Page 51 of The MC's Surprise
“Is something wrong?”
I shook my head, then grimaced, because that felt like a lie. “Not really. I just… I wanted to talk to you about something important. I feel like before we go any further, you need to know about my history.”
His confusion mounted and he set aside the food, turning fully to face me. “Your history?”
With a heavy sigh, I nodded. “I, uh… I told you when you hired me last summer that I was in town taking care of my sick aunt. That was a lie. I don’t have any aunts in the area. Or even any at all. My parents were both only children.”
I’d felt awful lying to him at the time, but I was too embarrassed to admit I was only working because I’d failed another project and needed seed money to start over. It was easier to lie.
“I…” I felt tears well in my eyes as I admitted, “If there’s one thing I’m good at in life, it’s failing. I’ve lost track of the amount of business ventures I started and then dropped because I couldn’t get them off the ground. That month that I was working with you, I was in town licking my wounds after another failure. I was only here long enough to make some money and regroup.”
“Okay… But that’s normal, right? Most businesses fail in the first year unless you’re both lucky and have the right connections. You’re what, twenty five?”
“Twenty eight,” I corrected.
“Twenty eight, then. There’s still plenty of time to figure out what you want to do and make it work.”
“That’s the thing,” I argued. “I did find it. After I left here the last time, I started an event planning business. And I was good at it. I was doing well for the first time ever and even managed to book some pretty big clients. But I made a mistake.”
He put his hand on mine, squeezing gently, but I couldn’t look him in the eye as I dumped all my baggage on him.
“I hired a guy named Steven Marks. He was an accountant, supposed to be one of the best. I’d heard of him, so when he contacted me asking to work together, I thought I’d hit the motherlode. I should have done more research, looked into hisreferences and past jobs. I was just so excited and everything was going so well, I didn't think–”
My voice cut out as I choked on a sob. I’d never been so blindsided before. In all my other business ventures, I could see where I was struggling, could see the failure coming a mile away. This one came out of nowhere. We were doing so well, despite how new we were. It shouldn’t have fallen apart like it had.
Vegas moved to sit behind me, pulling me against his chest and wrapping his arms around me. I lost my ability to hold back tears as he silently supported me, waiting for me to tell him the rest of the story. Between blubbering, I forced the words past my throat.
“From day one, he manipulated financial documents and made me think we were doing better than we were. We weren’t doing bad, things were good, but he made it look a lot better and…” I shook my head slowly. “Then he lied to the few investors we had. Any extra money we made went straight into his pocket. We were audited after one of the investors reported his suspicions and there was no going back after that. Even after I was cleared of all involvement, no one trusted me enough to give us their business. No amount of community outreach could fix what he broke. I sold everything I had to keep us afloat, but with no clients, there was no way to salvage it. In the middle of all that, I found out I was pregnant and I knew I couldn’t do any of it on my own anymore. So I came home with my tail between my legs once again. And here I am.”
Instead of pulling away, demanding more information, that kind of thing, he drew me closer until I was in his lap and surrounded by him as much was physically possible.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” he murmured against the top of my head, one hand soothing up and down my back as he held me. The tears kept flowing and I felt a little pathetic for clinging to him like I was, but he didn’t complain or pull awaywhen I turned in his arms and my tears soaked his shirt. He just held me and let me cry until I was calm enough to listen to what he had to say.
“I don’t think you’re a failure. I think you’re brave. Most people might try once or maybe twice to start a business. The fact that you kept trying, pushing yourself despite how hard it must have been to walk away and start from scratch, is amazing. And I don’t think being cheated by your employee is a reflection on you. You didn’t fail. You were stabbed in the back and left to deal with the consequences on your own. And you still came back with your chin up, determined to do right by me and our kid by telling me the truth. I admire you, Sierra. I don’t think I could have started over the way you did. Not on my own. You’ve gotta be the bravest person I know.”
No one had ever said that to me before. My parents supported me, but they also looked at me like I was making a mistake whenever I tried something new. Vegas wasn’t like that. He didn’t care how badly my life had fallen apart. To him, I was brave just by choosing to keep going. I’d never thought of it that way.
“And I don’t think you should be so quick to walk away from your dream. You said you were doing well before. I’ve seen what you can do around here. Maybe we should look into–”
I cut him off with my fingers on his lips, shaking my head. I didn’t even want the idea to come out of his mouth. I didn’t want to dare to hope. There was too much at stake now.
“I can’t. That dream is gone. I need to focus on what’s important. I need stability for the baby and owning my own business isn’t stable, especially when I start from scratch.”
He looked like he wanted to argue, but I slipped my hand around to the back of his neck, drawing him down for a kiss. It successfully distracted him, and when I pulled away, he looked a little dazed, which was fun.
“We’ve only got a few more weeks until the baby comes. We should focus on that.”
His eyes cleared and he searched my face for a moment before eventually dipping his chin. “Alright. We can do that. I, uh, actually had an idea about that. The old ladies have told me plenty about how hard the first few months are after having a baby. I want to be around so I can help you. So if I can close on the house, would you consider moving in with me?”
Sucking in a sharp breath, I gaped at him. We were still on our first date and he was already asking me to move in?
He smirked, shaking his head. “I know. I sound crazy. But I want to be there through all of it. Night feedings, diaper changes, all of it. I want to help raise my kid. It’d be easier to do that if we were staying together. It doesn't have to be forever. I understand we’re still too new for that, but at least for a little while… Could you do me a favor and think about it?”
I could admit the idea had merit. I’d originally thought my mom would be the one to help me overnight. She already was making space for baby things in the house and I didn’t have enough yet to move out. But I’d told Vegas about the baby because I wanted him to be involved as much as he wanted to be. If he wanted to help with the initial few weeks, it felt a little wrong to tell him no.
Still… I didn't want to jump the gun. Not with something as important as this. Our relationship was still new, fragile, and I’d heard how hard the few weeks were with the sleep deprivation and recovering from birth. I didn't want this to end up being what chased him away. I needed to talk it out with someone first.
“I’ll think about it,” I promised.
