Chapter Fourteen
The movie finished around midnight. McKenna had fallen asleep on him, her head nestled against his neck, the gentle in and out of her breath warming his skin. He’d picked her up, carried her to her bedroom, and gently placed her in bed. She mumbled something in a groggy voice, her arms clinging to his neck for a moment before he disentangled himself from her vice-like grip.
Despite all the worry and confusion battling in his head, this small gesture made him smile in the darkness. The girl wore her heart on her sleeve, that was for damned sure. And he liked it.
No head games. No playing hard to get.
He brushed the hair from her forehead and tugged the covers up over her. Light filtered in between the slats of her blinds, illuminating the shape of her in the bed. As tempting as it was to stay and spend the night wrapped up in her, he needed to get home and clear his head. The revelation about Sherri was playing on his mind. Not to mention that if he was accepting that Lionus’s money wasn’t going to come in, then he needed to start working on a Plan B.
With a light step, so as not to wake her, he left her room and closed the door with a soft snick. Then he grabbed the empty containers from their meal and stuffed them into one of the takeaway bags so he could drop them in the chute on the way back to his place. But the second he stepped outside her apartment, his eyes locked onto something unusual and everything else was forgotten.
“Mum?” He stalked toward the crumpled figure at the end of the hall.
His mother looked up, her eyes hooded and sleepy. Her skin blotchy. Tear-stained. “Beck?”
“What on earth are you doing here?” His gaze whipped around. She had a coat but nothing else.
“I tried to call you,” she said.
Shit. He hadn’t taken his phone to McKenna’s, not expecting that he would be staying so long. Hell, he’d drifted there without even thinking his plan through.
“When did you get here?” He reached down to help her up from the floor.
“A few hours ago. I fell asleep.”
“Why didn’t you call Kayla?” He checked her over, a horrible feeling taking root in his gut.
Greg had never hit her before, but he’d always felt the power imbalance of their relationship and feared that one day it might take a turn. Thankfully, it didn’t look like she’d been hurt. Not physically anyway.
“You know what she’s like,” Minnie huffed.
Yeah, Beckett knew exactly what she was like. His sister set a lot of boundaries with their mother, thinking it might teach her something. Which meant she always came to Beckett first.
“I knew you’d come home at some point.” She raked a hand through her frizzy hair.
Satisfied that she didn’t need to be taken to a doctor or the emergency room, Beckett dug his key out of his pocket and let them both into his apartment. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
Silence. After the spiel she’d given him at dinner the other night, her showing up unannounced wasn’t a good sign. A lot of people could cause his mother’s temper to flare up, but only one ever made her cry.
“What’s he done now?” Beckett growled. “I swear to God, if he hurt you—”
“He’s gone.” She let out a tearful huff and shook her head, her thin lips almost disappearing as she pressed them together. “You were right, I guess. He comes and goes as he pleases.”
“When are you going to stop letting him walk all over you?” Anger ripped through him like a freight train. “When he’s here he stomps on everything, and he leaves you and Kayla in tears. Every goddamn time. And I’m the one who picks up the pieces.”
He wanted to find that sonofabitch and tell him to stay the hell away. For good.
He’d lost count of how many times he’d been here—consoling his mother. Dreading having to tell his sister that her father was gone. Again. The man was a parental Houdini. It’d taken Kayla years to trust her fiancé. They’d known each other since they were kids, and he’d always been in love with her. But Kayla had assumed he would leave her just like her father did.
And now he was going to have to tell her it’d happened again.
“I’m sorry, Beck.” Tears shimmered in his mother’s eyes, her face crumpling. She looked way older than her fifty-two years—heartache etching lines into her face that shouldn’t have been there. If only she could apply the take-no-bullshit attitude she had at work to her relationship with Greg.
“There’s more.” She hiccupped.
Ice solidified in Beckett’s veins. “Tell me.”
“I went out yesterday to do some grocery shopping and…” She shook her head. “My card got declined. He’d been to the bank and…and…”
Her words dissolved into a sob. He wanted to ask how she could have been so stupid to leave his name on their accounts when Greg hadn’t contributed a cent in years. But they were well past that conversation now.
