I'm one of the many children of the Dale family, who own the Dale farm - well obviously. I've got six siblings, but that doesn't really matter. We've all grown up and moved out, some of us come help during the harvest season, but the house is far from the crowded place I grew up in.
This year, after breaking up with my third long time-ish girlfriend, at 28 years old, I decided to stay home after our harvest and work for our neighbour and life-long best mate Marks farm for his picking season. You know, just to regain perspective in life and mostly to stay away from everyone who was in a happy relationship and 'so sorry for me'.
Mark and I had grown up completely inseparable, he was just a few months older than me and it always rather felt that he was more of my twin than my actual twin Johanna. I really missed him when I moved to the city and he stayed back, but we did meet up every possible chance we had.
My familys farm, like every farm in the area, mostly relied on travelers for workforce, as the modern Australians don't consider crop picking a desirable job. That only meant a good variety of people passing through our lives and, currently my favourite, a line of single young girls looking for their Australian lover story to write friends home about. But that was really like scratching a mozzie bite - just making it itch more.
Mark had put me on a Swedish girls team, Katarina or Kate was her name and she'd been there the last year as well - having lived together with Mark just like this time. I had met her a two or three times briefly when I was visiting Mark last year, but in short she didn't give a single damn of my existence and didn't even try to be polite about it. But mostly she was almost always out somewhere, doing something.
Even though I first thought Mark finally had found himself a woman, then he wasn't hesitant at all to tell me that that was absolutely not the question with them. That she was just an easy person to live with and he appreciated some company, plus apparently she was an amazing cook.
Few locals had nudged me, whispering I got lucky being placed to work with her. As it turned out I had - the other teams lead by an Australian and a German were apparently no fun to work in. Kate on the other hand was fun and cheerful, playing music on her speaker (it was 2008, portable speakers were a rarity) and joking around all day.
As she said on the first day, she doesn't give a single fuck what and how we do, as long as we reach the daily norm. And she didn't. Some folks who picked fast, took way longer breaks than they should have, some folks were like tied to each other chatting the day away and we still exceeded norms. And her attitude...
I think the best thing I have ever seen in my life was on the day a girl from a backpacker hostel was supposed to start work with us. "The little whore", as Kate called her, showed up in a singlet and shorts, shorts so short that you could see her butt cheeks, and no hat, saying she wanted to tan. Kates face was amazing, she looked at her like she was an alien. She told her that for her tester day, so to say, she doesn't have to do anything, she can just hang around the quad all day and if she feels ok after that day, she's hired.
The girl was so happy, ecstatic even. After three hours under the harsh sun the girl was lobster red and had gotten a sunstroke. Kate took her back to the shed and coming back she vented for hours on the topic what's wrong with this whore generations of girls. No manners, no self esteem, no respect for themselves or others and so on. She really hated them from deep down her heart.
Kate on the other hand, minus her cheerful personality, was the most hard working and serious woman I have met. I hadn't thought much of her when I first met her, only that she had a stunning smile and a blunt attitude, but damn...
Everything about her was what I had considered 'not my type'. I had thought of her as a fairly large girl with short hair, who stood like a security guard, and her voice like she'd be in the military.
Over some time I learned that her passion was hospitality, she had learned psychology on some level and that she used to be a boxer - well that explained her body. It was like she'd been the exact opposite from my secretary, hairdresser and administrator ex-girlfriends.
She gained my interest by just being... so different. She said once, be as you want people to be to you. Be a great worker for your boss, be a good friend to your friends and never forget what it's like to work 'lesser jobs'.
She'd bring towels soaked in ice water to us in the paddock (for non-Australians, it's bloody 40 degrees out here), sneak a beer to everyone on fridays an hour before finishing and well like said, she really didn't care what we did as long as the job was done.
For my disappointment, she was impossible to approach or maybe I just didn't know how to. Even though she lived with Mark, she was never around when I went over. And she made the team go out every friday to build better relationships, but there she was always as a team leader, never as an individual. And the team leaders would always finish after the crew.
Lunch time felt like the only time I could get to her, but it always felt like I'm talking to my supervisor, not the person herself. I even once tried to ask her to a barbecue, to what she simply replied that she's too vegetarian for that. After that I felt like I'd been squashed like a bug.
...
There is a creek just between Marks and our property. I hadn't been there since I was a teen, but on one extraordinary hot saturday, when stepping out of the shower after some work around the house and drying myself - I couldn't tell if I was horrible at drying myself or was already covered in a new layer of sweat and decided to head for a cooling dip.
I drove my ute to the far end of our property and saw one of Marks quads on the other side. Walking to the waterline, I realised it's not Mark, who was having his afternoon dip, but Kate.
She was in the water all nude. My dick was hard even before my brain had made the conclusion that she was nude. Damn. That was something I'd only expect to happen in porn and definitely not in my own backyard.
Spotting me she covered her breasts saying "Sorry, I wasn't expecting any company. No one ever comes here." But she didn't look a tiny bit diasturbed nor uncomfortable, even had a smile on her face. Yes, it definitely started to look like porn.
"No need to apologise, no one ever does come here." I noted, trying to smoothen our fortunate encounter. She looked amazing in the clear water. She was much more fit than I had thought, being well built and curvy.
"How about you try and pretend I'm not naked and I'll pretend you don't have your dick climbing out of your pants." she smirked scanning over my body.
Shit, I had been so focused on her, that I hadn't even tried to hide my boner. I felt my face burn and muttered "Sorry about that."
"No need to apologise." she said, swimming to a rock in the middle of the creek and climbing to sit on it. She looked absolutely stunning - water running down her body, her breasts perky and that smile... I had underestimated her sexyness by a longshot. "Come on give me a show too, strip and get in." she laughed.
I realised I'd been standing there like an idiot staring at her and furthermore, did she just ask me to strip-strip? As I was already in my swimmies. She laughed harder seeing my confusion and encouraged me "Yes, come on, even out the playground."
