Page 45 of Settling the Score (The Karma Club #4)
‘You don’t deserve it. Aiden, you hurt me back then, but I forgive you.
I know why you did what you did. You acted out of love for your family, you even acted out of love for me – out of a mistaken belief that you could hurt me.
You thought that a clean break would save me from pining for you.
You thought I’d move on with my life, and that I’d be happy.
You thought you’d be the only one who was suffering.
I understand all of that, and we both need to let it go now. ’
He shook his head slowly, a look on his face that was gruff and frustrated. ‘It’s been so long. I’ve missed you so much?—’
She talked over the top of him. ‘I love you. It’s not a prank, it’s not a joke, it’s not a thing but the damned truth.
I have loved you since the first day we walked home together, and I will love you every day for the rest of my life.
I don’t know what that means. Or how this all works.
But I realised I couldn’t spend another night without you at least understanding that everything you say you feel for me, I feel for you, too. ’
‘You love me,’ he said, and finally, he smiled, like he actually, really believed her.
‘Just kidding,’ she said, poking out her tongue, but when his smile slipped and was replaced by a look of ice-cold shock, she shook her head. ‘That was so mean of me. No, I’m serious. I love you. God, you are really touchy about this.’
‘Do you blame me? I’ve lost you once before because of my own stupidity and now you’re dangling this carrot in front of me, and I am just so shit-scared I’m going to say or do the wrong thing and you’ll disappear.’
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she promised. ‘At least, not tonight. Ashbury is my home, and this is your home. I know we’re going to have to work out a lot of the details later. All we need to know, for now, is that we want to work that stuff out. Together. That we want to try this again.’
He dropped his forehead and inhaled deeply. ‘More than you know.’
‘I find that impossible to believe.’
‘But you’re staying for now? For tonight?’
She nodded, her heart lifting.
‘Maybe two nights?’
She laughed. ‘I have a job, you know…’
He groaned. ‘Let’s cross that bridge when we get to it.’ He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her tight to his chest. ‘Do you have any idea how happy you’ve made me?’
She groaned, and lifted onto the tips of her toes, removing her finger and replacing it with her mouth – a much more effective and enjoyable way to silence him.
Their kiss was slow at first, tentative, tasting; or maybe it was more of a promise?
A pledge that they were going to give this another go and this time, it was for keeps.
Which Sienna knew, from the moment their eyes had met in the mirror and she’d seen how utterly devastated he was, that they would both fight for their relationship, no matter what.
Because they’d seen the alternative. They’d lived it.
And they knew, without a shadow of a doubt that they were stronger, happier, and better together.
‘God, I love you,’ he said against her mouth. She swallowed those words up and buried them deep in her chest, the warmth radiating through her like nothing she’d ever known.
* * *
Sienna hadn’t come to New York for any reason besides seeing Aiden, but when, the next morning, the WhatsApp chat exploded with a flurry of messages, her whole world burst into technicolour.
Paige
Olly is meeting with a publisher in Manhattan this afternoon. We land in a couple of hours. Who’s around?
Bella
Meeeeeee! Yipppeeeeee!
Astrid
Count me in.
Bella
What? Aren’t you off being honeymooned?
Astrid
Pre-season. And morning sickness. Which FYI can last way past the first trimester if you’re super lucky. We’ll have a babymoon.
Bella
Nawww.
Paige
Sienna, don’t suppose you can hitch a ride? We miss you!
Sienna
Actually…
She lifted the phone up and snapped a photo of the panoramic Manhattan skyline she could see from Aiden’s massive bed. Beside her, he rolled over at the audible click of the camera.
‘Please, no photos. No autographs.’ He grinned.
‘I bet you say that to all your groupies.’ She sent the message to the girls.
Bella
OMG! You’re here! Why didn’t you tell me?
Sienna
I just flew in last night.
Paige
OMG! Yay! Where shall we meet?
