‘I have no doubt your ego is perfectly healthy.’
He pulled a face and she took pity on him, changing the subject.
‘If you’re keeping count, I also don’t particularly like planes.’
His eyes scanned her face. ‘I did not know that about you.’
‘How could you? I’d never even been on a plane back then.’
‘No.’ He turned contemplative. ‘That’s true.’
He turned to look out at the water, which was crystal clear, even here, where they were deep and cutting through it at speed. The other guests milled on deck, in various states of relax and recline. Sunnies, sunscreen, smiles, some glasses of bubbly, some sipping coffee. Everything about the boat was sheer luxury perfection. No stone had been left unturned in planning the perfect wedding.
‘And now?’ he prompted, after a beat.
She looked at him, curiously.
‘Do you travel much?’
She made a snorting sound, then forced a smile. ‘I’ve travelled a bit, since meeting the girls. Just to catch up, when we can. Olly has a million air miles…’ Her voice trailed off as she realised how revealing the comment was. Like the fact her financial situation was pretty damned tenuous.
His eyes narrowed. ‘Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to fly?’
‘Well, I really don’t like flying, anyway, as I said…’
‘But you like seeing your friends.’
‘Yes.’ Her response was tight. She could feel him looking at her, feel the sympathetic answer he was formulating and she wanted to nip it in the bud. ‘It’s okay, Aiden. I mean, we don’t all make ten million dollars a year, but I get by.’
Something shifted in his expression. A wariness. An uncertainty. He glanced down at her, eyes scanning her face. ‘Once you have a million bucks to your name, it doesn’t really make a huge difference.’
She laughed then. ‘Spoken like someone with all the money in the world and absolutely zero sleepless nights courtesy of a mountain of unpaid bills.’
‘Is that what it’s like for you, Si?’
‘I’m fine,’ she replied, stiffly.
‘It’s just… if you’re stuck. I mean, if you’re struggling, I could?—’
She lifted her hand and clamped it against his lips. ‘Don’t. Don’t say what you’re thinking.’
His eyes didn’t just look at her, but pierced her fully.
‘I don’t want your help,’ she said, simply but forcefully. ‘That’s not what this is.’ And with her striking blue eyes, she pierced him right back.
* * *
He felt it like a blade. The contemptuous, determined rejection of his spontaneous offer. Hell, he’d been beaten but good in his time. His dad had pounded on him as a kid, then he’d gone into a job that saw him regularly on the receiving end of some of the biggest defenders in the game, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt such a precision sting as the way she’d just dismissed him.
Okay, he hadn’t exactly thought it through. But suddenly, the amount in his bank account seemed utterly obscene. He hadn’t wanted to correct her, but her figures were a bit out of date. It had been quite a few years since he’d ‘only’ earned ten mil per season. He was about to sign for a record-breaking amount. Add in what he made from sponsorships, not to mention the fact he’d partnered with a top investment guy in his first year playing pro, and Aiden was sitting on the kind of fortune that would have made his teenage self’s eyes stream.
It would be the easiest thing in the world for him to throw some money Sienna’s way. A million bucks? He wouldn’t miss it.
Who even was he, that he could think like that? He knew he’d come a long way, he just hadn’t really stopped to look back, and to recognise that. He’d come so far from his roots, he’d kind of forgotten what it was like to struggle. But as a kid, he’d known how hard it was for his parents to make rent, to pay the bills. Even going back to Ashbury to buy the house for his dad, he hadn’t stopped to think about the rest of the town.
It had been depressing enough when he was a kid, then the biggest auto maker in the district had shut down. Meaning there were high levels of unemployment, not a lot of spare cash, and the whole place was suffering.
Suddenly, he imagined what it would be like for someone like him, or him and Blake, to roll up their sleeves and become Mother freaking Teresa to the whole place. Rejuvenate the main street, pour money into the school, the town facilities. To really make a difference to Ashbury.
