No. My disappearing acts were to get your attention. Yeah, she could just imagine how well that would go down if she told him that nugget of truth. He’d probably throw back his head and laugh at her.
Of course, there was the real truth she could–should—go with. Talking about her brother still hurt, even after all this time. He’d been her voice of reason. The one who talked her off the ledge when her insecurities crowded her mind.
Every day she’d turned up on a movie set and couldn’t believe that she, Sienna Fairley, from a dot on the map town in Texas, had made it big. She and her brother had escaped the tiny town of Myrtle and headed west the moment they’d realized their parents weren’t ever coming back.
They’d recreated a background, and in the fake world of Los Angeles, no one had questioned them. Why would they when most people there had secrets they didn’t want to share?
Even the man standing in front of her didn’t know about the first sixteen years of her life. It didn’t need to be told. It was her past and that was where it would stay.
“Well, Sienna? The longer you wait to talk to me, the more I think you’ll be lying.”
“He’s my brother’s son.”
“Right. So why did he call you, ‘Mama’?”
At the reminder, the tears she hadn’t allowed to enter her eyes gathered full-speed-ready to spill down her cheeks. Nope, she wasn’t going to do that in front of Aaron. No way.
“That was the first time he said it to me,” she started softly. “Because that’s what I am to him now.”
“What? I don’t understand.”
“For a supposedly savvy businessman, you’re a bit slow on the uptake. My brother and his wife are dead. They made me Caleb’s guardian. They entrusted me with his care, and I will honor my brother’s wishes to my dying day.”
Dramatic much? Yes, no doubt. But every word she uttered to Aaron was the truth.
Her career didn’t matter anymore, only Caleb.
Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t been aware of Aaron’s movements, until warm strong arms surrounded her. Against her better judgment, Sienna relaxed into his hold. For so long she’d wanted to be held by someone.
“I’m sorry. So sorry for your loss.”
How many times had she heard those hollow words? Of course, she’d said it to other people. Until those words had been directed to her, she understood how little comfort they truly gave a person.
“Thank you.” Again, the appropriate response.
As much as she wanted to stay within the warm cocoon of Aaron’s embrace, she couldn’t. It was as blissful as she’d imagined it would be.
Over the last six months Sienna had learned to put her own needs and desires to the back of her mind. All that mattered was Caleb, and he sat a few feet behind her, where anyone could take him.
No matter how safe and sheltered Barefoot Bay was, bad people still existed. No matter how hard she tried to stay off the radar, there were ways and means in which people could find her.
She pulled out of Aaron’s embrace and looked over to see Caleb safe and sound. “Look, I don’t know why you’re here, Aaron, but it’s probably best you forget you’ve seen me.”
Chapter Three
“Mr. Madison. Can you please focus? The sooner we do this, the sooner you can go to wherever your mind clearly would prefer be.”
Aaron stopped recounting his run-in with Sienna Fairley and her son the previous day.
Nothing good would come of going over and over it. It was a mystery he wanted to get to the bottom of, but he couldn’t do that right now. He turned his attention to the dark haired woman who was directing the places where everyone had to be standing for the wedding.
Ari, he thought her name was. She was one of the owners of Barefoot Brides, the company to use for destination weddings, or so Tom had told him when he’d first said he was getting married back at the place where he and Caryn had met.
“Sorry. You have my complete attention.”
“Excellent.” She smiled. “And I totally understand how you can wish to be somewhere else, rather than at a wedding rehearsal when you’re at Casa Blanca Resort. It’s a magical place where love surrounds you.” Ari finished on a sigh.
The woman was a hopeless romantic. He looked over at Tom and Caryn. Yep, love certainly was surrounding him. If he was a gambling man, Aaron would wager that the almost-married couple wanted to be anywhere but here attending their ceremony rehearsal, too. Maybe they’d rather skip the formal ceremony and head straight to the honeymoon.
“I think the happy couple would rather be somewhere else, too.”
The wedding planner giggled when Tom and Caryn wore matching blushes. “Yes, I think you’re right.” Ari clapped her hands. “Okay, let’s run through this one more time, then you can all go and chase after our motto.”
“And what is that motto?” Aaron asked, almost too afraid to hear the answer.
“Very simple, Mr. Madison. Kick off your shoes and fall in love.”
“Of course it is,” he muttered.
Maybe staying here for three weeks wasn’t the best idea.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so distracted, Aaron. What’s going on?” Tom asked after Caryn had left the dinner table to go to the restroom.
He hadn’t wanted to join them for dinner, but they’d insisted. In the end, the idea of sitting and eating a meal alone hadn’t appealed. It reminded him too much of how alone he was in the world. Spending time with the happy couple was the lesser of two evils.
“Nothing’s going on. You’ve never seen me off the job, that’s all. This is me relaxed, and not focused on the next contract or endorsement deal for my clients.”
“Yeah, not sure I believe you. We’ve been friends a while now. If there’s something going on, you know you can talk to me. I won’t say anything.”
“Geez, Tom, since when did you get all touchy-feely.”
