Chapter 11

"Hey, Tess, what time is it?" Claire asked as the two of them were fixing one of the broken fences. Their cattle got really impatient the previous day and there were a couple of spots were the fences was totally useless.

"10:30. Why?"

"Alex promised to come by and help us with that." Claire said as she was untangling the wire. "He was supposed to be here at 10.00." she added as her movements became more and more nervous. "Damn cattle! Like we don't have enough problems without them breaking the stupid fences all the time."

"Hey, are you OK?" Tess asked very concerned, because Claire did not seem to be having a good day.

"I'm not OK. You know I hate relying on other people and the one time that I really need him, he's not here." She said almost mad. "That's what happens when you let blokes help you." She sighed. "They're useless."

"Maybe something came up." Tess was trying to play Alex's advocate. She didn't want to be mad at him. At least not more than she already was. "We don't know what happened. Maybe it was something important."

"You're right." Claire finally gave in. "I guess we'll find out eventually. In the meantime we need to fix those before dinner or the stupid cattle are gonna get away again.

"Yeah, this is fun. I don't think I've fixed that many fences since I've been here." Tess joked. "It's like all the fences in the world decided to get destroyed today."

"Yeah, I'm sure it's the fences' fault." Claire looked at her sister indulgently and laughed.

"It sure looks that way." Tess smiled. "Did I ever tell you I hate fences?"

"Would you rather be doing something else? Like cleaning the…"

"Don't even say that!" Tess cut her short. "Suddenly I have a new found affinity for fences." She decided.

"You're weird, you know that?" Claire laughed.

"That's like telling you that you're stubborn." Tess winked at her sister.

"Very funny." Claire pretended to be offended, but she couldn't stop laughing. "You think you got me all figured out, huh?"

"For the most part yes." Tess cocked her eyebrows and grinned. "After all, I've lived with you for two years."

"That doesn't mean anything." Claire shrugged. "There is still plenty that you don't know about me."

"You're right. For example I don't know when you are going to tell Alex that you slept together."

"I am going to tell him." Claire insisted. "I just need to find the right time."

"Yeah, I know. You've been saying that for two weeks." Tess looked at her with a meaningful expression on her face.

"I WILL tell him." She replied. "I will."

"OK, if you say so." Tess decided to give up and as soon as she did they saw Becky riding her horse towards them. When she was close enough so that they could hear her, she got off the horse and walked up to them.

"Hey, Claire, there's another piece of a broken fence about 50 meters from the one Jodi and I are fixing right now. I wanted to get it done and all, but we don't have any more wire. Do you have some?"

"We do, but we're gonna need it here." Claire replied and started thinking what to do."

"Do you want me to go to town and get some? But it's gonna take a while."

"No, you take this roll." Claire handed her the wire she'd been working with. "And I'll go into town. I need a drive anyway."

"OK, thanks. See ya."

"Bye Becky."

"So you're going into town, huh?" Tess asked curious. "Any particular reason you wanna go?"

"Not really. I just feel like a drive will let me clear my head." She replied and smiled. "Will you be OK here?"

"Yeah, sure. And when I'm done, I might just as well fix fences in all of Australia, 'cause I bet no place has more fences than we do!" she joked and got back to work.

When Claire arrived in Gungellan she really did feel like the drive let her regain some strengths. Not physical, because she didn't have a problem with that at the moment, but emotional. She hadn't been herself since the infamous night with Alex and being alone with Tess bugging her every five minutes actually felt pretty refreshing.

When she took care of everything she was supposed to, she decided to go to the pub and get some lunch. Somehow she didn't feel like facing Tess just yet and a quite lunch alone at the pub seemed like a really great idea. Little did she know, what she was to witness at the pub would make her lose all of her appetite.

Here he was, Alex Ryan, cuddling with the pretty blonde at one of the tables. She did not expect that at all. And it hurt her. This time not even because of what happened the other night, but because Alex was supposed to be helping her with the fences. She maybe could handle him not being interested in her romantically, but she couldn't handle him standing her up as a friend to be with some girlfriend of his.

For a moment she pondered on what to do. She could have just walked away and not cause a scene. And it was the polite way to do it. It was Claire McLeod way to do it. But since she hadn't been herself recently, she walked up to Alex's table and stood over him and Molly.

"Good day, Alex." She said with a pretend smile on her face. "Good day… Dolly was it?" she asked although she knew exactly what the girl's name was.

"It's Molly, actually." Alex corrected her.

"Yeah, that's right." She sighed. "So are you having a good time Alex?" she asked waiting for him to react, to start apologizing or something. But nothing of that sort ever happened.

"Yeah. Why the sudden interest in my well being?" he asked ignorantly, and this was when Claire really felt that she was about to lose it.

"I don't know, maybe because you were supposed to be helping me with the fences about 3 hours ago." She answered quickly and sent him a mad look. At least she tried to make it a mad look, but the truth was that it was more of a sad and embittered look. And this was when Alex finally realized why she was so cold towards him. At least he thought he realized that.

"Damn, Claire, I'm so sorry!" now he started apologizing. "I've just been really…"

"Busy?" she looked at Molly meaningfully. "I can see that."

"Listen, I can go over there right now and…"

"Typical." She shrugged. "Showing up when all the work is done." She paused for a moment. "You just stay here and have a great day." She said and even though Alex was trying to come up with something to say, he didn't say a word. Finally, Claire looked at Molly with all the sadness and anger that she had and said almost furiously. "I sure hope that when he sleeps with you he remembers that in the morning."

It was a second later that she realized what she just said. Maybe he didn't hear it. Maybe he didn't get it. Maybe she didn't really say it… But when she saw Alex shocked expression she understood that she did indeed say it and that she could no longer stay in Alex Ryan's presence. She had to get away from there, she had to get away from him.

With those thoughts she hurried out of the pub, before Alex could react in any way, before she could make a bigger fool of herself. So she ran and he just stood there, with his jaw dropped, unable to move.