‘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 beenhisSienna. 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 justtalkingto her, too.
ThisSienna 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.
