Chapter 103
Grace and Stevie had enjoyed a cup of tea before heading down to the garage to help Moira. They were so impressed with her. She had finished off the demo derby car without much help. Xander and Blake were out helping with the farm chores with Bobby since Ben had taken the day to host Regan with Jaz.
"Moira, you are still a badass. I think you might be my hero. This car looks ready to crush people." Grace said.
"Well, that is the goal. I'm glad Stevie recruited me. I saw that Patrick was building a car with Dave and I was feeling jealous. I taught Patrick most of what he knows about cars. I wanted to show that an old dog still knows some tricks too."
"I got damn lucky I got Moira's help. I thought I was going to be able to do this myself, while running a station and dealing with Xander. Yeah right. Definitely me biting off more than I could chew." admitted Stevie.
"So the only thing left to do is paint it. What colors did you have in mind?" asked Moira.
Well I had this thought. I have been thinking about a trip I took up to Queensland several years back. I went to Airlie Beach and it was awesome, but we stopped to go to a beautiful, desolate beach on our drive home, but when we got closer, there were crocodiles everywhere! It was so intimidating, we all decided we didn't want to go swimming after all. I was thinking it might be fun to paint it as a croc. You know, like mostly green with a big toothy smile across the grill. What do you think girls?"
"I think it sounds awesome! Is anyone here a good artist to try to paint the mouth on?" asked Grace.
"I'm not much of an artist I'm afraid. I'm better with gears and motors," Moira admitted.
"I'm happy to try, but I don't claim any specific artistic ability, I'm better with horses," said Grace.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I think I could help. I used to be a graffiti artist back in the day. I got in trouble with the police and everything as a teenager for it. They actually sent me to work at a farm as a punishment. Joke was on them, I loved the farm! It's been a long time since I worked with that medium, but I'd be honored to try to do it for Killarney." Bobby had just walked into the garage. "We finished everything up, so Xander wanted to run through some roping drills before tomorrow, and Blake agreed to help him out. I thought I'd come see how the Demo car was going," said Bobby.
"Bobby. This is Jaz's sister, Grace. She's visiting for a few days, but Jaz doesn't know it yet, so please don't ruin our surprise. If you run into Jaz, you've never met Grace, okay? And of course you remember Moira." said Stevie.
"Of course I remember Moira. Blake really enjoyed working on the car with you the other day. It got him really interested in mechanics. He was talking about trying to do a course at TAFE or in high school. Thank you for taking him under your wing." said Bobby.
"Well send him over to my place whenever. I can teach him some other things," offered Moira.
"I only get Blake for a few weeks a year, most of the time he's with his mom, but thanks. Even if it was just an introduction, I think it would be great if Blake continued to study mechanics. It's a good solid career path for him and he seems to really like it," said Bobby.
"My pleasure, he was a very focused helper," said Moira, thinking how he had completely ignored poor Claire's attentions.
"Grace, it's a pleasure to meet you. I promise I won't spoil your secret. Ben told me what he had planned. I think it's great. Jaz will be really happy to see you." said Bobby as he noticed that Grace was even prettier than her younger sister, but he remembered Ben had mentioned that both of Jaz's sisters were married, so he kept his observation to himself. "I'm going to go get cleaned up a bit, but I'll come back to work on the car. If you could all lay a plain green basecoat, I'll do the rest later tonight after that has dried."
"It's very nice to meet you too, Bobby." said Grace as she shook his hand and smiled at him.
Bobby left the garage and Stevie went to a cabinet and pulled out several cans of green spray paint. "Shall we get started, girls?"
The entire Drovers Gang filed out into the driveway. Matt and Terry were in the garage. They had finished the car and were going to pull it out so they could hook it up to the trailer tonight.
Terry walked out of the garage and Matt, wearing a full racing suit and helmet, backed up the car.
"Tadah!" Terry pointed at the hot pink wreck.
Everyone started laughing. The car was hot pink with dark purple numbers. It had a skull and crossbones painted in purple on the hood, and in the center of the skull was the number 6 and the words Drovers Run underneath it. The doors each had the number 6 on them and flowers and hearts painted around them. On top of the boot was a carefully painted, purple unicorn.
"Is this not the most intimidating car ever created?" Matt beamed from the driver's seat. He flipped the helmet up so he could speak. "I can't wait to hit the Demo Derby course with this thing. The competition will run away scared before they even get in the ring."
