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The evening continued while Claire quickly introduced Tom to everyone, eager to get back to Drovers. Meanwhile Alex had picked up a girl but he just couldn't help looking over at Claire every few minutes, he realized he really did love her and not just as a mate. The girl was getting a bit sick of it "I'm right here, Alex! What's up with you?" "Huh? What?" "Stuff it!" she said and walked of. Now he got angry with himself, but he didn't go after her. He decided to go home. As he walked towards his car, he saw Claire and Tom approaching him. He tried to walk faster but she called out for him, so he turned around and tried to smile "What's up Claire?" Although he had tried to sound normal it came out wrong, impatient and a little angry. She suddenly remembered their kiss and awkwardness filled the air between them. After staring at each other for a while, she snapped out of it "Ehm, we're going home, I just wanted to say g'night" "I'm going too, see you later" he said and walked away. Tom looked at Claire trying to figure out what had just happened he had felt the tension between them. But she just took hold of his hand and they got into the car. As she watched Alex drive off she wondered if their friendship would ever be the same again. She felt sick and worried. While driving to Drovers Tom noticed her silence and he let her be. At Drovers they sat on the porch together when he asked her what was wrong. She looked at him and tried to smile but it was too hard. "I'm afraid I'm loosing my best friend" she said and she felt some tears creep into her eyes. He stroked her hair and kissed her forehead. "I'm sure it'll be fine" he said as he held her in his arms. She looked up at him and they kissed a long deep kiss. "Thank you" she said resting her head on his shoulder. Together they looked out over the land until Claire fell asleep and Tom carried her up the stairs to her room.
Somewhere between night and morning she awoke and she couldn't get back to sleep. She thought about Alex, how they'd always been so close and now everything had changed. She hated it, she knew she couldn't be happy without his friendship. She stepped out of bed and put some clothes on before she softly kissed Tom and went downstairs. She didn't know where she was going to go but she couldn't sleep anyway and maybe a night time ride would help her figure things out. After a while she ended up at Wilgul and although she knew it was the middle of the night she had to talk to Alex, clear things up. This was as good a time as any. She didn't want to wake Nick so she just went in and as she wanted to walk to Alex's room she saw there was no need to; he was in the kitchen staring out of the window, drinking a glass of milk. "Hey" she whispered. He turned around surprised to hear her voice. "Hey" he whispered back. She sat down next to him and after staring out of the window for a while she said "I don't want to loose you Alex…" He looked at her trying to figure out what she meant, what she felt. But she continued "You're my best friend, you've always been my best friend and that should never change" Disappointment hit him hard but he knew he didn't want to loose her either even if that meant they would never be anything more than friends. "I know" he said and they hugged.
For quite awhile they sat in that kitchen reminiscing childhood memories, laughing. It had been along time since they had done this. They had always just had that past together but had never talked about it much but now one story after another came to life. When they saw the sun come creeping over the hill Claire knew she had to go, even though she had wanted this night to last so much longer. Alex walked her out and as she sat on her horse he took hold of her hand and said "I'm glad you came over" "Me too" she said and she rode off. Alex whispered to himself, if only to hear the words "I love you, Claire" and he stood outside for some time before going in to finally get some sleep, hoping Nick would sleep in too.
When Claire arrived at Drovers it was still early, she felt happy and went upstairs to her room. Tom was still asleep and she tried to get into the bed silently but he half awoke as he felt her cold feet. He put his arms around her and kissed her "Where did you go?" "Couldn't sleep, went out to clear my head" she answered. "I think you need some warming up" he smiled "I think you're right" she said as she giggled. His hands touched her skin and his lips caressed hers as their clothes ended up on the floor.
Afterwards as she lay in his arms with her head resting on his chest she asked him how long he was staying for. Since he had arrived the other day they hadn't really had the chance to have a normal conversation. She really wanted to know what his plans were. "For however long you want me too" he jokingly said. "Hmmm, I'll have to think about that" she got on top of him and looked at him, his fingers followed the shape of her face before he drew her closer to him and kissed her.
When they woke up it was already late. "I guess we should get up" she said with a sigh. "I thought you were the boss here" he said and laughed. "Well, I am but that doesn't mean I don't have to do any work" she looked at him and laughed as well. As she got out of the bed she dragged him with her and after a cozy shower they went downstairs. There was nobody to be found, everyone was already at work. They had some breakfast and afterwards Claire showed Tom around the property on horseback. Claire tried not to laugh as he uncomfortably got on the horse but once he was on the horse she couldn't hold it in any longer. She hadn't seen anyone ever ride that bad. "Why are you laughing?" he asked pretending to be hurt. "Sorry, I can't help myself" she said doubling up with laughter. As she looked up at him her eyes were filled with tears from laughing so hard. "Ok, ok so I'm a total cluts on horseback" he said and smiled "are you gonna dump me now?" "Nah, I think you'll be alright after some private lessons" she smiled and leaned over to him to kiss him. They couldn't go far because of his clumsiness but he was still impressed with the land and he told her how beautiful he thought it was. Before he hadn't really understood what Drovers meant to her, but now he came to understand that it wasn't just a job for her, it was her life and he would never be able to get her to move to the city to be with him. He decided not to think about the future for the time being.
A little before noon they rode back to the homestead, Claire knew she was going to have to hear about her sleeping in forever, she didn't want to take the whole day of. As the girls dropped in one by one they looked at her meaningful. And everyone had great fun, over lunch they were all laughing and telling Tom the goss about Claire of course. In return he told them about when he and Claire had a thing at boarding school. When they all went back to work Tom went with to help with the mustering or at least look at the mustering, since he had no experience whatsoever with farm work. But Claire didn't mind, it was fun showing him the ropes. Letting him see what she did for a living just like he had shown her around the city. Towards the end of the day Alex came by as he saw Claire and Tom goofing around he felt hurt and he almost rode off again but he had known that this was how it was going to be like and had promised her they'd be mates. So he swallowed his pain and went to greet them, he even acted civil to Tom and Claire greeted him with a smile. Now she had the man she loved and her best friend with her and she really, really wanted them to get along. As Alex saw that Tom wasn't perfect after all, seeing he couldn't ride he felt better. He figured that since Tom wasn't cut out to be a farmer and Claire would never leave Drovers it wouldn't take long for them to break it off. This set his mind at ease and gave him some hope as they all went back to Drovers for diner.