Page 14 of Settling the Score (The Karma Club #4)

The Plan: Part One

Make Him Green-Eyed with Jealousy…

Make Him Suffer.

Guest Appearance: Chuck Daly

Also, Sprinkler System.

It was Astrid who set it up, texting Chuck to let him know that Sienna would be going for an early morning jog and might be looking for a running buddy.

It was only a slight stretch of the truth.

While Sienna loved to run early, she always ran alone.

It was a time to clear her head and listen to the political podcasts she was obsessed with.

But for the purposes of making Aiden pay, she supposed she could put up with a bit of Chuck Daly on the side.

And it wasn’t like he was bad company, anyway. If anything, he was genuinely fun, and funny. Charming, like he’d been practising since he was knee-high to a grasshopper, and despite the fact he’d been out of professional sports for more than five years, fit AF.

They ran non-stop for three miles, but as they rounded the bend of the cove, Sienna stopped, hands on hips, cheeks flushed.

‘Don’t tell me I’ve worn you out. And here I could have sworn you’d have better stamina.’

She poked her tongue out at him. ‘Is everything with you an opportunity for a pervy comment?’

He grinned. ‘Apparently.’

She held up a hand up in mock surrender.

‘I’m fine, anyway. I just wanted to admire this.

’ She gestured to the view out over the Mediterranean, which sparkled in the early morning light.

Each gently rolling wave showed a lattice of silver across the top, half knocking the breath out of Sienna with its beauty.

‘Yeah, the view’s not bad.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Come on, give it a rest.’

He laughed then. ‘You’re not interested?’

‘In you?’

She glanced back at him, to see if he was serious.

‘In having a bit of fun.’

A single brow arched upwards. ‘With you?’

He pulled a face. ‘Someone else on your mind?’

‘No,’ she denied, way too hotly.

He made a gruff sound, coming to stand beside her, looking out at the water now. ‘Let me guess. You and Aiden have something going on?’

She grimaced. ‘No. Believe me, no.’

‘You sure? I thought I sensed something between the two of you.’

‘You didn’t,’ she promised.

‘I’ve usually got a pretty good instinct about this stuff.’

‘We… used to date. A million years ago. It… wasn’t serious.’

‘Ahh. That explains it.’

‘Explains what?’

‘The chemistry.’

‘There’s no chemistry between Aiden Carter and me now. He’s got a whole bag of puck bunnies at his disposal for that. Then again, I guess that’s true for you, too.’

‘Riiiight.’ He sounded sceptical. ‘If you say so.’

‘I do.’

‘Sure. Okay.’

‘You don’t believe me?’

He turned to look at her thoughtfully. ‘Let’s see what the week brings.

’ He moved a little closer. ‘But, for the record’ – he brushed something off her shoulder, his grin carefree and casual – ‘I’m interested and available.

’ He gently curled her hair behind her ear.

‘If you’re looking for a distraction from whatever your deal is with him. ’

‘We don’t have…’ She tapered off into nothing then met his eyes and smiled. ‘Thanks. I’ll keep it in mind.’ She bit into her lip. ‘In the meantime, I like spending time with you. So, there’s that.’

He held a hand to his chest in a gesture of being mock wounded. ‘ That will have to do. For now.’

They turned to head back to the mansion. ‘Want to make it interesting?’ she asked, as the enormous white building came into view.

‘Didn’t I already say that?’

She laughed. ‘You are incorrigible. ’

‘So you’ve said.’

‘I meant by racing. Loser buys breakfast.’

‘Breakfast is free.’

‘Okay, loser owes the other one something. A favour.’

‘If I win, you owe me a dance,’ he said.

She pulled a face. ‘That doesn’t sound like a hardship.’

He grinned. ‘I knew I’d win you over.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘That’s not what I meant. You’re fun. And easy to be around. A dance with you is not exactly going to kill me.’

‘And if you win?’ he prompted.

‘Hmmm.’ She tilted her head and pretended to consider that. ‘Maybe I’ll get you to wear pink to the wedding.’

‘I have no problems with wearing pink.’

Her lips pulled to the side as she considered his response. ‘Okay, or bleach your hair for it.’

That elicited a slight groan. ‘Now I’m starting to regret this.’

‘Well, you’d better win then.’

‘One step ahead of you,’ he said, taking off.

‘Hey, no fair!’ she called after his retreating back, but with a laugh, she began to run.

