She had thought it impossible that Scotty could still have feelings for her after the way she had broken his heart eight years earlier. Everything that had happened since she’d come back to Bindallarah Claire had tried to see through his eyes – the eyes of a man who’d stopped loving her long ago. But now she saw that he hadn’t stopped loving her back then. Incredibly, he had held her in his heart through all the years of silence, in the hope that she would find her way back to him.
Every time they’d swapped silly messages, she suddenly understood that, in his own way, Scotty was asking her the same question: Will you love me again? But Claire hadn’t answered him. She’d been afraid to tell him what she wanted, afraid even to admit it to herself.
She had been paralysed by indecision, by the fear of making the wrong move – and so, in the end, doing nothing had become a decision in itself.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ she whispered.
‘Because, as you pointed out just the other night, I have a bad habit of confusing what I want with what you want. I didn’t want to make that mistake again.’ He laughed and it was a desolate sound. ‘So I guess I just made a whole lot of different mistakes instead.’
Claire felt wretched. If only Scotty knew how desperately she did want him, how having lost him was eating her up inside. She had emerged from her hideaway at Thorne Hill determined to let him go, but now she opened her mouth to tell Scotty that she loved him, that she hadn’t stopped in thirteen years and she never would.
But the words wouldn’t come. Tears came instead, rolling down her face like plump summer raindrops.
Claire’s own inaction had driven Scotty into Nina’s arms. He wasn’t asking her to confess her feelings now. He was telling her she was too late. He might have still loved her six months ago, but since then Claire had done everything in her power to obliterate those feelings. Her eleventh-hour declaration of undying love would make no difference.
Scotty watched her cry, his face stony. He made no move to comfort her.
‘I didn’t know,’ she managed to choke out at length. ‘I’m so sorry, Scotty. I just didn’t know.’
As Claire turned and walked sadly back to the beach, she thought she heard Scotty call her name, but it was consumed by the sound of the waves and her own ragged sobs.
It was all too late.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Nina found him pacing the car park a few minutes later.
‘Hey,’ she called out. ‘Everything okay?’
Scotty looked up to see his fiancée gliding towards him, her brightly coloured dress billowing around her like a cloud. God, she was a stunning woman. He knew every bloke in town thought so. Why couldn’t he fall in love with her? Why didn’t the sight of Nina wearing a beautiful dress in the moonlight have the same effect on his body as the sight of Claire in hospital scrubs in a veterinary supply cupboard?
‘I saw Claire head up this way,’ she said as if she were reading his mind. She reached out and squeezed his arm. ‘And then I saw her a few minutes ago, walking down the beach in tears.’
Shame sat like a heavy stone in Scotty’s gut. He’d promised himself he would tell Claire the truth tonight. Instead he’d yelled at her and made her feel once again that everything was her fault. He was a coward.
‘I didn’t tell her,’ he said.
Nina tried unsuccessfully to conceal her dismay. ‘Oh, Scotty. Why not?’
He shook his head. Why not? He’d had plenty of opportunity, not just a few minutes ago, but for the past two weeks. He’d even started to come clean just now, but when he admitted he’d lied and Claire said she already knew, he’d been knocked off his axis.
Then she’d revealed that what she knew was only the tip of an iceberg of deception, and he just couldn’t bring himself to disabuse her of the belief that he was still a good guy. Talk about clutching at straws.
It had been like a punch to the throat, Claire saying she understood why he’d told her he was engaged when he wasn’t. All the air just went out of him. She thought he was trying to protect her, when the whole time he’d thought only of protecting himself, of getting what he wanted no matter what it took.
What he wanted was her. Claire Thorne. She was complicated and mercurial, she excited and infuriated him in equal measure, and she’d had his heart since he was sixteen years old.
Except she didn’t know it – Scotty’s clumsy manoeuvring had made sure of that.
‘She knows we got engaged after I saw her in Sydney,’ he told Nina.
‘Aha,’ she replied. ‘So I did put my foot in my mouth when we spoke at the studio. I’m so sorry, sweetie.’
‘It’s not your fault, Nina. All of this is my doing.’
‘So just tell her the rest of it. Before it’s too late. Not telling Claire the whole story is only going to make things worse,’ she said.
Scotty shook his head. ‘I can’t. Maybe if I’d been honest from the start, she might have understood. But not now. I know her – she’ll never forgive me.’
It’s already too late.
‘Then . . .’ Nina used her index finger to turn Scotty’s head towards her. She looked him directly in the eye. ‘We should call off the wedding.’
‘What? No!’ he said. ‘Nina, I would never do that to you.’
She pressed her hand to his cheek. ‘Scotty, you’re a good man and an incredible friend,’ she said softly. ‘But you’re getting nothing out of this and you stand to lose so much.’
‘That’s not true.’
Nina smiled. ‘Which part?’
‘Anyway, the wedding is in four days. Everything is arranged.’ Thanks to Claire. ‘We can’t cancel