"That is the best car I've ever seen!" Kate said.
"So Terry, you obviously chose the color and design scheme, hey?" joked Russell
"Just be careful honey." pleaded Jodi.
"Everyone else needs to be careful when they're in the ring with me!" gloated Matt.
"So who drew the unicorn? It's really good," Tess complimented.
"I did." said Mat proudly, "My daughters wanted a unicorn, so I gave them a unicorn!"
"You did a great job, Dad! The unicorn is my favorite part!" said Katie.
"I drew all the flowers!" Meggie proudly declared.
"I think this car perfectly represents the family we have at Drovers Run. It's confident, beautiful, tough and filled with love!" declared Tess.
"I agree! But I'll add brave as well. Not every man would be ready to drive that car." added Jodi.
"Absolutely, It's not even just that car, it's any car in a demo derby. I'm glad you're driving Matt, because purposely driving into other people and crashing sounds pretty terrifying to me. I don't want to switch places," admitted Tess.
"I can't wait! It's going to be so exciting!" said Matt
Stevie, Moira and Grace were having fun, it had been over ten years since they had worked on a project together. The car was now very green, and so were they.
"Well, it would seem my work here is done.'' said Moira.
"Moira, you are amazing. Will you be there tomorrow to see our croc in action?" asked Grace.
"I wouldn't miss it, I'm your pit crew! I'm heading home to Phil now. Grace, it was great to see you after so long. Stevie, I'll see you tomorrow. Good luck!" said Moira.
"Bye Moira!" Grace and Stevie both called
Grace waited a few minutes for Moira to leave.
"So can I ask you a question, Stevie?" asked Grace
"Sure of course. What's up?"
"What's the deal with Bobby?"
"What do you mean? He's my farm hand. I have no idea how good of a graffiti artist he is. He generally keeps to himself. He's a good farm hand, and typically if he says he can do something, he can do it." said Stevie
"No, that's not what I meant. I mean, is he single? Is he a good guy? How old is he?" asked Grace.
"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't realize that's what you were asking. What about Gavin?"
"Well, Gavin and I are now legally separated, and we're getting divorced," confessed Grace.
"Oh! I'm so sorry Grace." said Stevie.
"I'm not. He cheated on me. I caught him. I threw him out," said Grace.
"I'm sorry Grace. How long ago did that happen?" asked Stevie.
"It's been almost a month. I haven't told Regan or Jaz yet. I didn't want to ruin Jaz's big romantic surprise as the sister who is getting divorced."
"Oh Grace. You should tell them," said Stevie.
"I will, but not until after Jaz's big day, at least not Jaz," Grace said.
"She will be hurt if you don't tell her," said Stevie.
"I will, soon, but anyway, I was thinking I needed a rebound type of guy. Nothing serious, just some fun, some rebound sex. Someone to help me get back out there. Bobby's cute, and I'm on holiday. Do you think he'd be game?" ased Grace
"I'm honestly not sure. I haven't seen him date much. I definitely wouldn't categorize him as a womanizer. I think he's a good guy. He's been a good employee, and he helps me with Xander when he can. We are friendly, but I'm not sure how old he is. If I had to guess, I'd say maybe early-mid 40's? He has worked here for about eight months. I believe he moved because of his divorce. His son Blake visits him sometimes and is here now, and he has another son who is grown and has a job somewhere far away." said Stevie.
"Are you interested in him? Do you mind if I make a move on him? I thought I'd offer to play as a painter's assistant for him and see what happens."
"No, I don't mind, I'm certainly not interested in him that way. He's my employee, so it's not something I would have considered. Just be upfront about what you're looking for out of it. I don't want anyone feeling heartbroken or disappointed. I still need to work with Bobby on a regular basis, and I don't want anything to be weird," said Stevie.
"Fair enough. I'm not ready for anything serious, but I think I should see what it's like to be with someone else. I was with Gavin for the last eight years and the last few really weren't great. I deserve a little fun with a man." said Grace.
"Well, lucky Bobby then. That actually works out well. I wanted to go talk to Tess and Jodi about something for Charlotte's party anyway, Blake and Xander said they were going to be running drills for the next couple hours, so you should have reasonable privacy. Good luck with Bobby," said Stevie as she walked out of the garage to her ute.
I can't believe her marriage is ending. I hope she is okay. I need to check in with her when I get back, thought Stevie.