Page 99 of Settling the Score

Her preservation instincts had taken over. She was too scared to take a risk on him. On anyone. That was the problem. But if she looked into her heart of hearts, she knew what she’d see there. She knew how she felt about Aiden.

And it didn’t matter what she’d said to him: there would be no getting over him. Not now, not in a year, probably not ever.

She wrenched open the door without checking to see who was there – and her heart lifted. In profile, they were so similar, that for a millisecond, she actually thought it was Aiden. But then, Blake turned to face her properly, and smiled, and there was no mistaking which brother had come to see her now.

Particularly not with Astrid just behind him.

‘Guys?’ Sienna looked from one to the other. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘We came to see you, silly,’ Astrid said, leaning forward and wrapping her arms around Sienna. Her basketball tummy pressed against Sienna, and without thinking, Sienna put a hand down and patted her friend’s bump.

‘But you’re on your honeymoon.’

‘We were on our honeymoon,’ Astrid corrected. ‘Blake’s got pre-season.’

‘You’re meant to be away another week.’

‘Okay, fine.’ Astrid held her hands up, glancing at Blake. Sienna realised they were hovering on her doorstep, and stepped backwards to silently invite them in.

They followed her into the hallway, and it was Blake who shut the door.

‘We need to talk to you.’

Sienna’s heart dropped. ‘Guys?—’

‘I know, I know. Blake told me I shouldn’t get involved.’

Sienna glanced at the other Carter twin.

‘And he’s probably right. But you need to understand?—’

‘Come on, honey,’ Sienna groaned. ‘We really don’t need to rehash this.’

‘It’s not rehashing,’ Blake said, after a beat. ‘Astrid’s right. I did say we shouldn’t interfere, but I was wrong. There’s stuff about Aiden you don’t know.’

Her lips pulled to the side and after a brief pause, she moved deeper into the living room. The newlyweds followed and she gestured for them to take a seat. Neither did.

‘Tell her,’ Astrid said, gently.

Blake nodded once, dragging a hand through his hair. ‘Look, I’m not proud of what I was like back then. When we were kids. You probably remember…’

She thought back to Blake Carter, and the teenager he’d been. A heart of gold, but with a lot of rough edges.

‘I was skating around trouble for a while. On the edges of a group of friends that were pretty messed up. But I was always okay – Aiden made sure of it. He kept my nose clean. Until one night…’ His voice tapered off and Astrid reached down to lace their fingers together, squeezing his.

‘It’s alright, babe. This is Sienna.’

His throat shifted as he nodded.

‘Look, I did it out of self-defence. Or defence of Mom.’

‘Did what?’

‘I hit him.’

‘Aiden?’

‘No. That bastard of a father of ours.’