Page 105 of Settling the Score

Was it possible that he was just as haunted by her as she was him?

‘Sienna.’ She couldn’t hear him say her name, but she read it on his lips.

With fingers that weren’t completely steady, she pointed to her ears, and he nodded jerkily, striding across to a sit-up bench and grabbing his phone to flick off the music, then a towel to wipe his sweaty face and torso. He did not put on a shirt, she noticed, but rather slung the towel around his neck before walking back to her, his expression now one she was more familiar with – neutrality. Cautious, careful nothing. Ice.

‘Hey.’ His voice though was filled with all the feelings he wouldn’t show. In that one single syllable, she heard hope, surrender, pain, need. All the emotions that were a part of her, that she intrinsically understood.

‘Hey.’

They stood several paces apart, just staring at each other. With the absence of his metal music, the silence in the gym was deafening.

‘You’re here.’

She pulled a face. In any other circumstances, she would have made a joke. Like,no shit, Sherlock.Or,yes, I’m aware, Captain Obvious.But it wasn’t any other circumstance. This was a huge circumstance. Quite possibly the most important circumstance of her whole life, and she wasn’t going to ruin it by being flippant.

‘Yeah. I’ve got a bone to pick with you.’

He nodded, but his brow furrowed, like he didn’t understand.

‘You’re angry.’

She nodded, took a step forward. His whole body was perfectly, utterly still, except for the rivulets of perspiration that ran down his delicious torso.

She felt like she’d been jammed full of electricity. Her whole body was reverberating with a power source she couldn’t place. But she had to get through this. Everything that had seemed murky and incomprehensible was now perfectly, crystal clear.

‘How come you didn’t tell me about Blake?’

He opened his mouth and stared at her.

‘The police. The charges. The reason you had to leave town.’

His eyes shuttered behind thick, dark lashes, like he wanted to hide himself from her. Like he was desperately seeking his defensive structures.

‘Blake and Astrid told me,’ she muttered. ‘I shouldn’t have had to hear it from them.’

‘Yeah.’

Anger exploded in her chest. Anger at all their wasted time. Missed opportunities. At the cruelty of life, backing Aiden into just the kind of corner that had taken him away from her.

‘Damn it, Aiden. You should have told me.’

A muscle jerked in his jaw. ‘Yes. I should have. But at the time, I just wanted to get us out of Ashbury. And you were…’ He dragged a hand through his hair, frustration evident in every line of his body. ‘You were too much.’

‘Too much?’

‘Too much risk. Too much feeling. Too much of everything. I’d never wanted anything like I wanted you. Not hockey. Not safety. Nothing. But I didn’t have the liberty of thinking just of myself, Si.’

‘I know that. I get it. I understand.’ Tears built in her eyes and she moved towards him then, quickly: one step, two steps, until they were toe to toe, and she pressed her hand to his chest, feeling a wall of tears threaten. ‘The thing is, I was wrong, on the island.’

He made a growling sound. She didn’t know what it meant. Agreement? Disagreement? Surprise?

She ploughed on.

‘Last week wasn’t closure. It wasn’t an ending. It was another chapter in our story.’

He stared at her without speaking, without moving.

‘It’s a story we started a long time ago. Once upon a time, a boy met a girl and fell head over heels in love. And when they broke up, it ripped her apart.’