Page 108 of Settling the Score

The others were already inside, heads bent together, as Paige spoke. Sienna took a moment, paused on the sidewalk, just to look at them. To see them. Her best friends, her sisters, her soulmates.

Inside the restaurant, the low murmur of diners enjoying their meals made a background hum as Sienna weaved through the tables to the Karma Club. Funny, when they’d initially thought about karma, it had been about avenging the men who’d wronged them, but now she saw it for what it really was: four women who’d been hurt in the past learning to love again, to heal their hearts and find comfort in true friendship. That was the true karma, the true just desserts.

‘Ladies.’ Sienna grinned as she approached the table.

Astrid squeaked, her eyes shiny, and Paige let out a squeal.

‘Ahhh! I didn’t think we’d get to see each other again so soon!’ They were oblivious to the way other patrons turned to look at them, as they fell into a four-way group hug.

‘I know, I know, me neither.’ Sienna sobbed with happiness.

‘Why are you here?’ Bella asked. ‘And how long are you staying?’

‘Just another night,’ she said. ‘I’ve got to get home to work and Melanie. But…’ She let the word hang in the air a moment, until Paige made a noise of impatience.

Sienna laughed. ‘I have a feeling I’ll be coming and going a fair bit. You know, my boyfriend happens to live around the corner.’

‘Boyfriend?’ Bella frowned, at the same time Astrid let out another squeak and Paige said, ‘Oh my God, no way!’

‘You guys worked it out?’ Astrid said, smiling, but with a gentleness to her tone, because she’d been witness to both Aiden and Sienna’s heartbreak.

‘We worked it outa lot.’ Sienna winked.

‘You and Aiden?’ Bella clapped her hands together. ‘It worked!’ She turned to the others. ‘We really are very good at this.’

‘Very good at what?’ Sienna prompted.

‘Pulling strings. Getting people what they deserve,’ Paige said.

‘What are you talking about?’

The four of them sat down, and Sienna looked from one to the other with bemusement, as they began to explain, all talking over each other, how from the minute Astrid got to know Aiden, she knew that he and Sienna weren’t done. That he was just as hung up on Sienna as she was on him. ‘But the trick was getting you both to see it,’ Bella said.

‘We knew you wouldn’t take our word for it,’ Paige agreed with a nod.

‘You very nearly didn’t even take his word for it,’ Bella added.

‘That’s true.’ Sienna sipped her drink, shuddering to think how awful it would have been to have disregarded her instincts and not gone to Aiden. A life without him in it suddenly seemed incredibly, desperately wrong. ‘So you’re telling me the whole “flirt with him to make him pay” was a set-up?’

‘Well, I mean…’ Paige flushed. ‘If we hadn’t suggested it, you’d have spent the whole wedding week ignoring him.’

‘And we couldn’t bear to think of you as two ships in the night,’ Bella added.

‘We just didn’t want you to miss the opportunity to get to know him again. He’s such a great guy, Sissi, and he never got over you. You both just needed a chance to see each other again, to work it out…’

Silence fell as Sienna processed that.

‘Are you mad?’ Paige asked.

‘Mad?’ Sienna repeated, with a shake of her head. ‘Mad? I’m literally the luckiest woman on the face of the earth. I have a second chance with the only guy I’ve ever loved, and it’s all because of the best friends a woman could want. I just have no idea how to count this many blessings…’

‘Don’t count,’ Bella advised. ‘Just sit back and enjoy.’

Which was exactly what Sienna intended to do, just as soon as she’d meted out the final piece of karmic retribution to Horrible Harvey. There was a special piece of justice on his horizon, he just didn’t realise it yet…

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Just Desserts WhatsApp Group. 14.35 CDT.