That afternoon, Sienna arrived at the diner Astrid had suggested with cheeks that were flushed pink from the warmth of the day, and the way she and Aiden had spent the better part of the morning: thoroughly re-acquainting themselves with one another, and talking about their shared future.
Their hopes, dreams, plans, and what would come next for them.
It was all so perfect, she literally couldn’t stop shining like a moonbeam.
The others were already inside, heads bent together, as Paige spoke. Sienna took a moment, paused on the sidewalk, just to look at them. To see them. Her best friends, her sisters, her soulmates.
Inside the restaurant, the low murmur of diners enjoying their meals made a background hum as Sienna weaved through the tables to the Karma Club.
Funny, when they’d initially thought about karma, it had been about avenging the men who’d wronged them, but now she saw it for what it really was: four women who’d been hurt in the past learning to love again, to heal their hearts and find comfort in true friendship.
That was the true karma, the true just desserts.
‘Ladies.’ Sienna grinned as she approached the table.
Astrid squeaked, her eyes shiny, and Paige let out a squeal.
‘Ahhh! I didn’t think we’d get to see each other again so soon!’ They were oblivious to the way other patrons turned to look at them, as they fell into a four-way group hug.
‘I know, I know, me neither.’ Sienna sobbed with happiness.
‘Why are you here?’ Bella asked. ‘And how long are you staying?’
‘Just another night,’ she said. ‘I’ve got to get home to work and Melanie. But…’ She let the word hang in the air a moment, until Paige made a noise of impatience.
Sienna laughed. ‘I have a feeling I’ll be coming and going a fair bit. You know, my boyfriend happens to live around the corner.’
‘Boyfriend?’ Bella frowned, at the same time Astrid let out another squeak and Paige said, ‘Oh my God, no way!’
‘You guys worked it out?’ Astrid said, smiling, but with a gentleness to her tone, because she’d been witness to both Aiden and Sienna’s heartbreak.
‘We worked it out a lot .’ Sienna winked.
‘You and Aiden?’ Bella clapped her hands together. ‘It worked!’ She turned to the others. ‘We really are very good at this.’
‘Very good at what?’ Sienna prompted.
‘Pulling strings. Getting people what they deserve,’ Paige said.
‘What are you talking about?’
The four of them sat down, and Sienna looked from one to the other with bemusement, as they began to explain, all talking over each other, how from the minute Astrid got to know Aiden, she knew that he and Sienna weren’t done.
That he was just as hung up on Sienna as she was on him.
‘But the trick was getting you both to see it,’ Bella said.
‘We knew you wouldn’t take our word for it,’ Paige agreed with a nod.
‘You very nearly didn’t even take his word for it,’ Bella added.
‘That’s true.’ Sienna sipped her drink, shuddering to think how awful it would have been to have disregarded her instincts and not gone to Aiden. A life without him in it suddenly seemed incredibly, desperately wrong. ‘So you’re telling me the whole “flirt with him to make him pay” was a set-up?’
‘Well, I mean…’ Paige flushed. ‘If we hadn’t suggested it, you’d have spent the whole wedding week ignoring him.’
‘And we couldn’t bear to think of you as two ships in the night,’ Bella added.
‘We just didn’t want you to miss the opportunity to get to know him again. He’s such a great guy, Sissi, and he never got over you. You both just needed a chance to see each other again, to work it out…’
Silence fell as Sienna processed that.
‘Are you mad?’ Paige asked.
‘Mad?’ Sienna repeated, with a shake of her head. ‘Mad? I’m literally the luckiest woman on the face of the earth. I have a second chance with the only guy I’ve ever loved, and it’s all because of the best friends a woman could want. I just have no idea how to count this many blessings…’
‘Don’t count,’ Bella advised. ‘Just sit back and enjoy.’
Which was exactly what Sienna intended to do, just as soon as she’d meted out the final piece of karmic retribution to Horrible Harvey. There was a special piece of justice on his horizon, he just didn’t realise it yet…