‘Except the wedding,’ Paige interjected.
‘Yeah, that would be good.’ Blake nodded. ‘Anyway, now that everyone’s here’ – he looked specifically at Cynthia Carter then – ‘we just wanted to say – thank you. Thank you for coming and sharing this with us. Thank you for understanding that for two people who never really wanted the big white wedding, the idea of sharing this day not just with each other but with the most important people in our lives, is the icing on the cake of the best damned adventure we’d ever imagined.’ He turned to look at Astrid. ‘The thing is, I never thought it would be like this.’ It was like he’d tuned out everyone in the whole room. She seemed to have as well, if the intense way she was staring at Blake was anything to go by. ‘I’ve been to a million weddings and never really understood it, until I met you. And I realised I’d been living some kind of half-life this whole time. That meeting you really woke me up, made everything make sense. Astrid, you and this baby are everything to me. I freaking love you.’
Astrid’s eyes teared up, and she nodded, apparently lost for words.
He heard a sound and glanced over to see his mother had clapped her hands together and was holding them to her chest. There was a huge cheer, punctuated by a loud ‘Whoop!’ that had come from Sienna’s tiny frame.
Conversation resumed, and Blake negotiated his bulky frame back into the tiny chair.
Chuck let out a low whistle. ‘He almost makes it sound appealing, huh?’
‘What’s that, dear?’ Cynthia asked, taking a sip of her wine as she dabbed at the corners of her eyes.
‘Marriage.’ Chuck’s eyes were settled firmly on Aiden then. ‘What do you think? Reckon you’ll ever sign up for a walk down the aisle?’
Did he imagine Sienna stiffening beside him? On autopilot, he glanced at her, but she was busy toying with the tablecloth.
‘Nah.’ He found the word strangely hard to say. He cleared his throat. ‘It’s not for me.’
‘Oh, Aiden.’ Cynthia tsked. ‘Don’t be absurd. Marriage can be for anyone.’
He compressed his lips.
‘You just haven’t met the right person,’ Cynthia continued – unhelpfully. Because beside him sat someone who might very well have been the ‘right’ person if he’d been a little less fucked up about marriage and his ability tonotturn into his father the asshole.
‘It’s not that,’ he said, reaching for his own wine and taking a gulp. ‘I’ve just always known – I’m not the marrying sort.’
Beside him, Sienna shifted a little. From discomfort? God knew he was feeling it.
‘What about you, gorgeous?’ Chuck – who Aiden was quickly coming to realise had Blake’s shit-stirring personality traits but to the max – addressed Sienna. ‘Have you left some aspiring husband back in – where’d you say you were from?’
‘Ashbury Falls,’ Cynthia said, and for a moment, her features tightened and her shoulders tensed, so all the protective instincts Aiden had honed since boyhood flared to life.
‘Right.’ Chuck nodded, oblivious to the emotions he was sparking with his questions. ‘Is there a lucky guy back there, waiting for you?’
‘No one serious,’ she said, and Aiden felt a tightening in his gut. She’d said the same thing to him on the first night and it had bothered him as much then as it did now.
‘What does that mean?’ he heard himself ask, even when he was pretty sure it was none of his business.
‘It means I was seeing a guy, for a few years.’ She shrugged, but Aiden hardly noticed. He felt like a knife was being plunged into his gut. Was this why she seemed so unfazed by him? She’d been seeing a guy fora few yearsafter him? Well, what was that if not the quintessential act of moving on? In contrast to Aiden, who’d dated sparingly and never for long enough to know more than a woman’s full name and maybe her place of birth. Relationships that were both superficial and transactional – in the sense that he knew what women saw in him: the ability to find the spotlight. To draw attention to a cause, or bolster their public profile. And he was happy to help – better than creating the impression he was anything other than Ice. ‘But it’s nothing. It’s more – he has a kid, Melanie. I’ve basically helped raise her, since she was around three. She’s like my step-daughter,’ Sienna said, lifting a shoulder, a smile on her face, reaching for her phone. ‘Look.’ She pulled a picture up on the screen, holding it out for Chuck and Cynthia.
Aiden dug his fingers into his thigh, relishing the spark of pain that throbbed through him at the too-hard contact. He felt like the whole world had gone wonky, because Sienna was talking about people that were important to her, and he had no part in that. She had a whole other life, and belonged to them, in a way. She was a part of their lives and family.
‘Isn’t she gorgeous?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Cynthia cooed. ‘Look, Aiden. What a lovely girl.’
Sienna glanced up at him, biting on her lip. With guilt? She surelookedguilty. But why would she? What had she done wrong? Abso-fucking-lutely nothing. They’d been broken up. Not just broken up – he’d walked out on her. So she’d moved on, just like he’d texted her to. Good for Sienna. And all these years he’d been carrying a gut load of guilt, feeling like he’d screwed up her life or something.
Sienna turned the phone then, showing him a photo of a girl at her twelfth birthday, going by the cake in the foreground with lots of candles on it. Sienna stood behind the girl, one arm around her shoulders, and some guy, tall and lanky, stood on the other side.
This guy? This was who she’d hooked up with after Aiden? It wasn’t like he recognised him, but he looked like a loser.
‘Who are they?’ he grunted, barely acknowledging the waiter who came and placed entrees down in front of each of them.
‘No one you know. They moved into town about six months after you left.’ Her face paled a little.
‘And you started dating him.’