“How much is left?” Beckett wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.
“Enough for a month’s rent. Barely.”
Jesus. All that money he’d put aside for his mother, all the blood, sweat, and tears slaving over that project so he could create a secure life for his family. Gone.
“If he ever sets foot in your house again, I swear…” Beckett’s chest heaved, the cold reality freezing his blood. It was gone. All of it. “We’re done, okay? This is it. I don’t give a shit if he grovels until his voice gives out. He’s on his own now.”
His mother was nodding, tears still rolling down her cheeks. She looked deliriously tired, no doubt having stressed for hours about telling him. What the fuck was he supposed to do now?
“We can’t tell Kayla yet,” his mother said. “She called earlier today to ask if he was going to come to the wedding.”
“Shhh.” He pulled her into his arms and let her cry against his T-shirt. “We can figure it out tomorrow.”
He set his kettle to boil and got his mother to make herself a cup of tea while he changed the sheets on his bed for her. No way was he letting her sleep on the couch. And tomorrow he’d go to her place and change the locks. Then they’d go to the bank and get Greg taken off her accounts.
He could fix this. There had to be a solution.
After his mother had drunk her tea and gone to bed, Beckett lay on the couch, staring up into the darkness. Sleep wasn’t going to come, that much was clear. Not until he had a plan for how to fix the momentous fuck-up that was his life.
His mother had one month of rent. Beckett’s bank account could tide her over, but she’d have to get a job to cover bills and groceries. He could sell his apartment if need be. But that was all a Band-Aid solution.
Then what?
The app wouldn’t make it to market for a year, at least. And that’s if they did a cut-down version of what he had planned, and if he had a robust team of developers helping him. Profits would take longer still to come through. If he got a job, he wouldn’t have enough time to work on the startup.
As for the option of taking a loan…it was possible. He had equity in the apartment that he could borrow against, but it wouldn’t be enough to cover his mum and get WealthHack to the next investment stage. Certainly, not the two million Lionus had promised. And the venture capitalist Beckett had met with would only get on board at this early stage by cutting the heart out of his project and leaving him with crumbs.
“Fuck,” he muttered, grinding the heel of his palm into his eye.
The only way he could see to fix this problem would be to convince Lionus to support M.K. Technologies again. And that meant smoothing things over with Sherri.
The very thought of it made him want to pound his fist into something. Why now? Why, after he’d finally taken a step out of his box and discovered that there was more to life than security? It was like the universe was telling him to get back inside. To barricade the doors and go back to the old way of doing things.
Through the silence of the apartment, something rustled. A soft, muted sound. He pushed up and padded to his bedroom door. Sobbing. Pressing his palm to the door, he sighed, wishing he knew the right words to say.
But words weren’t his forte. Action was.
And that meant being with McKenna was a luxury he couldn’t afford right now.
…
The next few days were a whirlwind for Beckett. Everything had been abandoned, except helping his mother get back on her feet. She’d resisted some of the changes—like switching out her locks and meeting with a lawyer—but this time Beckett took Kayla’s advice. That meant helping Minnie face some harsh realities, instead of trying to Band-Aid the situation for her.
But the whole thing drained him completely. Caring for his family was exhausting. Emotionally. Mentally. So when he tried to throw himself into WealthHack, there was nothing left. And, after meeting with the bank and confirming they wouldn’t be able to loan him enough to get the project through to seed stage, Beckett knew he only had one option left: Lionus Aldridge.
Given the older man had hung up on him earlier that week, when he’d called to see if they could work things out, the only person who would have any sway would be Sherri. No matter how he tried to figure it out, he always came back to the same solution.
Which meant he needed to talk to McKenna.
He felt like a bastard sleeping with her and then calling things off. God, he was one of those guys he’d hated in high school. The asshole-type he’d warned his sister away from over the years. Guilt churned in his gut like a foamy, black wave. He had no idea what to say, no idea how to break the news.
The only thing he did know was that she deserved the truth. He didn’t want her finding out via some third party because he was too chickenshit to come clean with her. Beckett might not be perfect, but he wasn’t a liar.
Steeling himself, he headed out of his apartment and made the short walk to her front door. Every cell in his body resisted what he was about to do, making his hand feel as though it was filled with lead as he rose it to knock.
