Page 63 of Settling the Score

But that was silly.

Aiden and she were no longer a couple. They’d both had a lot of water under the bridge since they had been. Besides, Chuck was just a friend of a friend. Sure, he flirted like a dog chased its tail, but that didn’t mean anything. It was harmless. Fun.

‘Sure.’ She put her hand in his and pulled up to her feet, their bodies almost bumping into each other courtesy of the uneven sand.

‘Where are you two going?’ Paige asked with a wiggle of her brows. Sienna looked down to see that Olly had come to join their group, and was sitting behind Paige, arms wrapped around her waist, chin resting on her shoulder. Paige looked blissfully happy. Sienna’s heart lifted at the sight of them, just like it did when she saw Astrid and Blake together, or Chase and Bella.

Maybe her friends were showing her that love – even when you’ve been badly hurt in the past – was something she shouldn’t give up hoping for. Not with Aiden, and not with Chuck, but withsomeone.One day. When she was ready.

‘Sienna’s taking me for a test drive,’ Chuck said, arm casually draped around her shoulders.

‘On the dance floor,’ she clarified, at the shocked expression on Bella’s face.

‘Riiiight.’ Olly laughed, and Sienna’s cheeks flushed pink. She thought about reiterating that they were just going to dance, but what would the point have been?

‘You are seriously?—’

‘Incorrigible,’ he interrupted with a sideways grin. ‘Yeah, you’ve said that before.’

‘And I meant it.’

‘I like it when you use big words.’

‘You act like such a jock,’ she said, stopping when they reached the edge of the sand and letting him link his arms behind her back. He smelled super masculine, all citrussy and spicy. ‘But you’re so much more.’

‘Am I?’

She frowned contemplatively. ‘Why do you do that?’

‘What do you think I’m doing?’

‘Hide behind jokes. You have this whole stupid persona going on. It’s like you’re trying to keep everyone at a bit of a distance.’

His eyes flicked to hers and for a second – the briefest second – she felt like maybe she was seeing the real Chuck Daly. But then he threw his head back and laughed. ‘Leave it to a lawyer to read into things more than necessary.’

‘I’m not a lawyer, I’m a law student.’

‘Same difference.’

‘Not really, and I have the bank balance to prove it.’

Again, something shifted in his gaze, but it was gone in an instant. She could have sworn she saw confusion, or sympathy, or maybe a mix of both.

‘How long ’til you graduate?’

‘A couple of years. I’m only studying part time – I have a mortgage. A job. A sort of step-daughter,’ she said, smiling to think of Melanie. ‘But I’ll get there.’

‘And then what?’ he prompted, asking Sienna a question she hadn’t fully formulated an answer to, even for herself.

‘I’ll be a lawyer, like you said,’ she replied, taking a page out of his book and keeping her tone intentionally light.

‘What kind of lawyer? Working where?’

‘Criminal defence law, but I’d really like to work in a pro bono team. An innocence project, sort of thing. I know how hard it can be to get a fair hearing, for some people. So much of it comes down to money. Circumstance. And it really shouldn’t. The law should always be applied reasonably, equally, and fairly.’

He was quiet, absorbing that. The music changed, another mellow, bass-y song filling the salty air.

‘As to where,’ she said, with a heaviness she’d been wrangling with for some time. ‘I don’t know. Leaving Ashbury Falls is hard to imagine. I mean, my whole life is there. But the opportunities to do what I want to do are kind of thin on the ground.’