"You just asked me if I had someone I liked, and now suddenly Mrs. Clark has a son you want me to meet. Are you trying to set me up on a blind date with him?" Claire noted that unless she called Octavia out on it, Octavia rarely gave a straight answer.
"Just go meet him, that's all I'm asking. If you hit it off, great-give it a chance. If not, no harm done."
The real reason, of course, was to appease the Clarks with at least an introduction -Octavia needed to give them an answer.
Claire couldn't guess exactly what Octavia was plotting, but her instincts told her things were never that simple.
"No need. I already have a fiancé-I'm not in the market for another."
Claire hadn't planned on sharing news of her engagement. But with Octavia, unless you shut down her hopes entirely, she'd keep pushing without end.
As soon as she heard Claire mention having a fiancé, Octavia was taken aback. "How's that possible? Didn't you call off your engagement with York?"
"Is York supposed to be the only man on earth I could ever get engaged to?" Claire replied, finding Octavia's shock a little over the top.
Cindy was just as unsettled. She'd figured that with York back in her own life, Claire would be single again—and no way could Claire find someone better than York so quickly. But now, suddenly, Claire had another fiancé? Who was he, exactly?
"So when did you get engaged again?" Cindy interjected, curiosity barely masked. "And why didn't you tell us?"
It only made sense the Jameses were Claire's adoptive parents. Not getting a word about their daughter's engagement felt like a slap in the face.
Octavia, who'd originally only been curious about Claire's new fiancé, now felt a surge of indignation. Claire might not be her favorite, but she did raise her. Didn't this gin have even a shred of respect, hot notifying the James family at all?
"Cindy has a point," Octavia said, forcing a smile. "You should've let us know.
Latham and I would have at least prepared an engagement gift."
And then there was the issue of Lance. Did Claire not realize he liked her? Yet she'd gone off and gotten engaged to someone else. Did that mean her son was just pining away with nothing to show for it? to Octavia's mind, her own boy was flawless; heaven forbid anyone else overlook him.
With that thought, Claire had slipped into the role of fickle heartbreaker-a girl stringing Lance along, never telling him she already had a fiancé when he confessed his feelings. Was she just keeping her options open?
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"I just didn't want you to spend money needlessly on gifts," Claire explained. “Besides, this engagement was arranged by my birth mother's family. I only found out about it myself recently."
"We haven't held any engagement ceremony yet. It's on hold until I turn twenty. I promise I'll send you an invitation then."
"Your birth mother?" Octavia's eyes narrowed. She couldn't recall Cindy ever mentioning Claire's real mother. "Didn't she pass away?"
"My grandfather is still around—there's still family on that side," Claire replied, neither confirming nor denying what Octavia assumed.
Octavia turned to Cindy. "Cindy, have you ever met her grandparents? Where's her family from?"
This was significant information. Why had her own daughter never brought it up? Was Cindy deliberately hiding it?
Cindy's expression soured. She offered a strained answer, "I only ever heard that... well, that her mother was from Cabinda, but there was never any contact with the family back in James Village."