Page 49 of Getting Lucky Number Seven

Maybe that was making the one-track-mindedness worse.

The strap of Beck’s duffel bag slipped down and he hiked it back up. “I’ll be just across the hall.”

I wanted to ask what the point of that was. He could ask me to come to New Hampshire with him to help him deal with everything, but spending an entire night with me was too much?

Maybe labels do matter.The back and forth when it came to the lines of our relationship were making me feel crazy. Up one minute, down the next. Confident when we were kissing, totally unsure the beat after that.

“Beckett?” A pretty woman with nearly black hair peeked through the open doorway. She came into the room and hugged Beck, then turned to me and extended a hand. “Hi, I’m Tessa Davenport.”

She had olive-tone skin, and her eyes were dark like Megan’s, which made me wonder what Beck’s dad looked like. And what his mom looked like, for that matter. “Lyla Wilder.”

Tessa was so flawlessly put together in her wrap dress, glittering jewelry, and heels, I felt like a mess in comparison. “Beckett doesn’t usually bring girls home.”

I waited for him to insist on the “just friends” aspect again, but he didn’t. Maybe that meant I should chime in, but there was something about the factual, toneless way she said it that made it hard for me to know how to respond. I wasn’t sure if she thought my being here was a good thing or a bad thing. But with the way she looked me over, a tight smile on her face, I felt like I was on trial.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Lyla. I was thinking we could all go out for dinner, and then, Beckett”—she turned her sharp gaze on him—“you and I need to sit down and go over a list of action items. It’s going to be difficult to fit everything into this week, but hopefully we can at least make a dent in it.”

“I’ll do my best,” Beck said.

“We’ll leave in ten, then?”

Beck nodded, and his aunt left the room, her heeled footsteps growing quieter and quieter. He sighed, dropped his duffel bag, and settled onto the bed. “I knew it. She lured me here with talk of one meeting, and now she’s going to have me busy every single day. I shouldn’t have asked you to come. You’ll be so bored.”

I climbed onto his lap, straddling him, and brushed my lips over his—it was one of those bold moves I never thought I’d be comfortable doing, but found I couldn’t get enough of. “I’ll help out however I can, but I’ve also got books and my computer, with plenty of schoolwork to keep my busy. I’ll be fine.” I ran my fingers across his jaw, feeling the start of his five o’clock shadow. “They both call you Beckett.”

“Yeah, my parents, too—they weren’t big fans of the shortened version, actually. But I was always Beck to everyone else.”

“So that’s what you prefer? Or do I get to call you Beckett sometimes?”

One corner of his mouth twisted up, and then he drew me closer and nipped at my bottom lip. “You, Lyla Wilder, can call me anything you want.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Beck

“You’ve got to go through their things, Beckett.” Aunt Tessa propped her elbows on the large mahogany desk that was more for show than work and put on her serious face which, considering her usual expression was already pretty serious, was quite a feat. “Until you do, I’m afraid you’ll never truly move on.”

“I’ve moved on,” I retorted. “To another state.”

Her forehead tried to furrow, but it was too full of Botox. I loved my aunt, and she was good to take in Megan, but she was more interested in getting back to her “real life,” where she didn’t have a teenager to take care of, and she could enjoy the money from the business without actually having to work for it. Then again, I was avoiding dealing with the company, so I couldn’t really talk.

“I have no idea what to do with everything,” I said.

“We need to at least box it up. I can help you later in the week if you’ll sort through it and get it labeled. Then, day after tomorrow, I set up a meeting with Mr. Hawthorne. He’ll go over any business measures that need your approval, and then you’ll meet up with the lawyer who insists his client has an urgent matter she needs to see you about.” Tessa rolled her neck from side to side. “You don’t have any illegitimate children I should know about, do you?”

“Not that I know of, obviously. But I’ve always been safe, so I’d be extremely surprised.” Of course now she had me thinking of every possible worst-case scenario. I supposed there was that one percent of the time condoms didn’t work. But I’d only slept with two girls before college, so the likelihood of one of them coming to me here instead of Boston was slim.

I sat back in the cushy leather chair and pinched the bridge of my nose. Our meeting had already lasted forty minutes, and each thing she’d said only got crappier. I didn’t think I could take much more. “Are we done here?”

“For now. As for your guest…”

Every nerve in my body prickled at her tone. “What about her?”

“She’s like your mother in a lot of ways. Free spirit with acutestyle. Intrigued by your wealth and status. I’d hate to see you make the same mistake your father did. We both know how that turned out.”

“First of all, Lyla’s not like that. This is the first time she’s heard about any of this, and she doesn’t care about money.”

“Oh, Beckett.” She gave a what-a-naïve-idiot sigh. “Everyone cares about money.”

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