~~~~Claire~~~~

Honestly, the way Gray's been acting since this morning has been getting on my nerves. He's jumpy, and fidgety, and refuses to look me in the eye.

The way he's acting is enough to make me feel like he heard my conversation with Ann last nig

It wasn't such a big deal, at least not in Ann's mind. While I freaked out about the fact that Gray was the one popping into my head while I was kissing this other guy that I allegedly like, Ann sat there in silence and thought long and hard about it. When I finally got an answer out of her, she just told me not to worry about it, although the look on her face had seemed to say something else.

While I wait for Gray to finish asking Mary, I get the weird feeling of wanting to stop him. To be honest with myself, it's been dogging me all morning; the idea that I shouldn't push him into something with Mary. As much as I'd like to go with my gut instinct and just leave him alone and not push him into being a couple with her, I keep telling myself it's just some weird protective friend thing.

At least, I think it is.

Gray finally emerges from the library, looking grumpier than ever despite the fact that he finally asked the girl he likes to the firework show at the end of the week. His grumpy look makes me wonder for a second if he was rejected by her. The thought makes me feel better, but I shake the weird feeling off and try to arrange a concerned look on my face.

"What? What happened? Did she say yes?" I demand, looking at him earnestly. Gray just grunts before pulling his hat down to shade his eyes. We stand there in silence, not looking at each other until he finally answers begrudgingly, "Yeah. She said yes."

I smile at him before pronouncing, "Great! So you, me, Mary, and Jack can all go out together that night for dinner before the fireworks start!"

When I get a scowl from him, I frown. I know full well that he despises Jack, although I can never seem to get a straight answer about why this is so. It's one of the downsides of being friends with Gray; he'll tell you things, but not always the things you want to hear. I decide to ignore his obvious lack of enthusiasm at the idea of a double date, and instead swirl around on my heel. As I start walking towards the winery, I listen for the sound of my friend's footsteps as he catches up to me, before he finally falls into step with me.

"So, where are we going now?" he voices his thoughts, although I say nothing and just keep walking. We continue on that way, in silence, for awhile until we've reached the bottom of Mother's Hill. As butterflies dance around us and the sun makes the lake's surface shine, I sit down and pat the ground next to me, inviting him to join me.

He does so, but not before shifting slightly away from me. Normally this would bother me, but considering that at this point I'm trying to figure out why Gray keeps showing up in my head when he shouldn't, I'm okay with it. We sit there for another fifteen minutes before he remarks casually, "So you never did tell me about your family…"

I glare at him slightly, before complaining, "It's not terribly important to you, is it? My life, that is. Or my past."

Despite the fact that we've grown so close, the two of us still avoid talking about our families. We had a conversation about it once, but all that was mentioned was that neither one of us wanted to talk about it. To be completely honest, it isn't as if I'm hiding anything. I have no deep, dark past.

But the thing is, what if Gray's hiding some sort of tragedy?

While I'd like to hear it, at the same time it makes me feel like I won't know what to do or what to say, and not being able to help him is a big deal for me. How could I call myself his friend if I can't even help him out, or give him some advice about what to do?

My musing is interrupted as Gray clears his throat impatiently and looks at me expectantly. Seems I'm not getting out of this one, whether I'd like to or not.

With a loud sigh, I sit back on my hands and say, "My family and I don't get along too well, to say the least. I basically ran away, and it's been about a year since then. They haven't looked for me, so I'm assuming they're as glad to be rid of me as I am of them."

Gray looks troubled before he asks, "You…ran away?"

I throw back my head and laugh before saying, "They never seemed to understand the way I think and because of that my mother and I often fought. I was actually engaged to be married before I left."

These last words seem to throw Gray for a loop as he scrambles backwards and shakes his head furiously, giving me a disbelieving look. Reaching over to poke me lightly, he huffs out, "It's not funny to joke about that kind of thing Claire. Seriously, what's up with you and your family?"

Later that night, as I sit on my bed and watch the little tv for the weather forecast, I can't help but sigh. Of course he wouldn't have believed such a ludicrous sounding story. He'd spent the entire afternoon trying to get me to tell him my 'real' story, so in the end I'd just made up some crap about having been raised by some aunt and having been sent off into the world on my own.

I bite my lip and cuddle closer to Diesel. Turning the puppy to face me, I begin to mutter and talk to him as if he was Gray.

"You ought to believe people when they tell you things," I say grumpily, while Diesel's paws dangle in midair and his little tail wags happily as I address him. "Honestly Gray, why would I lie about something that ridiculous?"

Diesel's tongue pokes out and his tail wags even more furiously as I hold him up higher and chastise, "It's a very serious matter you know, to have run away from an engagement to a Duke. Mother wasn't pleased at all when I refused to even meet him, and I'm sure she was more than furious when she found out I'd left. "

I sigh and put Diesel down, but at that moment my door bangs open and I find myself staring at Jack, who stares back at me as if I'm some kind of alien. The bag he was holding over his shoulder drops slowly from his grasp, and he steps towards me with a weird look in his eyes as he asks, "Claire? What was that all about?"

With a gasp, I leap up and pull him inside before shutting the door roughly. Then, turning to him I say frantically, "Don't tell anyone, okay?"

Jack chuckles weakly before saying, "Tell anyone what? That you're a runaway, and from a wealthy family at that?"

My next words get caught in my throat, and I'm feel like I'm about to be on the verge of tears when Jack's fingers softly brush across my cheek.

"Hey," he says in a low voice, "I'm not going to sell out my own girlfriend. And besides, even if I did who would believe me?"

My gaze meets his, and I blink in shock as I find he looks completely serious about all this.

He believes me?

I guess my expression is more dumbfounded than I thought, because Jack really laughs now before leaning in to give me a kiss on the cheek. Brushing some hair back from my face, he tilts my chin up to kiss me before pulling back with a huge grin on his face.

"I knew you were some kind of aristocrat, the first time I took you out to dinner. You do a good job of hiding any wealthy background you might have had except when it comes down to a few mannerisms. You ate so properly that I knew there was no way you were just some city girl! After that, I started noticing other little things, like the way you walk with your chin tilted upwards and your back straight, or your handwriting."

"What's wrong with my handwriting?" I demand, but Jack just laughs and pulls me in for another hug as he says into my hair, "Don't you know Claire? The only people who write in cursive and in script are either the highly educated or the extremely rich. I figured you were no doctor, so it had to be the second one."

He puts me at arms length to look at me before winking and saying, "I always thought you were a princess, but now I'm sure." Getting down on one knee, he holds my hand and kisses it gently before asking, "Can I be your knight then? I'll protect you forever, I swear it."

I look down at Jack as my heart pounds, but before I can say yes an image of a forlorn looking Gray flashes into my mind and my heart twists wretchedly. It's happening again-how can Gray keep showing up at romantic gestures like this?

Taking a deep breath, I will the image away before looking back down at Jack and saying, "Forever?"

I shiver ever so slightly as one side of Jack's mouth turns upwards in a slightly different smile as he stands up and pulls me close, whispering darkly, "Forever."

And just a hint of filler chapter here...seriously, apologies for how long it's taken me for this last update, but I was out of commission for awhile; I had an accident at work which rendered me unable to use one of my fingers properly XD So typing was sort of out of the question for a bit. It's all better now, so I finally finished what I could and here it is! I'll try and update more frequently once I catch up with everything and refigure out my ideas again XD

Well, until then, TA!