Chapter 4
"Remind me why did I ever agree to let you do this?" Claire asked as Tess started to brush her hair.
"Because I'm your sister and you love me and you know I'm gonna make you look beautiful for your date with Alex."
"For a gazzilionth time, it is not a date!"
'"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot, your outing with Alex." Tess replied pronouncing the word 'outing' as clearly as she possibly could. She figured she would let Claire figure out on her own that this really was a date. For now, she decided to let Claire live in her little fantasy world in which she was not going on a date with Alex Ryan.
"Do we really have to do this?" Claire was getting impatient.
"Yes we do." Tess was determined to make Claire look beautiful.
"But I look fine."
"Yes, you do. You look fine, but it's not a da... I mean outing fine."
"What's the difference? Fine is fine." she wasn't sure she was ready to trust Tess with her hair and her makeup.
"When you go out, you have to look... finer." Tess said with a laugh.
"That's not even a word." Claire joined Tess and started laughing.
"Whatever. The point is that it is my duty as your sister to make you look absolutely fabulous for your outing."
"Oh would you stop saying it like that!" Claire was getting annoyed.
"Like what?" Tess asked, but she knew exactly what Claire was talking about. She just decided to drive her sister a little crazy before her date.
"I'm so not letting you do this ever again!" Claire laughed and finally gave in to Tess's efforts to make her look beautiful.
It was about an hour later and Claire was finally ready to go out.
"You look really amazing." Jodi raved as Tess finally let her, Meg and Becky see the final product of her efforts.
"You look really great." Becky agreed and smiled at her boss.
"Why you won't wear a dress is beyond me, but suit yourself, I give up." Tess sighed and sent her sister a meaningful look.
"You know I hate dresses and there is no reason I should wear one tonight. And I'm wearing pants that are not jeans, which is a huge step forward. Besides, this is just a casual..."
"Outing!" all four of them said in unison and they started laughing.
"You still look very nice." Meg smiled at her. "Alex is one lucky guy."
Claire smiled back at Meg and at the very same moment they heard Alex's voice. "Anybody home?" he asked as he entered the kitchen. His eyes almost instantly looked for Claire's. She looked at him and smiled weakly. She wasn't wearing a red dress like she was the last time, but she still looked beautiful. Yes, not pretty, but beautiful. "Ready?" he asked as he extended his hand.
"After you." she took his hand and they left the house. When they got into the car, she asked curious. "So where are we going?"
"Well I know this place in Gungellan..."
"Please tell me we're not going to the pub." she cut him short and looked at him with the look that said 'Because if we are, I'm getting out."
"Don't worry." he smiled. "We're not. I believe the idea of our venture was to do something that we don't normally do. And that is why I am taking you to this new place that just opened a couple of weeks ago. It's not as fancy as the last one, but hey, it's not even a date, right?"
"Right." she smiled uncomfortably as she watched him drive. There was something about him that she hadn't noticed before, but she couldn't quite identify it. Maybe it was the little spark in his eyes or the way he kept looking at her every once in a while, as if making sure that she was still there. Yes, there was definitely something different about Alex Ryan and Claire was determined to find out what it was.
When they finally stopped in front of the restaurant, Alex was a perfect gentleman and he got out of the car and opened the door for Claire. It shouldn't surprise her, because he has always been a gentleman with her, or at least most of the time, but she never really paid that much attention to it. That was just the way he was. But now suddenly she started liking that about him, which felt weird to say the least.
"So this is it." Alex said as they entered the restaurant. "I know it's not very fancy and all, but I like it and I thought you might like it too.
Claire took a look around. The place sure wasn't as fancy as the one they went to the last time, but there was some familiarity about it. Alex was right in thinking that she would like it. She did.
"Well, it's better than the Gungellan pub, that's for sure." she said with a laugh as they walked to their table.
"I hoped you would like it better." he smiled.
"Oh I do, trust me." she said sitting down.
"Nick and I discovered this place by accident one day when we came to town and the pub was closed."
"The pub was closed? I thought it never closes." she said with a laugh.
"I think it was some kind of emergency or something."
"Yeah, only that would explain it." she said with a smile and suddenly started remembering all the times that she and Alex spent together at the Gungellan pub. Having dinner, drinking, shooting pool, even dancing sometimes, in other words everything that mates do. She wasn't even aware of this huge grin that spread across her face.
"What are you thinking about?" Alex asked curious.
"Us." she replied quickly, although the way it came out scared her a little bit. She didn't mean in that way. She didn't mean to imply that anything of romantic sort might be going on between them.
"And what exactly are you thinking about?"
"Just stuff." she blushed a little and hoped he wouldn't notice, but he did. "I was thinking about how we always have so much fun together. No matter what we do, it's always fun." she finished off and looked into his eyes. For a moment they just stayed like this as neither of them felt any need to say anything. Finally Alex spoke.
"Well, there are a lot of things I like about you too."
"Like what?" she asked, very interested in what he had to say.
"For example I love how brave you are. Running a farm all by yourself."
"I'm not by myself, I have great people who help me." she smiled at the thought of Tess, Meg and everyone else who kept helping her at Drovers Run. Those people were her family now.
"I know, but still. It took a lot of courage to do what you did. I'm proud of you, Claire. We all are." he ended and it was so obvious that he was telling the truth. He was so proud of her and admired her for everything that she was doing to honor her father's memory.
"What else do you like about me?" she asked, trying not to get too emotional at the thought of her father.
"I like how you're always right even if you're wrong." he said with a smile and Claire kicked him under the table.
"Hey, I am always right." she said jokingly.
"Yeah, especially when you're wrong." he added.
"I think that discussion is over." she said firmly. "Now let's order before they kick us out of this place."
"Yeah, let's." he said and looked at Claire like has never looked at her before. Here she was, this beautiful, smart, feisty woman sitting right in front of him. Why didn't he notice those things about her before? Why didn't he see how amazing she was? Well he did always know that she was amazing, but amazing can probably have more than just one interpretation.
