Alex’s face lit up. The wide smile suited him, made his hazel eyes twinkle. ‘Well, as the mayor, I’m very happy to hear you say that,’ he said. He looked different today in board shorts and a T-shirt instead of his smart business attire – he was friendlier somehow, less intimidating. ‘And as not-the-mayor I’m pretty stoked too.’
‘You are?’
‘Definitely. I’m glad I bumped into you, actually. I was starting to worry you weren’t going to call me.’ When Claire stared blankly at him he added, ‘Dinner, remember?’
Dinner? She did remember – she remembered bumping into Alex in Alison Bay on Wednesday, when she’d been wedding-dress shopping with Nina and he’d been wearing a sharp suit and a leer. He had given her his business card and asked her to call him. It hadn’t occurred to her that he was serious.
‘Wow,’ Claire said. ‘Alex, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you meant it.’
Now Alex looked bewildered. ‘Why would you think that?’
‘Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because I haven’t seen you since my father’s funeral eight years ago, and before that I hadn’t seen you since high school when, let’s face it, you weren’t exactly my biggest fan. You weren’t particularly welcoming the other day either.’
‘Oh man,’ Alex groaned. He rubbed his fingers along his stubbled jawline. ‘I’m an idiot. I was trying to be the cool guy the other day. I’d heard you were back in town, but seeing you there with Nina was so unexpected, I think I freaked out a bit.’
Claire frowned. None of this made sense. Was Alex Jessop really telling her she made him nervous?
‘I was a jerk to you at school, Claire,’ he went on. ‘I know that. At the risk of sounding like a sexist moron, it was because I liked you. I didn’t know how to talk to girls. I had no social skills. All I knew back then was footy and partying.’
A sudden gust of wind buffeted her and Claire felt like it might actually knock her off her feet. What Alex was saying to her was as astonishing as if she’d just discovered that the sand on Bindy Beach was really sugar. And it was sexist – ‘boys only tease girls they like’ was basically page one of the Sexism Handbook – but it was also an attitude typical of most of the fifteen-year-old country boys Claire had grown up with. Typical of most of their fathers, too, she suspected.
But just like the town he now presided over as mayor, Alex seemed to have moved with the times. Although it seemed he could still use some help on the talking-to-girls front.
‘Are you telling me you had a crush on me, Alex?’ she said. She couldn’t conceal her amazement.
He shrugged in a way Claire found oddly endearing. ‘Big time. But you were Scotty’s girl. Everybody knew that,’ he said.
Claire flinched. Scotty’s girl. Back then, knowing people thought of her as someone’s possession would have made Claire furious. She would have seen it as an affront to her burgeoning teenage autonomy. Now it just made her sad. Nearly fifteen years later, she wasn’t sure she was even Scotty’s friend.
I have to move on.
It was her only option. The past was of no use to her. She had to decide how she was going to go forward.
‘What are you doing right now?’ she asked.
Alex’s eyebrows shot up so quickly Claire thought they might disappear right off his face. ‘I was going to grab a coffee and do some Christmas shopping,’ he said. ‘Why?’
‘Same here. It’s not dinner, but would you like to spend the morning together, Alex?’
It was the first time in her life Claire had asked a man on a date. It was terrifying.
‘Yes, Claire,’ Alex replied, flashing a relieved smile. ‘I would like that very much. Where to?’
‘Bindy Brew?’ She knew it would be packed with locals, but for once that thought didn’t scare her. Since her talk with Gus, Claire no longer expected harsh words from everyone she encountered. In time, perhaps she would truly believe she wasn’t to blame for what her father did – and in the meantime she felt less inclined to bow and scrape to anyone in town who still thought she should. Her father had tried to take his guilt to his grave. Maybe Claire’s final gift to him would be to let him.
And, besides, being seen with Alex would help to hose down those persistent rumours about why ‘Scotty’s girl’ had finally come home.
Alex nodded and they walked side by side in the direction of the café.
‘Look, can I tell you something?’ he asked, not looking at her. ‘I just want to be honest so there’re no misunderstandings.’
Claire felt a surge of anxiety. ‘Okay,’ she said slowly.
‘My parents lost money in your dad’s acai berries scheme. Not a lot, and they got it all back when the farm was sold. There are no hard feelings at all, not from anyone in my family. We all know you had nothing to do with it.’
She let out the breath she didn’t realise she was holding. ‘Thanks. I appreciate that.’ She appreciated Alex being upfront with her even more. She was so tired of second-guessing what everyone thought of her. Trying to figure out people’s motives and agendas was exhausting.
‘In a way, I have Big Jim to thank for helping me become mayor,’ Alex continued.
That stopped Claire in her tracks. ‘That seems unlikely,’ she said dubiously.
They arrived at Bindy Brew. Though the queue at the takeaway window was predictably long, there were plenty of free tables inside. Claire led the way to a table for two by the window.
‘I’m serious. I really love this town,’ Alex said. ‘When
