Scotty laughed loudly, his deep voice conveying genuine mirth, and Claire felt her stomach flip. She had loved trying to make him laugh when they were together. She’d almost forgotten that.
‘It might not be glamorous, but it’s probably the most important part of the wedding,’ Scotty said, nudging her good-naturedly with his elbow. ‘And, besides, you offered.’
‘I think the part where you and Nina promise to love each other forever is slightly more important than a pig on a spit,’ Claire replied archly. From the corner of her eye, she studied Scotty for a reaction.
His gaze fell to his shoes. ‘Well, yeah. That goes without saying,’ he said softly, all traces of amusement gone.
Just say it.
Claire opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t find the words. What was the right way to say, ‘Look, I know Nina is gorgeous, but I don’t think her heart is truly in this and, besides, it’s all happening way too fast and you’re a fool if you marry her next week’?
There wasn’t one.
It was Scotty who broke the silence. ‘The thing about me and Nina is —’
But he was cut off by the jingle of the shop bell as Toby Watts yanked the door open and poked out his head.
‘You two gonna stand there gabbing all morning or are you coming in?’ he barked.
‘Sorry, mate,’ Scotty said with a forced laugh. He placed his hand on the small of Claire’s back and guided her into the shop.
What? Claire’s mind raced. What was the thing about Scotty and Nina?
She was surprised to find the shop empty. Scotty had confided that he thought Toby may have been less than discreet about Claire’s involvement in the wedding. She had half expected to walk in and find it packed with curious Bindallarahns – the way people always went to stickybeak at their neighbours’ houses when they went up for sale.
‘Welcome back to Bindy, Claire,’ Toby said, giving her a cordial nod. ‘Been a while.’
Claire steeled herself for the recrimination she was sure was coming. Toby was aged in his late fifties and had once been a good friend of her father’s. He was also one of the people who had invested – and lost – the most money in Big Jim’s get-rich-quick scheme. Toby had nearly lost his business and only just managed to hold on to it by the skin of his teeth. He’d never said so, not even when Jim had died, but Claire was sure Toby held her personally responsible – just like everyone else in town who’d been caught in her father’s web of lies. If she had done the right thing and come back to Bindallarah to help Jim after her mother left, the farm wouldn’t have hit the skids and he wouldn’t have deceived his friends in his desperate attempts to save it.
But to her astonishment, Toby smiled and said, ‘Good of you to help Scotty out with his shindig. You always were a good egg. Young fella needs all the help he can get, I reckon.’ Claire’s heart swelled, buoyed by Toby’s generosity. Maybe she wasn’t persona non grata in Bindallarah any more. The town had changed so much – maybe its residents’ opinion of her had changed too.
Scotty rolled his eyes. ‘I’m not totally incompetent, you know,’ he said, but his tone was lighthearted. ‘But yeah, it’s great to have Claire here. I’ve missed her.’
She waited for him to clarify, to clear his throat and hurriedly add, ‘We’ve all missed her.’ But he didn’t. He just looked into her eyes and smiled.
She felt small under his gaze, humbled by his affection for her even after she’d caused him so much pain over the years. ‘I missed you too,’ she said. If only you knew.
‘Right, then. How many people you got coming to your do?’ Toby asked. He pushed a sheaf of papers across the counter to Scotty. ‘These are the catering packages and order forms.’
‘Catering packages? Wow, Toby. You’ve come a long way from sausages and chops,’ Claire said as she peered over Scotty’s shoulder at the lists of street-food-style canapés and main-meal options.
Toby shrugged. ‘Gotta give the folks what they want,’ he said. ‘And it pays to diversify. Learned that the hard way.’
The words hung in the air like a noxious gas. The confidence Claire had felt just moments ago withered and died. This town would not forgive her for what her father had done. She was an idiot to have hoped she could ever be redeemed.
As if he sensed her dismay, Scotty put his hand on her back again as he leaned in closer to show her the paperwork. It was such a small gesture, but it was an intense reminder of how well Scotty still knew her, even after all these years. He understood what wounded her, which cuts were the deepest.
‘We’ve got two hundred on the guest list,’ Scotty began, ‘so I was thinking —’
‘Two hundred people?’ Claire interjected. ‘That’s practically the entire town.’
‘Not quite,’ Scotty replied, clearly amused by her outburst. ‘Bindy’s grown a lot, Claire. But, yeah, it’s a reasonable-sized wedding. My family’s been here a long time, remember. We know a lot of people.’
She knew he was right. Mike and Janine Shannon, Scotty’s parents, had established Cape Ashe Stud nearly forty years ago. There were few people in the horse world in Australia, much less in Bindallarah, who didn’t know the family. And with Scotty now one of the few vets in the district, he had friends far and wide.
And yet somehow Claire had imagined that Scotty and Nina’s wedding would be a small affair. They’d been together such a short time, and Nina was so new to the town that Claire had pictured an intimate ceremony witnessed by just their
