Chapter 13

Alex had never been so shocked in his entire life. He couldn't get Claire's words out of his head. 'I think I'm in love with you.' 'I wanted you so badly.' Could this really be true? Could it be that Nick was right all along? Why didn't he notice anything? How could it happen that Claire had all those feelings for him and he didn't see? And most importantly, why did it take 10 beers for him to finally admit that he was in love with her? Because he was and he knew that now. The second Claire told him that she loved him and the second those tears started streaming down her cheeks, he knew that she was the woman that he wanted. Drunk or sober, he knew that he wanted Claire McLeod.

For a moment he started wondering what to do. He wanted to go after Claire and talk to her, but he also knew that Molly was still waiting for him and he decided to couldn't be a pig to more women. He turned around and walked to the pub, but he realized that Molly was no longer there. He didn't know whether she figured out what was going on, or whether she just got tired waiting, but he was glad she wasn't there. He was going to talk to her eventually, but he wasn't sure he was ready to deal with Molly just now.

He walked back to his car and got in. For a couple of minutes he just sat there, still not being able to believe what actually happened between him and Claire. Them sleeping together, her telling him that she's in love with him, her tears, the hurt in her eyes as she was driving away. It all still seemed a little surreal. He wasn't sure how he could let all of that happen. If only he had realized he had feelings for Claire earlier, all of that could have been avoided. Claire wouldn't be crying and hating herself and he wouldn't feel like a total bastard. But he had to face the fact that it all did happen and the only thing that he could do right now as try and fix it.

At first he wanted to go and talk to Claire right away, but after a while he came to a conclusion that it was best to leave Claire alone for a couple hours, let her calm down and cool off. As much as he wanted to clear everything up with her, he got the feeling that she really needed some time to be on her own, or at least without him. He knew she had her sister and all the girls at Drovers and she should be fine. At least to some extent.

When he got home and saw Nick, he could tell that his brother wasn't happy.

"Where the hell have you been Alex?"

"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry." Alex replied, which made Nick very suspicious, because he was expecting Alex to tell him to get lost or back off.

"Everything OK?" he asked, but when he saw his brother's face he realized that it wasn't. "What happened?"

"I screwed up, Nick. I royally screwed up." Ales said sighing. He went into the house and slouched on the couch.

"Wait a minute, can I get this on tape?" Nick joked. "Alex Ryan admitting that he screwed something up. Now THAT is something people will wanna hear!"

"Would you cut it out!" Alex mumbled. "I'm not in the mood for this."

"Alright, sorry." Nick answered and realized that it really wasn't the best time for him to tease Alex. His brother looked like hell and jokes about him was definitely not what he needed right now. "So what did you do this time?" Nick asked and looked at Alex curiously. It took him a while to respond, but he finally started telling his brother about the whole mess.

"Remember that night about three weeks ago when I got really really wasted?"

"The one you don't remember anything about? Like how you got home and all?"

"Yeah, that one." Alex confirmed. "Except that now I know how I got home."

"Really? How?"

"Claire took me home that night." Alex said very slowly, but quickly realized that this particular information was not in any way weird or unexpected.

"And this is bad how?"

"Because of what happened later." Alex confessed, as if that statement was supposed to explain everything to Nick. Needless to say, it didn't.

"And what happened later?" Nick felt like Alex could only form short sentences and he had to get everything out of him.

"We slept together." He said under his breath not sure if he did or did not want Nick to hear it.

"You what???" Nick was shocked. Alex sleeping with Claire McLeod was just about as probable as Alex giving up sex. Of course he would make stupid jokes about Alex and Claire from time to time, but to actually hear that they slept together was a totally different story. "You and Claire?" he repeated.

"Yeah, me and Claire." He sighed and paused for a second. "But I don't really remember what happened…"

"Wait, you just said…"

"I know. But that's what I found out from Claire. I don't remember anything, Nick. I slept with Claire and I don't remember it! Damn it!"

Tess had been worried sick when Claire didn't show up for lunch or for dinner, so when she finally saw her sister's ute pulling up, she didn't know whether to hug Claire or scream at her for scaring her like that.

"Where have you been?" she asked as Claire got out of the car. "I've been worried sick. We all have."

Claire looked at Tess and realized how stupid she had been to disappear like that for an entire day. Not only did she have a lot of work, but she made everybody worried.

"I'm sorry I left you with all that work…"

"You know it's not about work. We managed just fine without you. Even Jodi worked hard today."

"Times are certainly changing." Claire sighed. "I'm sleeping with Alex, Jodi is working. Crazy world." She tried to make a joke, but Tess knew that something was definitely wrong.

"Tell me what happened?" Tess insisted.

"Remember how I told you that I was waiting for the right time to tell Alex about that night?"

"Yeah."

"Let's just say circumstances made that time be today."

"You mean you told Alex you slept together?"

"Yeah." Claire took a deep breath. "I told him we slept together, I told him I love him and can't imagine him ever looking at me again. Telling him the truth seemed like such a great idea at that time, but I don't know anymore. Nothing will ever be the same, Tess."

"I know." Tess agreed and gave Claire a hug. "But it doesn't mean that it's going to be worse."

"How can it not be after everything that happened?"

"It will work out, Claire. It has to. You and Alex are too good friends for it not to." Tess smiled and took her sister's hand. "Come on, we'll get some chocolate or ice-cream and talk about anything but Alex Ryan, huh?"

"Sounds good." Claire smiled back and the two of them went into the house. Claire went upstairs to her room and Tess went to the kitchen to get ice-cream and chocolate. Meg and Jodi were there drinking coffee.

"Hey." Tess greeted them. "I need heaps of chocolate and tons of ice-cream." She said. "Claire is in a pretty bad shape and we need all the junk food that we can get."

"Why, what happened?" Meg was concerned.

"Let's just say that Alex already knows that they slept together." Tess explained.

"Why slept together?" Jodi was curious, as it all seemed to be brand new information to her. "Alex and Claire slept together?" she asked and didn't even need to wait for an answer as Tess' and Meg's faces said it all. "Why am I always the last one to know?" she asked trying to look really hurt. Meg and Tess only laughed.

"Well, I'll go upstairs and try and rescue Claire from obsessing over all this. Wish me luck." She sighed and disappeared on the stairs.

"So Claire slept with Alex?" Jodi asked her mother when Tess was gone. "How? When? Why?"

"Wouldn't you like to know!" Meg was really amused by her daughter's curiosity.

"Please, you have to tell me everything." Jodi insisted.

"Jodi, this is none of our business. Plus I really don't know much."

"You know more than I do." Jodi was sure, but Meg only smiled and said. "Just drink up your coffee."