Chapter 8

It was a couple of days later and Claire still hadn't told Alex the truth about what happened that night. She was trying to wait for the right moment, but that moment never seemed to arrive. She learned to act more or less normal in his company, but the secret still was eating her up inside. She really did want to tell him, but every time she would close to it, she would lose concentration and all courage that she was trying to gather to tell him about everything.

It was a sunny Friday afternoon and Claire, Tess and Jodi decided to go to the pub and relax a little bit. Of course Claire wanted to stay and get some more work done, but Tess and especially Jodi managed to convince her that stopping the work for a while can actually be beneficial sometimes. And it's not that Claire didn't enjoy their company or the cold drink, but she always felt that she could be doing something more useful with her time.

"The fence in the east paddock looks like it's going to give in any minute." She started complaining as the three of them were sitting in the pub drinking beer.

"I know, but it's gonna last till tomorrow and Jodi and I can take care of it first thing in the morning, right Jodi?" Tess looked at her meaningfully.

"Absolutely." Jodi said enthusiastically. Of course getting up at 5am was not her favorite thing to do in the world, but even she noticed that for some reason Claire seemed to insist on working more and more the last two weeks or so and she knew even her boss deserved a break sometimes.

"So don't worry about anything, big sis." Tess winked at Claire, knowing exactly how Claire hated when she called her 'sis'. "Everything is under control and there is no need whatsoever for you to worry. This is a girls' night out and we are going to have some fun. From now on not a word about farming."

"Then what are we supposed to talk about?" Claire asked.

"I don't know. Clothes, cars, computers…" Tess started listing possible topics.

"Yeah, 'cause I'm an expert in those fields." Claire replied sarcastically.

"You don't have to be an expert in something to talk about it." Tess laughed.

"Of course." Jodi added. "I talk about stuff I have no idea about all the time." She said and all three of them started laughing. Claire finally realized that an evening like that might have been exactly what she needed. Just her and the girls talking about absolutely nothing. She never was a really girly girl type, but sometimes even Claire McLeod needed to become this type for a while and let her girls take care of her.

"It's a pity Meg couldn't come." Tess mentioned after a while. "A night like that would sure do her good."

"Yeah, Mom had other plans." Jodi said with a big grin on her face.

"No need for more info." Claire quickly jumped in.

"What a bummer!" Jodi pouted her lips. "And here I thought that I would finally be able to disclose private details of my mom's love life."

"Like I said, no need for more information, Jodi." Claire looked at her meaningfully and they started laughing yet again.

"Yeah, we definitely don't need to know the details." Tess said laughing.

"Well, if we're not talking about my mom's love life, how about we talk about our own?" Jodi suggested absolutely ignorant of the recent events between Claire and Alex. "Anything interesting to report girls?" she asked grinning and Claire tried the best she could to hide how nervous that question made her. Of course she didn't have to reply, but the mere thought of what happened between her and Alex made her extremely anxious.

"No, not really." Claire answered quickly and Tess could see how the mere mention of a love life made Claire feel. Tess wanted to change the subject fast, but what she suddenly saw made it absolutely impossible.

"Now here's someone who has always had a very rich love life" Jodi said looking at Alex who entered the pub with a pretty blonde by his side. "She's a hot little number." Jodi summed up the girl, not having the slightest idea how she was making Claire feel. Because even though Claire would never admit having feelings for Alex, seeing him with another woman certainly made her feel a pang of jealousy. She was only hoping that Tess and Jodi would not notice how frustrated she was to see Alex with someone else.

"Maybe it's not his love life." Tess was trying to make Claire feel better. "Maybe it's his business life. For all we know, she could be his business associate or something."

"Come on Tess, I'm not an expert on fashion, but even I know you don't wear dresses like that for a business meeting."

Sadly, Tess had to agree with her sister. The girl was wearing a really short and tight red dress and it definitely didn't look like a business type of outfit. And Alex's behavior certainly didn't qualify as business behavior. He had his arm around her waist as they were ordering drinks and it definitely wasn't a friendly embrace.

When they turned around, Alex noticed the three of them and apparently suddenly felt a great need to introduce his newest conquest to his neighbors. Him and the leggy blonde walked up to the girls' table.

"Good day, ladies." Alex greeted them. "Funny running into you here."

"Not that funny since it's the only pub in the 50-kilometer radius." Claire replied, certainly not amused by the whole situation.

"Yeah, right." He laughed. "Well anyway, I just wanted to introduce Molly to you. Molly, this is Claire, Tess and Jodi, my neighbors." He said and Claire hated how he called her 'a neighbor.' This sounded like he was saying 'This is the girl I see twice a month when our fence breaks or something'. And they were so much more to each other.

"Hi, nice to meet you guys." Molly said.

"Yeah, same here." Tess smiled, trying to be polite.

"Hi Molly." Jodi greeted her as well. Claire remained silent and she thought that Alex noticed that.

"Well, we'll just go and get a table. You have fun." Alex said after a while and he lead Molly to a table in the corner. Tess knew that this was bothering Claire a lot more than she would ever admit. And she could see the sadness in her sister's eyes. She wished there was something that she could do to make the situation less awkward, but unfortunately there wasn't.

For a moment they kept observing Alex and the girl and it looked like the date was definitely going great.

"Gee, why don't they get a room." Jodi commented as things started to really heat up at Alex's and the girl's table. She had no idea how uncomfortable this was making Claire and Tess for that matter too, since she knew about the night between her sister and Alex. Jodi was the only one who had no idea, and they couldn't even blame her, because had it not been for Claire and Alex's night of passion, Claire and Tess would probably be making fun of him and his girlfriend too.

When Jodi left for the bathroom, Tess asked concerned. "Claire, are you OK? We can leave if you want."

"No, I'm fine." Claire answered, but they both knew that she was lying.

It was about 2am in the morning, when Tess heard Claire's desperate calling.

"Tess!" she shouted. "Tess come over here right now!" she called again and Tess jumped out of the bed in panic and ran to her sister's room. She saw Claire sitting on her bed in her pajamas.

"What is it?" she tried to locate the reason for Claire's desperate scream, but everything seemed to be OK. "What's wrong? You screamed like you were being killed or something." She joked.

"It's worse." Claire replied and took a deep breath. "I think I'm in love with Alex."