And she ran hard, too. Sienna hadn’t gone to college on a scholarship, but she’d been on the track team, and she’d won a state championship the same year she met Aiden.

After the miscarriage, she’d given up running for a while, and with it, any hope of taking her sporting abilities and using them to help her get out of town.

Besides, she hadn’t wanted to leave after that.

She couldn’t, because of her dad’s criminal charges and the relationship she’d formed with Cory and Melanie.

Aiden had left such a monumental hole in her life that she’d scrambled to fill it, and Cory had been there, a new neighbour, in his twenties, with a little girl.

He’d needed help and Sienna had offered it.

Babysitting for him had been a balm she’d needed, as she came to love his daughter as much as she might have loved her own.

Besides, she’d needed the money to cover the mortgage.

And just like that, her smile had dropped, her pace had slowed, and she realised she was in danger of losing.

‘No way,’ she muttered to herself, pushing her legs to pump faster, damn near sprinting the rest of the way, running until her legs were sore and her lungs were burning with the effort of inflating and reinflating so rapidly.

But bit by bit, she gained on him, until, as they reached the front lawn of the mansion, they were almost, almost neck and neck. ‘A real gentleman would never cheat, you know,’ she called out to him.

‘I didn’t cheat!’ he responded, but he looked over his shoulder and at the sight of her, slowed down ever so slightly.

‘You ran ahead of me.’

‘It’s a race, that’s the point.’ He reached back and flicked her arm. ‘Besides, don’t we both secretly want me to win?’ He turned around before she could answer and started running again, this time, showing no mercy.

Sienna ground her teeth and kept going. Dancing with Chuck was hardly going to be a problem, but at the same time, Sienna hated losing, even a silly foot race.

* * *

It was Astrid who’d asked him to come out into the gardens and look at the flowers – as if he knew jack about flowers – and choose which ones their mother would like best on the table arrangements.

Flowers were flowers, right? Some of them were pink.

Some of them were yellow. How was it possible that Astrid didn’t already have this locked down?

And what about her sidekicks? Surely Paige, Bella or Sienna would have been a better choice for this job?

Sienna knew his mom. She’d probably have a great idea which flowers she’d like.

Sienna. His mom.

Stricken, he straightened and stared across the lawn, his heart thumping hard against his ribs, like he’d just scored a goal in overtime to win the game.

His mom and Sienna were going to be here.

Together . He closed his eyes on a wave of emotions, because Cynthia Carter had damn well loved Sienna like a daughter. And Sienna had loved her right back.

He groaned, dragging a hand through his hair, trying to imagine what that particular reunion would be like.

And as if that mental arithmetic had somehow, Matrix -style, caused his perceptions to turn into reality, Sienna came sprinting into view, a little way across the lawn.

Running with long, tanned legs on display, courtesy of the bike shorts she wore.

An inch or so of midriff was visible too, because of her cropped top.

Her cheeks were pink, her body sheened with perspiration, her blonde hair pulled back into a high ponytail that swished, swished, swished with each step.

And he didn’t notice, at first, that she wasn’t alone.

Mainly because he couldn’t drag his eyes off her, and the perfect picture she made.

She was so full of life and vitality, so beautiful and…

sensual. Sensual like he’d never really thought of her, because back then she’d been his Sienna.

The love of his teenage life, he thought with a grimace.

Sure, hormones had been involved in their relationship, but there was so much more, because he’d loved just talking to her, too.

This Sienna was pure goddess. Pure athletic, stunning, vital, glowing goddess, so out of nowhere he had the fantasy of storming across the grass, lifting her in his arms and holding her to his chest, carrying her cave-man style to the ocean and kissing her as the waves pummelled them, stripping her naked, making her his again.

Then, right in that torturously perfect imagining, his eyes wrenched to the left and clocked her running companion, so everything froze. Chuck Dufus Daly.

‘I could have got you if you hadn’t cheated!’

‘So says every loser,’ Chuck replied, but he turned around to face her and Sienna stopped running just a few inches away from the other man. Aiden’s gut tightened. He stood entirely still, breathlessly watching, hoping that neither of them would turn and see him.

‘You’re really calling me a loser?’ she demanded, hands on hips. Did she know how good she looked? Somehow, he doubted it. Sienna was the least vain woman he’d ever known.

Then again, he didn’t really know her, now. A teenager was not the same as a woman in her twenties, and Sienna would have every reason to have confidence in her looks.

