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.
Just like the kiss hadn’t bothered her, when it had been bothering the bejeezus out of him ever since.
He grudgingly cut across the room, to the seats they’d chosen. There was an empty one beside his mother, and another beside Sienna. He had to make a split-second decision – did he want to be next to her? Or across from her? Was it better to be conscious of how close they were, or to constantly be able to stare at her?
‘There you are, darling.’ His mother made the choice for him, nodding at the seat to Sienna’s left. ‘That will do just fine.’
He ground his teeth as he pulled out the seat, plonking himself down, aware as he had been at each of these damned meals that the spindly chairs werenotdesigned for someone of his build in mind. A glance down the table showed a few of them in the same boat. Blake, Edvin, and Danny all seemed to be sitting with the same caution he was.
‘Sienna was just telling me about her studies,’ his mother said, flagging down a waiter and lifting her hand in a mime of drinking.
The waiter nodded and disappeared.
‘You’re studying?’ The second he asked the question, he realised he’d been avoiding asking her anything like this. If he could keep her to some two-dimensional rendering in his mind, then she’d be that much easier to hold in the tightly sealed box he’d mentally shoved her into all those years ago.
‘Law,’ she said, reaching for a bread roll and breaking it in half. Her eyes didn’t quite meet his though. He wondered about that. Maybe she wasn’t as unbothered as he thought.
‘What happened to medicine, anyway?’
‘I went off the idea.’
‘Why?’
The waiter returned with a bottle of Italian white, and began to fill the glasses. He was vaguely aware of Chuck coming to sit opposite him, beside Cynthia.
‘Hey, I’m Chuck. Friend of the groom,’ Chuck said, grinning at Cynthia.
‘Cynthia, mother of the groom,’ Cynthia replied, holding her hand out to shake. ‘And I’ve heard all about you. It’s lovely to put a face to the name.’ She turned back to Sienna and Aiden. ‘Have you met Sienna?’
‘They’ve met,’ Aiden responded, gut rolling as he remembered the sight of them coming back from their run, standing close. It had felt like a punch in the gut to see them looking so damned good together. Soright.
‘Chuck’s my groomsman, for the wedding,’ Sienna responded, smiling easily. Beneath the table, his hand formed a fist on his knee. Conversation moved on, to talk of Chuck, and his work, and Sienna responded to all of it as though they were old, comfortable friends.
He hadn’t seen this side of her.
Back then, she’d been a kid, still growing into herself. But now, she was an adult woman. And a knock-out. It was hardly surprising to realise she was comfortable with guys hitting on her. But she was even charming his mother. That wasn’t really a shock either, but somehow, he’d expected Sienna might find it hard to connect with the other woman, who was so reminiscent of a time in their lives that maybe – he might have thought – she’d want to forget.
Evidently not.
‘Okay, quieten down,’ Blake said, scraping back the spindly chair and standing at the head of the table, while a beaming Astrid looked on with pride. ‘We’re just a few days from the wedding – it’s too late to back out now, Twinkle Toes.’ He grinned at his clearly loved-up bride.
‘It’s never too late,’ she admonished. ‘But I’m not even contemplating it.’
‘You have no idea how glad I am to hear that,’ he said, voice gruff. Aiden glanced across at his mother; she had a starry look in her eyes, like seeing Blake so happy and in love was the epitome of her wildest dreams. Of their own volition, his eyes roamed further sideways, to Sienna. She was looking at Blake, a beatific smile on her face. But when she sensed Aiden looking at her, and she glanced at him instead, the smile slipped for a moment, and her lips parted on an exhalation of surprise.
‘So, we have some more fun and games planned – just think of us as your friendly cruise directors.’ He grinned. ‘There’ll also be an excursion off island, the day after tomorrow. You should all have got the options in the schedule Bella emailed around.’ Aiden looked back at Blake in time to see him wink at the blonde friend.
‘There’s a survey link you can respond to by tomorrow night,’ Bella said, her voice cutting across the room with natural authority. ‘To get a gauge of numbers.’
‘Right.’ Blake added.
‘But you can also stick around on the island and just chill out,’ Astrid said. ‘This isn’t camp. No compulsory activities.’
