Chapter 60

Claire Ruth Mcleod-Ryan thought she might float away. She had met her Paul Rudd, her Josh from Clueless. His name was Blake Chelsea. He was so cute and she could just tell he was a good guy, the perfect guy for her. Claire was certain he liked her too. They had played with Liberty Bell, the alpaca baby together and, when he handed it over to her, his hand brushed hers. She was sure he did it on purpose.

He had gone with Xander to the back garden where everyone else was. Claire followed them thinking about how to get Blake Chelsea alone, and how to get him to kiss her.

Kate was sitting with Tess, Stevie, Jodi, Jaz, Ingrid, and Meg. They were enjoying some good old fashioned girl talk and wine. Well, everyone but Kate had the wine.

"So, Jaz, can we get the dish on how that beautiful ring ended up on your left hand please?" Meg teased.

"I also want to hear where the ring on your right hand turned up," added Stevie, thinking of the hours she spent searching for it.

"Engagement ring first!" called Jodi.

"Okay. I'll tell the story,'' Jaz laughed. "It actually was very romantic by the end, but it started, for me, with finding my boyfriend outside using a metal detector at 11pm."

Jaz recounted the story for everyone while beaming.

"It is romantic. Ben was completely gutted about that damn ring," Stevie said.

"I do want to thank all of you girls for searching for that ring the entire afternoon, and Tess for driving to town for no reason except my stupid building permit request. I'm sorry about that. If I had known I would have sent one of the stable hands or just gone myself. I'm honored you were willing to give up your time to help give me a nice proposal experience,' said Jaz.

"Truth be told, we had some fun that afternoon. I'm still giggling about Claire's penguin joke." Jodi confessed. "It's just that, I'm really cold, I want to move to Darwin," she mimicked.

"And I had a nice time in town. I got some dinner at the pub," added Tess. Jodi flashed her a knowing smile.

"Plus, we wanted your engagement to be great. You're family and we love you and we will help wherever we can," said Jodi.

"It's actually pretty cool that the Hall and McLeod families will be officially joined through marriage," said Stevie. "I'm gaining a ton of awesome cousins with this marriage."

"Oh, you, Kate, and Ingrid have always been honorary McLeods in my opinion anyway," said Tess.

"Kate Manfredi, another lost McLeod daughter, returns to Drovers Run!" joked Jodi.

"If I hadn't kept Manfredi I would have been Kate Kaits. I love Russell, but it would have been a deal breaker. I like the name Kate, but not enough to double up on it," Kate giggled.

"Well, I'm excited to be Jasmine McLeod-Hall. I think it has a great ring to it," said Jaz.

"I completely agree,' said Ingrid. "It has a very distinguished sound to it."

"Wait. So I still want to hear where that National Championship Ring was. We looked everywhere," Stevie said, dismayed, thinking about how hard she searched.

"You didn't look everywhere. You forgot to look inside the house. It must have fallen off when you climbed back out the window. It was on the window latch. I'm sorry you guys spent so long looking in the wrong place," explained Jaz.

"I'm just glad you've got it back. You're the only Australian National Champion we've got and we are super proud of you," added Tess.

"It's definitely something I'm proud of. I worked really hard to get there, but it's only one part of who I am, and compared to being a mom, it's just not as important to me as it was before. I'm still very glad to get the ring back though. It is going back in it's box when I get home. I only wore it tonight to show all of you." said Jaz.

"I'd say the ring box is the safest place for it," agreed Ingrid.

"Yeah. I have to keep it on a high shelf so Kelly doesn't get to it. She gets into everything! It's actually impressive. Like, she will have something I haven't seen for months in her mouth! I have no idea where she even finds these things."

"Yes! Toddlers get into everything. Katie managed to find a fishing lure somewhere and was about to eat it when she was two and half. I managed to get it out of her hand. It was a fishing lure with like four hooks on it! Matt said it wasn't even one of his. It must have been Jack's from way back when I was kid. We still have no idea where she got it from," said Jodi.

"Oh God! I'm going to have two of them at the same time! How am I going to do this?" Kate asked as she felt herself getting freaked out.

"Kate, you're going to be okay. Toddlers are tough, and having two will be rough, but you're tough and Russell is tough. You guys will manage it okay," Meg encouraged.

"Your fears are the exact fears all expectant mothers have. 'Am I going to be good enough? Can I do this? How do I keep this thing alive?' At least that's how I felt when I realized I was pregnant," commiserated Tess.

"You are surrounded by mothers here, Kate, and we all know you can do it, and that your twins will be so loved," said Ingrid.

"Plus, you'll have all of us here to help you and Russell," promised Jodi.

"I really hope Kinsella's works out. If it does, I'll need to choose a better name. I don't think any of us really want to think about Sandra on a regular basis."

"Nope. No thanks," Stevie quipped.

"Well, I don't want to jinx anything, so I won't be even considering a name until a contract is signed. I really wish I could at least take a peek at the property to see if it's even possible, but it's sealed up like Fort Knox. I admit I already have my hopes up about it, but the complete uncertainty is frustrating. I just want to take a quick look to see if it's even possible." said Kate.

"Do you want to ride the Killarney border with me tomorrow? Ben and I will be working out there. I'll lend you a horse. Does Russell ride? He's a city boy, isn't he? asked Stevie.

"Yes, I'd like to do that. What time will you be setting out? And yes, Russell rides well. He helped with the muster here at Drovers today. He is actually From Rockhampton, in Queensland, not Adelaide. We just both got our graduate degrees there. He's still a country boy at heart. I couldn't have been happy settling down long term in a city, and I don't think he would have been either."

"Meet me at Killarney at one. I'll have horses ready for both of you," said Stevie.

"Sounds great. Thanks!"