She laughed, grateful for Alex’s bawdy humour. Maybe a bit of levity would help alleviate the feeling that she was going to a funeral rather than a wedding.
‘You’re looking pretty sharp yourself, Jessop,’ she shot back, mimicking his jovial tone. If he noticed that she’d sidestepped his question, he didn’t say so. He did look great, this time wearing a tailored eggplant-coloured suit. Once again, Claire silently scolded her obstinate heart for refusing to be moved by anyone other than Scotty. ‘Not many men can pull off a purple suit, but you’re working it.’
‘Well, you know, it’s Christmas Eve. I figured I could get away with something a little more festive. Shall we?’ Alex cocked his elbow and Claire took it, letting him lead her to the gleaming sports car parked at the kerb.
‘Nice wheels,’ she said as she eased herself into the low-slung passenger seat and gathered her flouncy skirts around her. ‘Not much good on dirt roads, though. I’m guessing you won’t be taking over your parents’ farm one of these days?’
He laughed and started the engine. ‘Nah, that’s more Callum’s scene,’ he said, naming his older brother. ‘I may be a country boy, Claire, but this baby has only ever seen tarmac.’
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes as Alex drove out of town and up into the hinterland. The sky above the hills was beginning to turn a dusky-pink colour. It was a beautiful evening for a sunset wedding – even a pretend one.
‘So you must know Nina pretty well, being her boss,’ Claire said, affecting what she hoped was a neutral tone.
She saw Alex cast a sidelong glance in her direction. ‘Yeah, she’s a pretty fantastic woman,’ he replied. ‘I like her a lot.’
‘So do I,’ Claire said. She meant it. She thought Nina was great – just not for Scotty. ‘Were you surprised when she and Scotty got engaged so quickly?’
Alex considered the question. ‘Yes and no,’ he said eventually. ‘I didn’t realise they were that serious, to be honest. I mean, I knew she and Scotty had been out a few times, but I talk to Nina literally every day and she never mentioned marriage.’
Ha, Claire thought sourly. She knew what it was like to think you knew someone and yet still be totally blindsided by their life choices.
‘But then,’ Alex went on, ‘you know what Scotty’s like. Once he makes up his mind about something, that’s it. He’s the most bull-headed bloke I reckon I’ve ever met. All the Shannons are the same. They should raise cows, not horses.’
Was that true? Claire had never considered Scotty’s intractable nature in the broader context of his family. But thinking about it, she realised Alex had a point. Chris was every bit as determined as his older brother. He’d been a new broom at Cape Ashe Stud – Claire had been blown away by the changes she’d noticed there, all of which Chris had proudly told her he’d made since taking the reins.
Even the boys’ parents, Mike and Janine, shared the stubborn streak. Scotty loved to recount the tale of how everyone in the district told them they were crazy when they announced they were establishing a horse stud. This is cattle country was the consensus in Bindallarah at the time. You want to breed horses, head six hundred clicks south to the Hunter Valley.
But the young Shannons wouldn’t be dissuaded and their sons had obviously inherited their tenacity.
‘What do you think this wedding is about, Alex?’ Claire said. ‘Is it the real deal?’
‘That’s an interesting question,’ he replied, his tone guarded. ‘Don’t you think it is?’
Claire gazed out of the window at the trees whizzing past. ‘I don’t know what to think any more.’
Alex didn’t respond. He turned off the road and eased his fancy car into the driveway of Cape Ashe Stud. The flaming bamboo torches that had lit the path to Scotty and Nina’s beach bash on Wednesday night had been recycled – now wrapped in silver tinsel, they led the way past the main house and stables to the large paddock that had been set aside for guest parking.
Alex found a spot and killed the engine, then hurried to Claire’s side of the car to open her door. She giggled as he extended a hand like he was her butler.
‘Such a gentleman,’ she said, not bothering to try to hide her surprise. ‘How come you were never like this at school?’ Claire grasped his fingers and tried to appear elegant as she hoisted herself out of the car.
‘My motives are purely selfish. Those shoes you’re wearing are totally impractical for walking on grass. I just don’t want you taking me down with you when you fall over, which you definitely will.’
She elbowed him good-naturedly, not wanting to admit he was on the money. The vertiginous heels Gus had convinced Claire to wear not only mercilessly pinched her feet, they also sank into the grass with every step. She was glad she’d thought to bring a pair of thongs in the car with her at the last minute – there was no way she’d make it through the night in her borrowed shoes.
It was going to be a long walk to the fairy-lit clearing she could see at the top of a small rise behind the paddock. Claire could see dozens of guests already mingling in the velvet dusk. Just as at the beach party, some wore Christmas hats with their wedding finery. She gasped as she spied Nina among them.
She knew this was a low-key wedding, but she hadn’t expected to see the bride casually chatting with well-wishers before the ceremony. Wasn’t she supposed to arrive fashionably late and make a grand entrance?
Though one glance
