Trish Wylie - The Wedding Surprise

He thought about her words for a few moments, then asked in a calm voice, ‘Is that how you run your life? Everything planned out in advance?’

‘It makes sense.’ She continued frowning at him. His lack of approval was evident. ‘You set yourself goals, targets to aim for, and you work ’til you get there. I suppose that’s very alien to you and your bohemian approach to a career?’

‘You can’t plan for everything. No matter how you try to. That’s life.’ He spooned a forkful of food into his mouth, chewed a couple of times, and continued talking with his mouth full. ‘You should know that from what happened to your fiancé.’

His words were like a blow to her chest and she felt her eyes stinging angrily. ‘How dare you?’

Pushing her chair back from the table, she glared down at him from above. ‘How dare you throw that at me like it was some little glitch in my great plan for life? Some little wobble that I should have planned for!’

He swallowed his food, looking up at her with a frown, ‘That’s not what I meant.’

‘That’s exactly what you meant. You’re trying to prove that your way of living life, from one opportunity to the next without any ties or emotional involvement, is a better way of living.’

He remained calm. ‘That’s not what I said.’

Caitlin flung an arm in the air at her side. ‘You who has never had a relationship that lasted more than sixty seconds!’

‘Six months.’

She ignored him and leaned down to press home her words. ‘At least I had love in my life, Aiden. Even if it was taken from me before either of us had planned.’ She tilted her head to one side and stared at him with sparkling eyes. ‘And I wouldn’t trade a single second of it. Is there anything in your life you can honestly say the same thing about?’

Without waiting for an answer she spun on her heel and left the room at speed, before running up to her room and slamming the door.

AIDEN listened to her running footsteps up the stairs and along the landing, and heard the slam of her door. Then he took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair.

Well, hell.

There was movement from his side and Mick turned the camera on him for a close-up.

‘Go away, Mick.’ Aiden didn’t even look at him as he spoke the words. ‘Give me a second, here.’

‘No can do. My boss would kill me.’

‘Your boss will thump you if you don’t.’ He glanced up at the lens. ‘And you know I pack a mean punch.’

Mick grinned behind the camera. ‘Touchy today, aren’t we?’

‘Mick—’

The glare would have been enough to make most grown men step back at least a couple of steps. But Mick merely continued grinning. ‘It’s in my contract to film everything. Them’s the rules.’

‘I wrote the damn rules.’

‘Well, you dug yourself a bit of a hole there, then, didn’t you?’

With a shake of his head he looked past Mick’s shoulder to the courtyard beyond. ‘Remind me never to hire you again.’

The camera continued rolling as Aiden stared off into space. Then, after several minutes’ silence, Mick spoke with a soft voice. ‘Finding this one tough, huh?’

He smiled a small smile. ‘She’s not what I expected, I guess.’

It was an interesting dilemma. He thought back over the brief he’d originally put together for the show and the plan he’d formulated from it. He’d had a type of woman in mind from the start, but Caitlin Rourke was a surprise to him. She was—more than he’d expected.

‘More complicated.’

‘You expected some party girl who would see this all as some big fun game?’

‘Maybe I did.’

There was a second’s pause. ‘A bit like Caitlin just said, in a way.’

After another brief glare Aiden closed his eyes and sighed. ‘Probably.’

‘But it’s not a game to her.’

‘Yeah.’ He opened his eyes and smiled sarcastically. ‘Because owning a fancy place of her own is such a big deal.’

‘And that’s wrong in your eyes?’ Mick frowned slightly as he asked the question. ‘Is it wrong for her to get that because she’s so young, or something?’

‘Things that matter that much are sweeter when you work hard for them. When you’ve had to make sacrifices along the way. It makes it more worthwhile when you achieve your goals.’

‘More honourable than lying your way there? Or fooling the people that you care about along the way?’

‘I happen to think so.’

The camera continued rolling.

‘She’s had an easy go of it up ’til now. Everything all neat and tidy.’

‘Apart from Liam.’

Aiden looked up at the lens again. ‘Was that his name?’

Mick nodded without moving the camera an inch.

Aiden mirrored the nod. ‘That had to hurt.’ He looked up at the ceiling. ‘Still does, by the looks of things.’

Hell.

With a frown he pushed his chair back from the table. Standing up, he looked at the camera again. ‘I don’t suppose I can persuade you two to stay here while I go grovel?’

Two heads shook in unison.

‘Caitlin?’

There was silence from the other side of the closed door.

Aiden glanced at Mick and Joe, who both stared back at him.

‘Look, I didn’t mean to upset you about your fiancé. That wasn’t what I was aiming for.’

The silence continued, and another sideways glance saw Mick shrug his shoulders and Joe smile weakly.

Then a small voice sounded from behind the pine door. ‘What exactly were you aiming for, then?’

He thought his answer over carefully before stepping closer to the door. ‘I was just trying to point out that you can’t plan for everything. Neither of us can.’

The answering silence was deafening.

Aiden leaned his forehead against the door as he tried to think of something to say that wouldn’t put both his size tens right in it again.

‘I just don’t know how else to get through this if we don’t plan it out. My family knows me too well.’

The restaurant obviously meant more to her than he could possibly understand. In a small part of his mind he wanted her to have the guts to get it by herself. To fight and work for what she wanted rather than having it handed to her in some get-rich-quick scheme. He knew only too well from recent experience that she had enough backbone to stand up and fight against him when she believed he was out of line.

So where was that mettle when it came to fighting for her dream? It didn’t make any sense.

But he had opened an old wound and he felt guilty about that. The best way to get rid of that ugly feeling would be to try and make amends.

‘Tell me how you were with him.’

The bed creaked a little, and he could imagine her turning to look at the door.

‘With Liam?’

‘Yes, with Liam.’ He leaned back from the door again and waited, his breath held still inside his chest.

‘We flirted a lot.’

Aiden smiled and let the air escape in a small burst of laughter. ‘You don’t like it when I flirt with you.’

‘You said you weren’t flirting.’

Turning around, he grimaced slightly at the camera and then sat down on the floor with his back against the door. ‘I may have lied about that. I did say I could lie when the cause arose.’

‘Why would you do that?’

‘Lie to you or flirt with you?’

‘The second one.’

He leaned his head back. ‘Maybe I’m just a flirtatious kinda guy.’

Her smile came through in her voice. ‘Nah, not you. You’re too sullen for that game.’

‘You think I’m sullen?’ A glance at his crew found them both smiling. ‘All right, I guess I can be—a little. But maybe you bring out the flirty side of my nature.’