Tom snorted. “I’m far from touchy-feely. The only touchy-feely I’m interested in involves me, Caryn, a bottle of champagne and a bed.”
“Stop. I don’t want to hear anymore thank you very much. You didn’t have to have dinner with me. You could’ve gone back to your room and been as touchy-feely as much as you wanted.”
“This is true, but a man has to eat to build his stamina.” His friend winked. “Oh, by the way, I’m spending the afternoon and night before the wedding in your villa.”
Aaron almost spat out the sip of beer he’d just taken. “I’m sorry. What?”
Tom may have denied being all touchy-feely and sensitive, but one thing Aaron didn’t do was sleepovers with members of the same sex.
If it was the opposite sex, he had no problem with it. Immediately an image of him and Sienna, tangling the sheets of the king size bed in his villa, popped into his mind in all its Technicolor glory. Just as quickly, he squashed the image.
She had a kid now. That was never going to happen. Why he was even thinking about it was crazy. He’d never been attracted to Sienna in that way.
Keep telling yourself that buddy.
Yep, that little voice needed ignoring too.
Tom rolled his eyes, something he’d never seen the other man do. “Caryn’s got this stupid idea of not wanting to see me after four p.m. the day before the wedding.”
“It’s not a stupid idea, Tom Carrington. It’s tradition for the bride not to see the groom before the wedding.” Caryn announced as she walked up to the table.
“I think they’re talking about the day of, or just before the ceremony, not the whole night before,” countered Tom.
“Aww poor baby, just think how wonderful the wedding night will be,” she said as she leaned down and kissed her fiancé.
He so didn’t need to see this.
“Annnd I’m out of here,” Aaron pushed away from the table. “You both have a good night, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He made his escape with Tom’s laughter ringing in his ears. Even though he wasn’t a romant
ic, he couldn’t deny Caryn’s sentiment about not seeing Tom the night before the wedding was kind of sweet.
“Hey Aaron, wait.”
He turned to find his buddy walking briskly toward him. “Is something wrong?”
“Nah, just wanted to know if you wanted to join me for a drink at the bar.”
The invitation surprised him. “Don’t you want to be with Caryn?”
“She was the one who suggested it. Said I should enjoy the last few days of being a bachelor and to spend time with you.”
Aaron swallowed a sigh. “Sheesh, I don’t need babysitting you know. I live by myself in the big bad city of LA.”
Tom laughed. “I know, but I feel like our conversation was cut short. Come on, one beer. We’ll take it out on the patio and watch the water.”
“What the hell, man, we’re not on a date? And if I want to watch the water in the evening I can do that from my living room back in Malibu.”
“Well, not all of us live with ocean views you know.”
“True, and some of us don’t have one of the most successful shows on cable TV, either.”
“That’s a ridiculous comparison,” Tom countered. “In fact, if we wanted to be pedantic one could say the reason you have that nice house in Malibu is because of said TV show and your percentage of endorsements deals from said show.”
“Whatever, are we getting a beer or not?”
“Let’s go.”
True to his word, a few minutes later, Aaron and Tom were sitting at a table overlooking the moonlit bay.
“Perfect night for a walk along the beach.”
“Yeah it is. So why are you here with me instead of back with your beautiful fiancée?”
“Because there’s something bugging you. And before you try to tell me there’s nothing, I’d like to remind you that I’ve known you a long time. I know when something’s off.”
Should he tell Tom he’d seen Sienna on the beach? With her dyed hair and different colored eyes it was clear to him she was trying to keep her location on the down low. He could understand why. The last thing she’d want is the paparazzi finding out where she was located.
He didn’t know how long she’d been living in Barefoot Bay, or if she even was. She might have just been at the beach the previous day. She could live in Naples. But somehow he didn’t think she did.
Apart from this being the place where Tom and Caryn had met, the reason they’d chosen this location for their marriage was because of the security firm who operated out of the resort. Their reputation on making sure the guests and other well known inhabitants of Mimosa Key weren’t bothered was the best.
He could trust Tom not to say anything. He and Sienna had been agency house buddies. Not to mention whenever Sienna had gone missing he’d mentioned, more than once to Tom how frustrated he was with her diva behavior. But…that diva behavior was missing from the woman he’d seen on the beach yesterday. Yesterday’s woman was as far from Sienna Fairley starlet as he was from the heartthrob movie star she’d been cast alongside in her last film.
“Sienna Fairley is in Barefoot Bay.”
“How do you know that?”
“I saw her yesterday on the beach. You probably wouldn’t recognize if you saw her. She’s changed her hair color.”
“Well then how do you know it’s her? You could be mistaken.”
“No mistake. I talked to her.”
Tom whistled. “Did she explain why she practically fell off the face of the earth these last six months?”
“She’s got a kid.”
“How did she keep that hidden from the press?”
“Because he’s her brother’s. I don’t know the full story, but her brother died and she’s now got custody of the boy.”
Tom leaned back in his chair. “Whoa, what are you going do about it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you going to try and get her back to La-la land? She was, after all, one of your biggest clients, too.”
“I don’t know, to be honest. We didn’t talk for long. But she’s hurting, man.”
