claire was asking him some personal questions, too. She asked about his family and past. Xander did some of that too." Tess explained. "By the end of the meal, we learned that he's from Wyoming, had injured his back in a rodeo accident when he was young, and that he sometimes has flare ups from it, which is why he didn't ride with me when he was here."
"So you learned quite a lot about our prospective associate then?"
"More than I think either of us really wanted to know, but that wasn't even the weirdest part."
"It wasn't? Jeez! What else happened?" Jodi exclaimed.
"It felt like Claire and Xander were almost competing with each other for both his attention and on whose mom was cooler, Stevie or me." Tess explained.
"What? Why would they do that?"
"I have no idea. I've never seen either of them act in that way. And, obviously, I'm not as cool as Stevie. She's a total badass. It was such an uncomfortable evening. I even accidentally joked about him owing us the contract." Tess confessed.
"Tess, you didn't!" exclaimed Jodi.
"I did. I apologized immediately. I have no idea what came over me. I was just trying to get them off the subject of Nick's accident and his new wife."
"So, how did things go with that?" Jodi asked, feeling awful for her sister.
"Well, Xander invited Finn to watch his rodeo competition with his mom. Then Claire told Finn he should go riding with me around Drovers instead. She also told him he should take me out for coffee, because I love coffee so much."
"Tess, that's so awkward. How did it end?" asked Jodi.
"With Claire telling him that she facetimes with her gay half brother that has a heart condition in Melbourne all the time, and that you and I didn't know each other or that we were sisters when we were children."
Jody just groaned and buried her face in her hands.
"At that point, Finn literally shoved the rest of his steak in his mouth and practically ran out the door. I'm mortified and still cringing from it. I guess we can kiss that contract goodbye. I'm sorry." Tess apologized as she buried her head in her hands.
"No, Tess, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to experience such a cringe worthy experience. I guess you should have stuck with the spaghetti and meatballs with us." Jodi teased.
"Yes. I reckon I made the wrong choice," admitted Tess.
Matt walked in and poured himself a cup of coffee.
"How can I help with breakfast? he asked
"You can't. I'm all finished!" Tess cheered.
Tess put all of the food on the table.
"Dig in, guys!" Tess announced.
"I spoke with my mom last night. She was actually at the pub too. They stayed there last night. Too bad you didn't run into them too. Maybe she and Terry could have saved you from the awkwardness with Mr. O'Hara." said Jodi.
"I wish Meg and Terry had sat with us for dinner. It wouldn't have left any free chairs for Claire to insist Finn sit in."
"Are Nana and Terry coming today?" Meggie inquired.
"Yes. They should be here in an hour or so." Jodi replied
"Yaaayyyy!" Meggie and Katie cheered.
"So Terry and I will be working on the Demolition derby car. There are a bunch of specific safety requirements for the Demolition Derby and we need to make sure we cover all of them." Matt said.
"Please add even more safety features since you'll be the one driving it." Jodi requested.
"Of course, honey. I've had enough brushes with death already to last me a lifetime. I'm just trying to have some fun, and represent Drovers Run, of course. I'm not too worried about winning."
"Good, because Killarney's entry will win!" said Stevie as she walked into the Drovers kitchen. She was going to go through all the safety requirements with Matt and Terry to make sure she didn't miss anything for the Killarney car.
"Auntie Stevie!" Meggie and Katie always liked to see Stevie.
"We better all get our chores done so we can spend time with Nana and Uncle Terry and Auntie Stevie." said Meggie.
"Let's go, guys." Jodi, Matt, and the girls put their dishes by the sink and headed out the door.
"So, it was Jodi's day to do the dishes, but I told her all about our night and I think she decided to leave them for us so we could chat. Want to give me a hand?" asked Tess.
Stevie and Tess rolled up their sleeves and did the washing up.
"Ah, yes. Last night." Stevie sighed.
"So last night was weird." Tess said to Stevie
"Um, yeah. I don't know what was up with Xander and Claire. They were acting so weird," said Stevie.
"Yeah. Claire fell asleep on the way home, so I couldn't ask her what was going on."
"I asked Xander and he just said he wants me to be happy and not to worry about it, then he said that Finn was my type, then he went to sleep too. I'm not sure how having awkward conversations with your prospective business associates would make me happy or what he meant about a type." Stevie admitted.
"Yeah, we could really have used that contract too. I'm assuming we won't be getting it after last night, and now that I think about it, Finn is totally your type, except that he's American." said Tess.
"Finn is very attractive, don't you think?" Stevie mentioned.
"Yeah, I suppose. I guess I hadn't really thought about him in that way until now. He's tall, has dark brown hair, is muscular and likes the rodeo, yup, I see what Xander meant," said Tess, "definitely your type. He's my prospective business associate, I didn't look at him for attractiveness, but now that you say it, yeah, he is very good looking. I do like an American accent," answered Tess.
"You always have liked American accents. But you're not interested in him that way?" Stevie asked.
"I don't think I'm interested in anyone that way. I'm content as I am. Are you interested in him?" questioned Tess.
"No. He looks good, but I'm not interested in him." said Stevie. "Certainly not after the awkwardness of last night. I did meet a good looking guy recently, at Xander's rodeo. He gave me his number and asked if I would coach his son but he lives really far away, and he is a big competitor of Xander's."
"Hmm, so what did you say? About coaching?" ased Tess.
"I told him I couldn't coach his son. He is Xander's biggest competitor and he lives extremely far away. I told him I would ask around and see if I could recommend someone suitable who lived in their area. Which reminds me, I still need to do that. Yesterday was too hectic." said Stevie. "He was very cute, he had red hair though, not my usual style."
"Was there any flirtation with the request?" asked Tess.
"Maybe a little? He didn't ask me out or ask for my number, he just gave me his card and asked if I would call him about coaching options," said Stevie.
"You could call him and ask for a date. You said he was cute," said Tess.
"No, but I will find the kid a coach, near them, out in Renmark," said Stevie.
"What did Xander think of the whole thing?" asked Tess.
"Xander asked if he was hitting on me. He actually used the term 'hitting on me.' I told him I didn't think he was."
"Oh My God! Do you think that's what last night could have been about?" Tess asked.
"What?"
"Do you think Xander and, or, Claire were trying to set one of us up with Finn?"
"Why would they do that? They've never done anything like that before." wondered Stevie.
"Well, Claire was asking me about falling in love and if I wanted to get married again someday and you just said Xander was talking about men asking you out on dates. They're teenagers now. They are thinking about boyfriends and girlfriends and stuff like that."
"Uh oh. I hope that's not the case." groaned Stevie.
"I wish they didn't pick my potential beef buyer as the target for cupid's arrow," said Tess.
"We may have some real trouble on our hands here, Tess," said Stevie.
"I think we need to talk to the kids, Stevie." asked Tess.
"I'd say so, but go get some work done and don't think about this anymore right now." responded Stevie.
"I gotta go wake up Claire before I hit my chores. I'm not looking to have that conversation with her right now."
"You go ahead. I'm just waiting for Terry to get here, anyway. I'll handle Claire. You go do your chores." offered Stevie.