You’re doing the right thing by your family, and your future. Once you get WealthHack to market, you’ll be set. Then you can start worrying about what you want. Until that point, it’s about what you need.
But what did he need, really? Casting aside the money that Lionus had promised him—and the contract terms that left him in charge and in control—what did he need? A bed to sleep on, a roof over his head. The knowledge that his mother wouldn’t have to struggle. The fundamentals.
But he’d never thought beyond that. Never wondered what lay beyond the security of basic needs, because he wasn’t a guy who craved fancy holidays and fast cars. Beautiful women.
He swallowed and let his fist rap against her door. Beautiful woman. If he was honest with himself, there was only one person he wanted.
The door swung open and McKenna’s face lit up. “Beckett! What a nice surprise. I was starting to think you were avoiding me.”
He raked a hand through his hair, everything coiling up tight in preparation. Was he supposed to go inside? Or should they do it here? No, the last thing he wanted was people talking about his personal life.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
“Of course.” She gestured with a wooden spoon. “I was getting dinner ready. I’m trying my hand at making a Thai red curry from scratch. I’m not the best cook, I’ll be honest. But this recipe looked simple. Do you like spicy food? I’ve got enough for two if you haven’t eaten yet.”
She prattled on about the recipe, about the ingredients she’d bought fresh from the South Melbourne market, about that one time that she forgot to de-seed a chili before putting it into her meal. He let her voice wash over him for a few minutes, enjoying the tinkling highs and lows of her pitch. She spoke about everything with such excitement and passion, no matter how mundane the topic.
He could listen to that voice for the rest of his life.
Remember why you’re here. Don’t drag this out longer than you have to, it’s not fair on either of you.
“McKenna,” he said, reaching out to touch her arm. “We need to talk.”
A smile quirked on her lips. It looked as though she’d been wearing lipstick, but most of it had smudged off. A stray dot of sauce had stained her chin and he had to force himself not to swipe at it with his thumb.
“That’s the second time you’ve said that to me,” she said. “I’m starting to worry I’m rubbing off on you.”
Only in the best ways.
He cleared his throat. “Look, I don’t know how to do this…”
Seeing her easy smile dissolve into confusion and then worry was like an icepick to his heart. She didn’t deserve this.
“There have been some changes…” Shit. He’d never broken up with anyone before. But how was one supposed to do that before they were even dating? “I’ve had to reassess things.”
Her lip quivered. “This isn’t a good time to start using clichés.”
“I’m still going to get back together with Sherri.” Each word was like barbed wire scraping up the back of his throat, leaving him raw. Shredded. His voice wasn’t even his own. He sounded jagged and robotic. Like someone else was speaking for him. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but I need to do what’s best for my family.”
“Your family wants you to be with someone for the sake of money?” Her tone said she didn’t believe a word of it.
“It’s a long story, but—”
“I have time.” She folded her arms across her chest. “And I want to hear every word of it so that I remember the exact moment I figured out that I am physically incapable of telling the good guys from the bad.”
He cringed. “It’s not personal, McKenna. It’s nothing to do with you.”
“Yes, it bloody well is.” Her voice wavered. “I’m positive you’re not the type of guy to sleep around for kicks. It certainly didn’t feel that way the other night. That makes it personal.”
She stared at him, her blue eyes wide and surrounded by long, soot-black lashes. Unblinking. Her small frame was dressed in all black—a fitted dress, lace tights, and chunky, flat boots. Work attire. She mustn’t have been home for long.
“WealthHack is everything I’ve been working toward. It means my mother won’t ever have to worry about making ends meet like she did when I was growing up. It means she won’t have to work some crappy minimum wage job that she hates.” He swallowed.
He’d never talked about his family like this to anyone. Ever. As far as people were concerned, he was just a guy who loved to create. But they were wrong about what he wanted to create. It wasn’t an app or a lavish lifestyle or fame. It wasn’t even that he wanted to change the world. He was simply a guy who wanted his bases covered. Who wanted to give his mother the one thing she’d struggled to give him.
“It’s not about what I want for me,” he said. “It’s bigger than that.”