‘Scotty,’ Claire said, startling Alex. He followed her gaze to the window, but Scotty wasn’t there.
He’d already disappeared into the rain.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The more Claire thought about it, the more indignant she felt.
Scotty had looked angry when he saw her sitting with Alex. He had shaken his head like a disapproving schoolteacher. What right did he have? Not twelve hours before, Scotty had kissed her despite being engaged to someone else – a fact it seemed Nina was painfully aware of. Then he had uninvited her to the wedding that he had practically begged her to attend only the week before. And now he was going to get his stethoscope in a twist because Claire dared to have breakfast with an old friend?
The nerve of the guy. Who did Scotty Shannon think he was?
Alex had known immediately that something was up.
‘Are you okay, Claire?’ he’d asked after she’d blurted Scotty’s name for no apparent reason. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
She had responded with a bitter laugh. Wasn’t that the truth? Scotty was like the ghost of Christmas past: he just kept turning up to remind her of everything she’d done wrong in her life.
Alex, on the other hand, was all about the future. His family could have been ruined by what Big Jim had done, but Alex had chosen instead to see it as a blessing in disguise. He had used it to make life better not just for himself, but for the whole town. Claire had to admit that was kind of a turn-on.
‘I’m fine, Alex,’ she’d told him. ‘I’m going to be fine. Hey, you’re going to Scotty and Nina’s wedding, right?’
‘I sure am.’
‘Would you like to go with me? Like, as my date?’ Claire didn’t know if people took dates to weddings. At this point, she didn’t much care. She was going to Scotty’s wedding whether he liked it or not and she’d be damned if she was going to turn up alone.
‘Um, yeah,’ Alex had said, grinning. ‘That’d be great. Definitely.’
They’d finished their breakfast and spent some time pottering in the shops. Claire bought a beautiful hand-painted silk scarf as a Christmas gift for Vanessa and a wedding planner notebook as a tongue-in-cheek present for Gus – it would go nicely with the subscription to Cosmo Bride she planned to buy for her online. She didn’t necessarily understand her young cousin’s wedding fixation, but she had a new-found respect for people who knew what they wanted from life and pursued it with gusto.
Well, most people. People whose goals weren’t as reckless as marrying someone they hardly knew.
When the Christmas crowds filling Bindy’s main street got too much, Claire bade Alex farewell and they went their separate ways. Now she headed for the beach, her favourite route back to Vanessa’s cottage. Somehow it was even more beautiful on this tempestuous morning than on a sunny day, the moody sea foaming and tossing beneath a portentous sky. The rain had stopped, but the wind howled like a gale in a Gothic novel. Claire’s bare skin stung where the sand whipped against it.
She thought about Alex as she walked. Claire had enjoyed their spontaneous morning date – in fact, she was surprised by how content she felt in Alex’s company. Did he make her weak at the knees? No – but she still had a lot of years-old baggage to discard before she was truly comfortable with this ‘new’ Alex Jessop. Maybe, if she were willing to give him a chance, that chemistry would develop.
Alex wasn’t like the men Claire usually dated. The long hours and erratic shifts she worked in Sydney meant her options were pretty much limited to other vets. No, she realised, she had limited her options to other vets. Men who, like her, were deliberate, methodical and rarely saw the sun.
Alex was the polar opposite. He was ebullient and enthusiastic, a bit of a wheeler-dealer, but in an honest and undeniably charming way. He reminded her of a labrador: positive, intelligent, and always looking for the next adventure.
Was that bad, she wondered? Comparing a potential boyfriend to a family pet? This was all new to her. She’d enjoyed the company of two very different but equally nice men in Bindallarah – it was more exposure to the opposite sex than she’d had in two months in Sydney.
And one incredible kiss.
Claire tutted, mad at herself as her thoughts drifted back to Scotty yet again. He was under her skin like a splinter she just couldn’t extract. And she knew why. It was because, in spite of everything, in spite of her anger and confusion, she couldn’t stop worrying about him. She was even more concerned now that she’d witnessed his argument with Nina.
Did Nina know about the kiss? What Claire had witnessed on the street seemed to suggest she must, but she knew better than to assume anything when it came to Scotty. If Nina had called off the wedding, surely Scotty would be feeling devastated. But what if she hadn’t called it off? What if they were still going to get hitched on Christmas Eve? Claire didn’t know which scenario was worse.
And what did Nina mean when she said, ‘Tell Claire’?
She wondered if she should find Nina, talk to her, figure out for sure what she knew. If Scotty had told her about the kiss, then Claire owed her an apology. And if he hadn’t, what then? Though she had resolved earlier to keep her mouth shut, Claire just couldn’t shake the feeling that Nina deserved the truth. But would it help her? It might only wound her. Claire just couldn’t decide what was the right thing to do.
She reached the northern end of the beach and climbed up through the dunes to Vanessa’s front gate. Her aunt was in the front garden, wearing an oversized straw hat and deadheading her rosebushes.
‘Hello, sweetheart,’ Vanessa said. ‘Gus told me
