Page 11 of Settling the Score (The Karma Club #4)

She waited for him to respond. To say anything. But Aiden just stared down at her, an impassive expression on his face.

‘Oookay.’ She pulled a face, a look of amusement crossed with irritation. ‘Good chat. One for the record books.’ She took a step backwards. ‘Thanks for the coffee.’

* * *

Blake found him out in the orangery, midway through snapping a twig off a mandarin tree in full bloom.

‘What’s up, bro?’

‘Nothing,’ Aiden grunted, then pulled it together as he turned to face his brother. His brother who was about to get married, against all the odds. His brother who’d turned his life around in spectacular fashion, ever since meeting Astrid, and who deserved to be the happiest version of himself.

‘Hmm,’ Blake mused. ‘I know that kind of nothing. Let me guess. About this tall’ – he gestured to just beneath his shoulders – ‘bright blue eyes. Feisty temper. Someone who knows you almost as well as I do?’

‘Sienna doesn’t know me any more,’ Aiden dismissed, not bothering to pretend he didn’t know who his brother was talking about. ‘We haven’t spoken since you and I left town.’

‘So?’

‘So?’ Aiden shrugged. ‘What’s your point?’

‘I guess just that it must be nice to see her again. You guys were always tight.’

Aiden ground his teeth. Tight didn’t begin to describe what Sienna and he had been like. What he’d thought – back then, as a stupid kid – they’d always be like.

‘Yeah, well, we’re not now.’

‘I can see that. How come?’

‘Come on, bro. Give it a break.’

‘I just mean… you’re here for a week. With her.’

‘And?’

‘And, you’re single. So’s she.’

‘How do you know?’ He thought back to the noncommittal way Sienna had answered the question with a sense of dissatisfaction.

‘There are some things you can’t help but glean when your fiancé is in a friendship group like that. They talk all the time. You hear things.’

‘Like what?’

‘Astrid would have my balls in a vice if I told you,’ he laughed gruffly. ‘But I do know they’re always trying to set Sienna up on dates; from which I gather there’s no Mr Mastrangelo in the picture.’

Aiden grunted.

‘Look.’ Blake shrugged. ‘It’s your life. Your choice. But she’s here, so are you. The cocktails are flowing, the sunsets are amazing, and I reckon you’ll kick yourself if you don’t make the most of the time you’ve got.’

Aiden didn’t listen. Or rather, he tried not to listen.

Aiden didn’t want to think about Sienna, and the week ahead, and the thought of watching the sun set over the water with her, nor the prospect of sitting side by side, drinking cocktails and shooting the breeze like they’d done countless times all those years ago.

He didn’t want to think about spending time with her and starting to let her get under his skin again, in that way she had, of making him feel things he never had any intention of feeling.

Things that made him vulnerable. Things that scared the hell out of him, because he and Blake both knew what the flip side to love was – they’d seen it.

Every time their dad had pounded on their mom when he’d had too much to drink, every time he’d pounded on them.

Even before he’d met Sienna, Aiden had known he’d never, ever get into a situation that might lead him down that path.

He wasn’t his father.

But he had no intention of putting himself in a situation of needing to prove that to himself.

Then again… it was only one week.

She lived in Ashbury Falls. He was just about to sign a new contract, with a shit tonne of pressure to sign for another two after that.

After this week, they’d probably go at least another decade without seeing one another.

Hell, by then she’d undoubtedly be married with a gaggle of kids.

He wasn’t an idiot. The fact that someone like Sienna was single didn’t seem likely to last. The fact she was here…

that they’d been thrown together by the strangest set of life circumstances…

would he be an idiot to throw this away?

To let her get away?

Sweat beaded his brow.

Not away, away. He wasn’t thinking about anything dumb, like forever.

But just in terms of this week. A week, seven days, with no pressure to look beyond that.

No pressure to think of the future. No pressure to think at all – Sienna always did have a gift when it came to making Aiden simply exist for the moment.

Maybe that was different now. Maybe he’d idealised Sienna in his mind, idealised what they’d once had, because of the time in his life when he’d known her.

Because she’d been his first in so many ways.

Maybe he’d find out, this week, that she was actually nothing special, and he could take her off the pedestal she’d somehow climbed right up onto…

He made a gruff sound, as if he was dismissing Blake’s words, when all he could do was let them roll around and around like waves against the shoreline.

‘Now, listen, Mom arrives Wednesday.’ Blake changed gears. ‘Are you good to meet her off the plane? You know how she feels about boats.’

Aiden looked at Blake as if the question was coming from the moon. ‘Huh?’

‘Mom. You still good to pick her up? I mean, I can send someone else, like Chuck, maybe, but I know she’d prefer?—’

‘I’ll go,’ Aiden said, galvanised into action by the mention of the other man, who’d made it pretty damned obvious that he was also relishing the prospect of having a week to get to know Sienna. ‘Just send me the flight details.’

And with that, he went back into the cocktail party; this time, he didn’t bother pretending he wasn’t looking for her. If they only had a week, he might as well start making the most of it.