‘As long as I can call you something,’ she heard Chuck reply and Sienna laughed, reaching out and playfully punching his arm.

Anger flared in Aiden’s stomach, hot and irrepressible.

The kind of anger that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

The kind of anger that scared the living crap out of him, because he knew what that anger was capable of.

He felt it in the tingle of his fingers, the need to form a fist and punch something.

Like his father had.

All his life, he’d avoided feeling anything strong enough to make him care. He’d become a master at switching off his emotions, on operating like an automaton. He and Blake had both developed their coping techniques – they’d had to.

He couldn’t believe that, after all these years, Sienna still had the power to pull at that control. To pull at it until it very nearly snapped.

He took a step backwards, as if he could physically distance himself from his worst fears that way, but the anger didn’t subside.

He hated seeing them together.

He hated seeing her with anyone else.

He knew he had no right to feel that way.

She was her own woman, and the day he’d walked out on her was the day he’d stopped having any say whatsoever in how she spent her time, and who she spent it with. He’d been with other women since Sienna. Lots of other women.

What did he care if she’d been with other men? He presumed that to be the case – obviously.

But he’d never had to see it.

He didn’t want to see it now.

He particularly didn’t want to see it with Chuck ‘Perfect Smile’ Daly, who was the biggest player in hockey, well after quitting the game. He went through women at a rate of knots. Did grown-up Sienna really go for guys like him?

She laughed again and this time when she punched his arm, her hand lingered. Aiden saw red, but held his ground.

Maybe if he’d moved, he would have been grateful, though. Because a second later, a hissing noise sounded and then the whole garden was deluged by pop-up sprinklers in full flight.

He let out a sound of surprise, a deep groan, and was still staring across at Sienna and Chuck, so saw the moment they turned towards him. And they laughed. His anger – an anger he would have said he was generally an expert at controlling – went from flame to incinerator.

He turned on his heel and, utterly saturated, stalked away from the garden, his mood truly and totally tanked. Ice was a distant memory.

* * *

Just Desserts WhatsApp Group. 09.10 EST.

Bella

Ohmygod. Did you guys see?

Paige

Yassssss. So funny.

Astrid

I almost felt sorry for him

Paige

Sod him. I didn’t. He looked pissed.

Sienna

Did you guys plan that?

Bella

Sienna

Wow. You really are evil geniuses. Genii?

Bella

It’s going to be a fun week… just wait to see what Astrid has in store for later this morning.

‘There are five coloured flags for each team hidden on this side of the island,’ Astrid said, holding up a map, so the small group of bridesmaids and groomsmen, as well as Chase and Olly, could see. ‘The first team to find all their five flags wins.’

‘And what do we win?’ Chuck called out.

‘Well, we thought about that, long and hard,’ Blake said. ‘Then we remembered you guys are all competitive enough to be motivated by a simple desire to score victory.’

There was a laugh, and a look of amusement between the guests.

‘But to make it more interesting, the winning team will also get a massage each.’

‘From you, Fury?’ Aiden called to Blake, who grinned.

‘It’s meant to be a prize, not punishment.’

‘A masseuse can be here tomorrow,’ Astrid said, then continued, ‘We’ve formed your teams, to make it fair.’

Bella grinned at Sienna and lifted two crossed fingers that they’d be together.

‘Okay, first team, Bella and Chuck. You’re looking for green flags,’ Astrid said, as Bella and Chuck made their way to a golf cart with a green ribbon tied around one of the support struts.

Olly and Chase high fived when they were paired together.

Paige was with one of the Titan players’ moms. Astrid continued to reel off names, until only four people remained.

Blake. Astrid. Sienna. Aiden.

Sienna’s mouth was dry as she contemplated the next pairing. Please let her be with Astrid. Please let her be with…

‘Sissi, you’re with Aiden, and you’re going for gold,’ Astrid said, subtly winking at her best friend.

Sienna’s skin paled, even as she realised her friend was trying to create the perfect opportunity for her to further the plan.

‘Great,’ she said, a little weakly, not glancing up at Aiden.

She’d expected him to say something pithy like, ‘ Game on,’ or whatever, but if anything, his face wore matching thunderclouds to her own.

She sucked in a breath. Chill out . This was just a game.

A silly pre-wedding game that the happy couple had devised.

She was supposed to be making Aiden want her, so Astrid had given her an opportunity for that.

Sienna forced herself to lean into gratitude, even when she’d rather douse herself in honey and lie down on top of an ant hill…