Chapter 16
The good thing about work, Sienna thought, was that you could bury yourself in it, so deep sometimes that you never had to resurface if you didn’t want to. She’d been back in Serenity Cove for three months now, and ever since her swift and unexpected return from France, she’d achieved much to be proud of and grateful for.
She’d been working hard on her YouTube vlogs, even upgrading her background, graphics and lighting systems, and was publishing more often than before. Her business coaching had grown somewhat and now her services were in high demand by new and prospective entrepreneurs. Her schedule was wait-listed by as much as two months. And as for her housekeeping business, she had hired new workers and was in negotiations to add a full scale office building complex to her list of clients, along with a few new stately homes in the area.
Business was good. It kept her mind busy, and her thoughts from drifting in directions it had no business being.
Like to the dark eyes of a beautiful young man with hair like silk and a smile that made her dizzy.
“Here, dry these for me, will you?” Sienna’s mom handed over a small stack of plates. She was visiting her parents for lunch, and, as usual, her mom was so happy to see her that she’d broken out the good chinaware, and was just giving them a quick rinse before she set them on the table.
Sienna had slipped into the routine of visiting her parents twice a week or so. She was always glad to see them, and they her. Besides, being at her mom’s house brought her some solace and comfort, something she had been longing for.
She had found out that leaving France, putting as much distance as she could between herself and Max, had done little to diminish her hunger for him, or the frequency with which he drifted into her thoughts. Which wasn’t only disturbing; it was embarrassing.
Her girls had relayed a blow-by-blow account of their encounter with Max the morning after she had left, and she was grateful to them for sticking up for her. Ride-or-die to the end, they were. Thank God William had managed to get her up in the air hours before Max arrived at the estate. She would never have been able to face him. Never wanting to hear his name again, she’d made her friends promise to not talk about or update her in any way about him. Sienna didn’t care to know anything happening in his life. Though she sensed her friends’ urgency to tell her something about him, they’d thankfully respected the boundaries she’d set and kept it to themselves.
She consoled herself with the knowledge that the thing between them was well and truly over. They’d had their fling, and now it was time to relegate it to the realm of a pleasant summer memory. It was true that they had let it all get out of hand, but she’d been smart enough to cut it off before it got any worse.
At least, even at their most intimate, they had never exchanged contact details beyond the numbers used to text each other to set up their rendezvous—and Sienna had long rid herself of that phone. He had no idea where she was from; possibly not even her home state, and that was just fine with her. Let the past stay where it belonged, especially since the man in question turned out to be deceitful and untrustworthy. It had only been two months out of her life, not even an entire summer. All would be well.
“Sit down and I’ll call your father,” her mom said as she placed the final finishing touches on the lunch table. “I hope you know I’m planning to fatten you up today. You’re skin and bone. I made your grandmother’s sweetcorn pie. I know you love it. I hope you’re hungry!”
“Starving.”
“Good. You’ve been working so hard lately. Almost as if the Devil was at your heels.”
That was pretty close to home, Sienna thought. She smiled her welcome at her father as he sat beside her. After a quick moment of grace, her mother began to serve the meal.
“You’ll never meet a man if you keep working that hard,” her mom continued. “All work and no play—”
“Aww, come now,” her dad chided his wife gently. “Sienna’s young still. She has all the time in the world to meet someone who is truly worthy of her.”
“Well,Ihaven’t got all the time in the time in the world to be a grandmother,” she murmured.
Sienna was just debating the wisdom of getting into the old grandbaby debate once again when her phone shrilled in her purse. Normally, she shut it off whenever she visited. She got up and rushed to silence it. “Sorry!”
Then she saw it was her new assistant, calling on the line dedicated to her housekeeping business, which had blossomed to the point where she rarely managed clients herself. She hesitated. They had spoken just this morning about some new clients they had acquired, so surely it couldn’t be anything routine. What if there was a problem?
Sienna glanced at her mother who said resignedly, “Oh, go on. Take it. But make it quick and come back to the table.”
Sienna stepped into another room and began to speak. What she heard made her spirits dip. Apparently, one of her new clients was making a fuss about the service he was receiving, and had called the office to complain.
“Isn’t it something you can handle? What’s the nature of the problem?”
“He won’t say, Miss Trinidad. And he’s demanding to speak with the owner in person.”
She muted the phone, squeezed her eyes shut, and groaned. Sometimes, wealthy clients could be complete divas. They demanded to speak to the owner when a simple conversation with the manager would do. “Fine,” she gave in. “Text me the address.”
She returned to her parents’ table, and they both read on her face what she was going to say.
“It’s not a problem, Sienna. You go on and handle your business, sweetheart. I’ll put your meal in the fridge, okay? You’ll come back?”
“I will, Mom. Sorry.” She kissed them both and hurried out, plugging the client’s address into her GPS and heading over. It was on one of the town’s newest and most exclusive residential estates, and the house in question was large, stately, and beautiful. So new that the landscaping was still underway. Probably some spoiled trust-fund brat who liked to make other people jump through hoops.
She was let in by her own employee, who was red-faced and worried. Sienna gave her a comforting pat. “It will be fine, Angelica. Let me find out what the issue is, and I can clear things up, okay?”
Angelica was young, and perhaps needed a bit more training, but she was new to the firm and would learn. She led Sienna through to a large drawing room, where the owner of the house, her new client, was waiting. He turned away from the window to face her.