Page 21 of Settling the Score (The Karma Club #4)

Aiden waited at the gate of the airport, and saw the moment his mom came off the flight. Slim and tall, she walked with squared shoulders and a relaxed gait. She was a totally different person to the woman who’d been in that godawful marriage in shithole Ashbury Falls.

That woman had cowered.

She’d done her level best to avoid notice and attention, had made fading into the wallpaper an artform. She’d hunched down, avoided eye contact, silently shuffled her feet.

Seeing her stride out into the balmy Mediterranean air with her dark hair coiffed into a glossy style, wearing designer clothes, Aiden found it hard to regret a damned decision he’d made.

Getting her out of Ashbury Falls had been the right thing.

They’d all been born again, in one way or another, after the departure. Hockey had started a whole new life for him and Blake, paving the way for them with riches two poor kids from the country could never have imagined.

‘Oh, Aiden.’ Cynthia Carter spotted him when she reached the top of the ramp. He reached for her hand luggage on autopilot, before leaning down and giving her a peck on the cheek. ‘How are you, darling?’

‘Good,’ he lied.

She frowned, scanning his face. ‘You look tired.’

He arched a brow. ‘That seems to be the consensus.’

‘What’s the matter?’

‘A damned bug in my room is all. I’m fine, Mom. Just fine.’

‘Hmm. Well, then. Let’s get my bag, and on the way to the island, you can tell me everything I’ve already missed.’

Since following the boys out of Ashbury Falls, Cynthia Carter had set up a whole new life for herself.

As the twins became more and more successful, and needed her less and less, and the shadows of her past failed to reach her, Cynthia really came into her own, forming tight friendships with dozens of women.

She had friends at the gym, where she worked out each morning, friends in her book club, friends at the thrift shop she volunteered at.

So, the fact that one of her new-life besties was turning sixty had caused a scheduling conflict for Cynthia Carter – hence the delayed arrival to the wedding week of Blake and Astrid. ‘Let’s start with Blake. How is he?’

‘Walking on air.’

Her smile relaxed. ‘I’m glad to hear it. Astrid has been so good for him, hasn’t she?’

‘No arguments from me.’

‘Now, if only there was someone you could meet. Have I told you about Judy Sanderson’s granddaughter?’

He threw her a look. ‘Only about a dozen times.’

‘She’d be just right for you.’ But as his mother set about extolling the virtues of a woman he’d already heard described ad nauseum, all he could think about was Sienna’s body, pressed against his, and how damned great it had felt to kiss her again.

* * *

‘Oh, Sienna!’ Cynthia Carter’s voice was louder than Sienna had ever heard it, but that aside, Sienna recognised it instantly.

Three steps from the bottom of the elegant sweeping staircase, making her way to the foyer for their nightly pre-dinner aperitivo before dinner was served on the deck, Sienna’s footing almost faltered.

She’d known Cynthia was coming, obviously.

This was Blake’s mom, and Astrid had mentioned her often enough in the lead up to the wedding for Sienna to have been theoretically prepared for this.

But understanding something academically was completely different to being properly ready for the moment of coming to face to face with a ghost from your past.

‘Cynthia.’ Her voice was a little uneven. She swallowed, to bring moisture back to her mouth. Behind Cynthia, the group of guests milled happily, apparently oblivious to the mental turmoil Sienna was navigating. There was nothing for it; Sienna had to get this over and done with. ‘Hello.’

‘Hello? Oh, honey love. Come here,’ she said with a pretty laugh, wrapping her slender arms around Sienna and pulling her in for a huge hug. Sienna was not tall, and despite Cynthia’s slender build, she had the same ability to simply engulf Sienna as Blake and Aiden did.

Sienna stood there, totally swallowed up, by Aiden’s mom, and a thick fog of memories.

‘Goodness gracious, my girl, it’s been far too long. Aiden tells me you’re still in Ashbury Falls?’

‘I am.’ Sienna unconsciously swept her gaze across the room, until she saw Aiden, over by the door. He held a beer in one hand, and was in conversation with Chuck Daly, but his attention was clearly on Sienna and Cynthia. She wrenched her focus back to the older woman.

‘Well, then, you’re going to have to sit by me at dinner and tell me everything about it.

I haven’t been there for a lifetime.’ For a moment, something like sadness shadowed Cynthia’s expression, but she covered it with a quick smile.

‘And what are you up to, darlin’? My son was a little light on the details. ’

That was no surprise.

