Chapter 97

Jodi met up with Tess, Claire and Kate in the yard. They had saddled up as Jodi went to move the truck into position.

They were working for about twenty-five minutes when a car pulled up, Dave's car.

"So, I'm going to go somewhere else now," said Kate. "Why didn't you tell me you had Dave coming today? You know what he said to me," Kate said to Jodi as she looked for a path to guide the horse out of the paddock.

"I didn't call Dave, did you, Tess?" asked Jodi.

"No, I thought we finished yesterday," Tess responded.

"What does he want?" Kate realized she was kind of trapped on her horse in the paddock urging the sheep forward. She couldn't just ride away. She would need to dismount, climb out of the paddock and run. It was too late. He was walking up to them. She couldn't go anywhere.

"Hey Dave, what's up? We weren't expecting you today. I thought we finished up these sheep yesterday?" said Jodi.

"We did, your sheep are all ready for the sale. I actually was hoping to talk to Kate for a minute. Kate, could I have a word please?" Dave asked.

"Um, sure, just give me a minute." Kate handed her reins to Claire, dismounted and awkwardly climbed out of the paddock.

She walked out to the driveway with Dave.

"Kate, I'm here because I wanted to apologize for yesterday. It's true, you hurt me pretty badly when you didn't take me back, but you never set out to do so. You're not unkind. You were being honest. You did still have feelings for someone else. I had always thought we would end up together, and you broke my heart at the time, and I did have a rough few months, but I did recover." said Dave.

"Dave? I'm -

"Hold on, just let me finish. The truth is Kate, I'm really happy now. Julia is amazing. I love her. I feel lucky everyday that she's my wife. If you hadn't been honest with me that day, I would never have met Julia. I wouldn't have Tommy and Freddy. I wouldn't have the life I have now. I'm sorry I was an ass yesterday. I think, maybe, just seeing you after all this time brought me back to those rough times, and subconsciously, I guess maybe I was trying to hurt you back. You didn't deserve that. I should be thanking you for setting me on a new path, a path that led to my family. I'd like to try to be comfortable around each other. We were always best as mates, not romantically involved. I'd like to try to get to a friendly place with you again," said Dave.

"Oh! Well yeah. That's good. Friendly is good. I would like that too. I'm glad you're happy, Dave, you deserve a happy life," said Kate feeling extremely relieved. She was afraid this was going to be a declaration of love.

"You do too Kate. Russell seems like a good bloke," said Dave, trying to be friendly.

"He is. We're really happy together."

"Good, well I've got to jet. I just didn't like leaving things as they were yesterday. You deserved better than that from me. Goodbye Kate," said Dave as he walked back to his car, before driving off.

"Good Bye Dave."