Chapter 6 : NOT RELATIONSHIP MATERIAL

•AVERY•

I look back toward Reef after watching Sienna leave.

“Who is she?” I ask, keeping my voice steady even if my insides felt like they were scattering.

Reef scratches the back of his neck and shifts on one leg.

Must be a bad sign for me, I guess.

“She and Kade have history.”

I let that sit for a moment.

And no one thought to let me know? Oh my fucking God. I mean, I’m here for Mr. Kade after all.

“How much history?”

A corner of his mouth tightens.

“Enough.”

That wasn’t an answer Reef.

I internally roll my eyes.

“Look,” He says. “She’s probably just—”

“It’s fine,” I say. “Thanks.”

I angrily walk away before he can finish whatever version of that silly sentence was going to come next.

Sienna found me about forty minutes later.

Kade was still in his debrief. Reef had vanished again and I was standing in the hospitality corridor pretending to drink a coffee when I heard heels behind me.

Then I perceived a perfume scent.

A rich perfume scent.

“Avery.”

I turn around.

Sienna smiled and held out her hand as if we weren’t strangers speaking for the first time.

And that smile? I wish I could plug it out of her face.

“I’ve been meaning to find you all day.”

Up close, she looked even more put together than she did from when I saw her earlier at the paddock.

“Sienna.”

I shook her hand.

“You know who I am?” She asks rhetorically.

“Reef mentioned you.”

“Of course he did.”

She laughs softly like that was supposed to be funny.

“I hope he was kind about it.” She says. “He’s never sure how to handle me you know?”

Something about that made me think he hadn’t been.

Her eyes moved down the corridor.

“Kade still in debrief?” She asks coyly

“Yes.”

“Poor qualifying.”

The sympathy sounded genuine.

Which was somehow weird maybe?

“He gets very quiet after days like this. Did he talk to you?”

“A little.”

“Good.”

She says it like she means it and smiles at me.

“He needs people who can sit with him when he’s like that.”

People.

What an interesting choice.

“It’s good he has you.”

I took a sip of my coffee that had no business still being warm.

She tilts her head slightly. “How are you finding the paddock?” she asks. “It’s a lot at first.”

“I’m managing.”

“I thought you might.”

Her attention settled on me a little more fully.

“It probably helps, with your background.”

I look at her.

“My background.”

“Psychology.” She says casually almost like she was challenging me.

“Sports psychology, specifically. Edinburgh, wasn’t it? Before the private practice?”

She gives me a devious smile and all I wanted at this point was for this conversation to be done with.

“I did my research you know? I like knowing who’s around Kade.”

The coffee suddenly tasted awful and I kept my face stoic while still trying to come off slightly polite. I have been holding this face since I was twelve years old in a house where showing what you feel costs you and I have never once been grateful for it until right now and I am not exactly grateful now either.

“That’s thorough of you,” I say.

“I care about him.” She says simply.

Her gaze drifts briefly down the corridor.

“Edinburgh’s interesting, actually.” She pauses. “They mostly work with performance anxiety, don’t they?”

At this point, I think I can hear my heart beating in my head.

“High-pressure athletes.” She says and pauses a bit. “Not relationship work.”

There it was.

Set down neatly between us.

I stare at her and she looks back at me with neither of us saying anything.

The silence stretched exactly as long as I knew she wanted it to.

Then she smiled again.

“Kade says you’re calming.”

Like the previous thirty seconds had never happened.

“I can see why.”

She picked up her bag.

“I just wanted to introduce myself properly. We’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other.”

Something about the way she said it made the sentence feel less friendly than it sounded.

“It was lovely meeting you, Avery.”

Then she walks down the corridors with the sound of her heels clicking as it quietly fades.

The perfume took longer though.

I stand there holding my cold coffee and I breathe in and out very slowly through my nose.

She knows the practice I worked at before this. Not just that I’m a psychologist. The specific practice, the specific specialty, which means she’s done more than a quick search and she placed it carefully enough that she wanted me to know exactly how much she has and to spend the rest of the day working out how.

Which I will obviously.

Nice. Very smart of you Sienna.

But for now, I stare into my coffee.

Then towards the garage.

Then back into the coffee again.

Because if I started thinking about that conversation properly right now, I was going to need a better drink.

Kade came out of debrief about twelve minutes later.

I spotted him before he spotted me.

Or maybe I just recognized the way he walks.

Sue me.

Either way, he spotted me near the garage entrance and changed his direction immediately and came straight towards me.

Which was becoming a problem I was refusing to define.

His eyes land on my face.

“What happened?”

Right.

Because apparently my face had betrayed me after all. What a fucker.

“Enough of the curse words Avery” I silently say to myself

“Nothing,” I said. “Just a bad coffee.”

He looked at me.

Like he looked like he was trying to see straight into my soul.

“Right.” He says in a not-so-convinced way, not buying it for a second.

I don’t even blame him.

“How was the debrief?” I ask trying to push the entire thing to my back.

“Avery.”

“Kade.”

His jaw shifted.

And I waited.

He kept looking at me and for one stupid second I thought he was going to keep pushing and the thought made something in my chest react to that but I ignored it on principle.

Then he exhaled and looked away first.

Possibly a small victory, yayyy.

Always celebrate your little wins.

“Debrief was fine,” he said. “They’ve got some ideas about the setup for tomorrow.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah.”

I lower my head to the ground a little making him glance at me again.

It isn’t suspicious and I can tell he’s not pretending to be suspicious either.

Just… leaving the door open.

Maybe in case I wanted it.

Which somehow made it harder.

“You want to get out of here?” he asks.

Yes.

Immediately.

Pleaseeeee.

Preferably before Sienna reappeared carrying another perfectly researched fact about my life.

“Yes,” I say.

And mean it more than I’ve meant anything all day.

My room is quiet.

Extremely quiet, actually.

I sit on the bed with my laptop and start going through everything, one file at a time because that’s easier than thinking about Sienna or kade.

Arrangement documents, contracts, and password-protected folders.

Everything appears to be where I left it.

Nice.

I pull up the access log and read it once.

Then again.

The second time I read it more slowly.

Because apparently my brain has decided the first version makes more sense.

It doesn’t actually.

Four days ago.

A device I don’t recognise.

I stare at the screen.

Check the timestamp.

Check it again.

Then one more time because maybe numbers work differently when you’re tired.

Apparently, they do not.

Whoever accessed the files was inside the paddock when they did it.

And I know it’s not Connor.

It’s a different device, a different location, and an entirely different pattern.

Just… different about everything.

I sit back.

For a second I only look at the screen.

Then I close the laptop.

The room goes quiet again.

Edinburgh, wasn’t it?

I can still hear the exact way she said it.

Like she’s handing me a piece of information and waiting to see if I understand what’s attached to it.

The devious smile.

The timing.

The way she leaves it sitting there between us.

No, fuck!

She wouldn’t find that herself.

Somebody must’ve given it to her.

And that somebody did it four days ago while I was looking everywhere except where I should have been.