Aiden didn’t know anything about Sienna’s life now.

Her lips pulled to the side. ‘Same old, same old,’ she demurred. ‘I’m more interested in hearing about you. Why don’t we get a drink and you can tell me what you’re up to these days?’

‘I’d like that,’ Cynthia confirmed with a nod.

* * *

Watching his mother and one-time girlfriend gossip over champagne was doing strange things to Aiden’s belly.

Like making it flip and flop as if he was about to play for the Stanley Cup.

More and more guests had been arriving each day, so the foyer that had seemed sparse on the first night was more filled out now, making it hard to keep a clear line of sight on Sienna.

Which shouldn’t have bothered him. Not even a little.

Except no matter how much he kept telling himself that, Aiden couldn’t stop staring at her.

And it wasn’t just because of that dress, though that definitely didn’t help.

Since when had she started buying this sort of thing? He couldn’t imagine her owning anything like this in Ashbury Falls. Bright red and skintight, it wrapped around her body in a way that his dreams would undoubtedly have fun with later that night.

Not that he’d be getting any sleep anyway, if that damned cricket had anything to say.

He ground his teeth and tried to focus on the investment opportunity Chuck was describing. Ribbing aside, he admired the other man’s technological prowess, and this did sound like a great chance to get in on a cool new project at the ground level.

He just didn’t exactly have the brain space to devote to it, then and there.

‘So, you want to see more info?’

‘Yeah.’ Thank God, Aiden thought. More information that he could compute at a later date.

Not when Sienna was leaning close to his mother and whispering something in her ear, so Cynthia tossed her head back and laughed.

Sienna’s lips, painted a perfect shade of red, curved into a slow smile, and at that moment, her gaze flicked across the room and landed square on his face, so his heart felt like it was about to jolt out of his chest.

He should definitely not have kissed those lips.

He should definitely not be standing in the middle of this drinks event thinking about what those lips had felt like.

Or how damned much he’d like to stride across the room, throw her over his shoulder and drag her back to the beach, or the nearest bed, or hell, even the lawn outside, and finish what they’d started.

He groaned softly.

‘All good, bro?’ Chuck asked.

‘I wish everyone would stop fucking asking me that,’ he snapped, then offered a grimace by way of apology. ‘Sorry, man. It’s been… a weird couple of days.’

Chuck nodded thoughtfully. ‘Sienna mentioned you guys used to date.’

Something about that landed strangely for him. He didn’t know if he was glad Sienna had mentioned their history, or annoyed, because somehow it trivialised it. ‘It was a long time ago.’

Chuck’s grin was knowing. ‘Yeah, I can tell.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Just that you’re staring with definite intent.’

Aiden forced himself to look anywhere but at Sienna, grinding his teeth to find the other man laughing.

‘Why don’t you ask her out and get it over with?’

Alarm bells sounded. Panic slicked his insides.

Ask Sienna out? Well, wasn’t that just a whole can of worms he’d been spending pretty much every waking moment avoiding peering into?

Blake’s suggestion of ‘hanging out’ for a casual week was one thing, but this was a whole other level.

Dating meant a promise. The beginning of something Aiden didn’t want to ever finish.

‘Nah, it’s not like that.’

‘You sure?’

He swallowed, his throat rough and dry. ‘Yeah.’

But his eyes slid back to Sienna and his gut lurched. God damn it, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, but that didn’t even matter. It wasn’t about how she looked. It was the way she laughed. The way she talked. The way she listened. The way she…

Fuuuuck.

And thank Christ, at that moment, one of the staff rang the bell that signalled dinner was being served, so Aiden could finally hope for some form of distraction to get Sienna off his mind.

There must be someone else he could talk to.

Someone else, who wouldn’t interrogate him about his failed relationship.

And maybe, if he was a really good boy, he could find a seat facing away from her, so he couldn’t look at her without craning in his chair.

Yes, that’s exactly what he’d do. Look for a seat as far away from Sienna as he could possibly get?—

‘Aiden!’ His mother’s voice easily cut across to him. He turned without thinking, to find her and Sienna still side by side, like they’d made some kind of blood pact not to part ways. ‘Come and sit with us, dear. I’m having such a good time catching up with your old friend.’

Panic flooded his veins once more as his eyes landed on Sienna.

To his relief, one side of her lips quirked in a half-smile, and she did a small shrug, as if to say, ‘What the hell?’ And didn’t that just piss him off even more?

That she was so totally fine with all this. Like none of it freaking bothered her.