Chapter 3

He woke up with the sunlight on his face and in his heart. Claire was sleeping with a smile on her face and her head on his shoulder. It was the perfect moment. Again. Since they got together the whole world seemed to be full of perfect moments. Voices from outside reached the room trough the window and he realised the others were already working. It was like Claire had an instinct for moments when she thought she couldn't be missed, cause she woke up instantly.

'Shouldn't I be working now?'
'Probably they could miss you.'
'Yeah, but what happened to my alarm?'
'I don't know. Is it important?'
She smiled. 'Probably not.'
'Well then let's not worry about it.'
'I won't,' she said, and she moved to the left side so she could look in his eyes.
'Were you planning to do this from the day I drove into that bloody ravine?'
He smiled. 'Yeah, I was… I lost the ring when I was packing my bags. If I hadn't I would have done it before you left.'
'Yeah, but we got the rest of our life's together now.'
'Do you think that's enough?'
'Probably not,' she said smiling, 'but I'm sure we'll manage.'Their perfect early morning, that had become not so early now, was being interrupted by somebody knocking on the door.
'Hey, you sleepyheads! Are you awake?'
'Yeah, we're coming!'
They heard Tess laughing on the other side of the door.
'Hurry! Breakfast's ready!'
'Hey Tess? What have you done to my alarm?'
'Turn it off.'
'Why?'
'Well I thought you could probably use a long night.'
Claire laughed. 'Thank you, Tess.'
Tess kept standing in front of the door and listened. She heard lots of laughing.
'Hey, are you coming or not?'
'Yes, we're coming!'
'But hurry,' Meg called from the kitchen. 'Your eggs are getting cold!'
'Well, what do you think, will we get out?' Alex asked her.
'Yeah,' she said, 'we can't make the eggs waiting.'
'Will we tell them?'
She thought about it for a minute.
'Not yet. We should make it a bit… spectacular.'
'Want a spectacular wedding?'
'No. Yes, but…'
'Don't worry,' he told her. 'I'll give you one.'

Although Tess told her not to, Claire was working with her horses again the same day.
'You missed me for two months. I should get back to work, or I'll get bored.'
Tess smiled significantly. 'Get bored? With Alex? Go away.' She looked at Claire's face and tried to see through it, because she knew Claire was hiding something.
'Something's going on between the two of you, isn't it?'
'Who, us? Go away,' she said. But she knew Tess could see she knew more than she told her. It didn't bother her. She'd know more soon.
'Hey, have you seen Stevie?' Claire asked, to get the attention off her and Alex and things going on. She could have known that didn't work with Tess.
'She's with the coddle, why?'
'Well… I wanted eh.. I wanted her to look after Charlotte this afternoon.'
'That won't be necessary, she's with Meg now, eating her…' Suddenly Tess stopped talking. A very big smile started to cross her face and she was having sparks in her eyes like she always did when she was happy. Claire started checking herself. Was she wearing something funny?
'What's it Tess?'
'Claire. You know you can't fool me.'
'Why not? I mean… what's wrong?'
'You're wearing a ring and it doesn't seem to be a cheap one.'
Oh no. The ring. She could have known. But, actually, she didn't mind.
'Claire, it's so beautiful!' Tess was looking more excited then she did after her own engagement with Dave.
Claire smiled. 'I know… I was wondering if I would take it off so you wouldn't find out, but… I just didn't wanna do that.'
'No, I can understand that! Why didn't you tell me?'
'Well… We decided to keep the secret but… you always see through whatever I tell you.'
'Hey Claire?'
'Yeah?'
'Congrats!' She got one of her sisters Big Hugs and held her longer than she usually did. She knew what had almost happened to her and she decided to enjoy life, every day it would last.

Stevie was doing repairs to a broken fence and thinking. Claire's accidents had made old feelings break away. Feelings like… regret. Regret for things she still didn't tell people. Regret for things she was hiding. She used to tell herself there was more than enough time to do those things in her life, but she realised life could be over whenever it decided to end. Or whenever some horse decided to cross the road the wrong moment. Time was flowing away under her eyes and she was having so many things to do. She put down her instruments and sighted. Rose. She would never go through any moment Rose was not being on her mind. It was so long ago… but it was still killing her. She always told herself not to think about it. But wasn't Claire's accident meant to be a lesson for her? Shouldn't she just… No. she just didn't have the guts to do that to Rosie. Precious little Rosie. Rosie was her baby, she had grown up without Stevie to look after her. To see her become a young woman. She had given up her baby to another woman. And now she didn't mean any more to her daughter than the strange, desperate old spinster she was calling auntie Stevie. But she just couldn't do it to Rose. Rose, who was calling her aunt mum, and her mother aunt. It was just so… unfair. She would break Rosie's heart if she'd tell her.

'Hey, Steve!'
She moved her head and saw Alex coming out of his red car. He was looking very happy. When she thought about it, she didn't remember him looking so happy for ages.
'Hey, Alex. What are you looking so happy for?'
He smiled, but it wasn't his… regular, innocent smile. He was hiding something.
'Will I help you with that? Seems like you didn't do any good, hea?'
He was right. The fence was as broken as it was when she started repairing it an hour ago.
'Well, thank you. I don't think I'm in the mood to fix fences today,' she said, with her head miles away, with Rosie, who'd be doing her make up, or buying clothes. Doing things with her mother Stevie should be doing.
'Steve, what's wrong with you? You're looking so… sad. So absent-minded.'
'Could be. But you're looking so happy. Where's that for?'
'An answer to my question first, please,' he said teasing.
'No, I'd have to tell you a long story. Too long ago. I shouldn't do that.'
'Well then, you'll see what's my secret sooner or later. If there's a secret, of course,' he said as he stood up. 'Well, that was your fence.'
'Thank you.' She looked him in the eye. 'It has been broken for ages, but you could never bring yourself to fixing it.'
'Don't be too curious, Stevie,' he answered, still with that stupid grin on his face. 'But I got to go now. Someone's waiting for me.'
'Who would that be…' she muttered spotting as she looked at his car becoming a small, red point at the end of the road.