That was the crux of his dilemma. Even with contacts covering her naturally blue eyes, there was a world of pain in them when they’d been talking on the beach. He had no idea she was even close to her brother. Aaron had known she had one, but in all the time they’d been agent and client, the relationship between the siblings had never come up.
“Is she staying at the resort or in town?” Tom asked.
“Not sure. I didn’t ask.”
“I can’t picture Sienna with a kid. She never seemed the type.”
“I know what you mean. I think something big happened between them though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well when I saw her, I may have gotten a little angry. Raised my voice. Anyway her little boy, Caleb, I think she said his name was. He came over to her and called her Mama. If I hadn’t been watching her closely I would’ve missed the way she swallowed quickly as though to keep from crying. Then she told me it was the first time he’d called her that.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Shit, the kid doesn’t know what’s going on in his world. One minute he had a mom and dad. Now he’s living with his aunt. An aunt he probably didn’t see an awful lot of, not with her busy schedule. No way can I pressure her into going back to Los Angeles.”
“Are you going to try and see her again while you’re here?”
“I don’t know.”
Chapter Four
“Can we go to the petting zoo, please Aunt Sienna? I wanna see the goats again. Ms. Frankie said one her goats gonna have a baby. I wanna see baby goat.”
Since he’d woken up, Caleb had been on the go and chatty. Maybe a trip out to the goat farm might be a good idea. At the moment she wanted to do anything to keep the little boy happy.
After the other day, more than anything, she wanted to hear him call her Mama again. Although, that was selfish of her. She wasn’t the boy’s mother. It was unfair to expect him to do so. She was his Aunt Sienna, and before her brother had died she’d been happy with the role.
“Sure Caleb-bug we can go to the petting zoo. But you have to eat your breakfast, and brush your teeth before we can go.”
“Yay! I promise I do everything and be extra good.” He looked down at the ground. “But don’t leave me.”
Sienna rushed over to him and scooped him up in her arms, hugging him tight. “Oh, honey, I’m not going to leave you. Not ever.”
“That’s what mommy and daddy said, but they did.”
It wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation and it wouldn’t be the last. She’d have it as many times as Caleb needed.
“They didn’t want to. I know they didn’t, honey. I know they’re watching over you. All you need to do is talk to them, and even though they can’t answer, I bet they’ll be able to hear you. What do you say, when we get home from the petting zoo, we look over your baby album again? I’ll even tell you another funny story about your daddy. He was the best big brother to me. I miss him as much as you do.”
A shudder swept over Caleb’s little frame. It took everything in her to stop her own tears from falling.
She hated that David had been taken away from them too soon. He’d always been her anchor, and now she was adrift. She couldn’t let herself get swept away with self-doubt. The little boy in her arms needed her to be strong.
Giving him another squeeze she stood and released her hold. “Let’s go eat, because the sooner we do that, the sooner we can go see if there are baby goats.”
“Or chicks. There could be baby chicks. They’re so fluffy.”
Sienna laughed, happy that the dark cloud encompassing Caleb had disappeared—for now. “They are fluffy indeed.”
Her feet ached, but it was an ache she could live with. They’d been at La Dolce Vita farm and petting zoo for hours.
“Do you think I’ll ever be able to claim that baby goat from Caleb?”
Sienna looked over her
shoulder and saw Frankie Becker, owner of the goat farm, standing behind her. “I hope so, I don’t fancy taking one back to the villa. Not sure Lacey would appreciate having a baby goat in one of the resort’s buildings.” They were staying in the African Daisy Villa, and it was beautiful. No way did she have any plans to wreak havoc on the hardwood floors with a baby goat.
“No, and I think Will would appreciate all his hard work not being destroyed by a cute looking creature.”
“Very true.”
A loud cheer went up from the baseball field adjacent to the petting zoo.
“Guess the Bucks got a home run,” Frankie commented.
“Why aren’t you at the game? Isn’t your husband one of the guys responsible for getting the team based in Mimosa Key?”
A dreamy look crossed the other woman’s face.
Sienna couldn’t fight the pang of envy coursing through her. It seemed wherever she turned, women were wearing a look very similar to the one currently on Frankie’s face. Was there something in the Casa Blanca Resort water supply?
“Yep, he sure was. Best thing that ever happened to me was that baseball team.”
“Aunt Sienna, there’s that man again,” Caleb said as he slipped his hand into hers, as though silently giving her support she didn’t know she needed.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to tell her who he was referring too. There was only one man who’d taken Caleb’s attention—Aaron Madison.
When she’d tucked him into bed after their encounter on the beach, Caleb had asked who the man she’d been speaking to on the beach was.
He’d seemed satisfied when she told him Aaron was a man she’d known from before he came to live with her. The little boy had no idea his Aunt Sienna was a famous actress. An actress who had given it all away, with no regrets, to look after him.
“Is he talking about Tom Carrington, the yummy host of that home improvement show standing by the door? I heard he’s getting married here at the resort tomorrow,” Frankie commented.
Barefoot Bay: Wrong Time for Mr. Right (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 2
