They both looked at it. She reached over without getting up, looked at the screen and went very still. Vanessa, she said. Marcus said nothing. Clare let it go to voicemail.
Set the phone face down on the counter. Picked up her coffee. She's going to figure out I left. Marcus said she's going to have already figured that out. I've been gone since 11:30.
Clare looked at the phone like it was a problem she was deciding the shape of. The question is whether she figures out where I went. Does she know your car is in a ditch? She'll find out from my mother when mother finally returns one of my calls. And my mother will find out from someone who drove past Miller's Bend this morning.
She set down her cup. Someone will figure out I came here. It's just a question of timeline. What happens when they do? Clare met his eyes.
My father will decide you manipulated me. My mother will decide you took advantage of the situation. And Vanessa will, she stopped. She pressed one finger against the edge of her coffee cup, tapping once, twice, a third time. Vanessa will be very, very controlled about it in public and absolutely furious in private.
Furious? Why? Clare looked at him for a long time. Because she's known for 6 years that I had feelings for you. She said she's never said so directly.
But she's known. And she's never once said anything to me about it because as long as it was unspoken, it wasn't real and she didn't have to deal with it. She paused. But she announced her engagement in a room full of people while looking directly at me. Marcus, she's been poking at it for months.
She's been poking at it because she knows I've been pulling away from the family and she wants to establish the territory before I do something she can't control. Marcus pushed back from the table and stood up. He walked to the back door, checked the flood line water at the base of the dock now. Not over the boards yet, and came back. She announced the engagement looking at you, he said.
Yes. And then didn't answer when you called. Yes. He stood at the counter and looked at her. That's not someone who wants to know you're okay, Clare.
That's someone who wants to watch what you do next. The sentence landed on her like something physical. He could see it in the way she straightened slightly in her chair. I know, she said. You've known for a long time.
Yes. And you've stayed in that family's orbit anyway. She was quiet for a moment. Leaving a family isn't as simple as just leaving. Marcus, I know, he said it quietly.