Enchanted (The Accidental Billionaires #4)(18)

I’d known her as a self-conscious, quiet kid. Back then, I’d done my best to encourage her, give her more self-confidence, just like I’d done with my younger siblings. But Owen had been right when he’d pointed out that she was all grown up and then some.

I didn’t recognize her anymore.

But for some damn reason, I wanted to know her.

She fascinated the hell out of me, which I knew wasn’t exactly a good thing, but I wasn’t going to listen to that cautionary voice inside my head.

Andie was an adult. What in the hell was the harm of two adults getting to know each other?

Problem was, I wanted carnal knowledge of her, too, which scared the shit out of me. So I’d have to keep the getting-to-know-you thing casual. Indifferent. Oh, hell, strike that. I didn’t feel the least bit detached when I looked at Andie, no matter how much I wanted to be.

Maybe it was because we were so different that she intrigued me.

“Tell me about what you do,” I told her.

“I work and I play at the same time,” she explained. “It’s a great way to live.”

I reached for the wine bottle and refilled my glass. If one glass was good for me, two was better, right? “You don’t see your parents much?”

“Never did,” she said, her voice touched with sadness. “My parents were a couple who probably never should have had a kid. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but they’re really wrapped up in each other and their social life. They’ve always been pretty absent. Not that I was abused, neglected, or anything. I lived a very privileged life that I’m grateful for, but I wish they would have been more involved in my life, especially when I was a kid. I used to envy Owen.”

“Why?” I asked honestly as I refilled her glass and dropped the wine bottle back into ice. “We couldn’t rub two pennies together when he was a kid. I used to feel bad because I could never afford to give much to my younger siblings.”

“They had you, Aiden, and Seth,” she answered in a wistful voice. “Owen was always playing ball, going to the park with one of you, or doing something with a sibling. You and your brothers were present in his life. If he had a problem, one of you was always available to talk about it. Money doesn’t mean all that much, especially when you’re a kid. I would have rather had a family.”

Those words were spoken by a woman who had never had to count pennies in her life, but I understood what Andie meant. I’d never been without a lot of family, so I couldn’t completely understand being in her shoes, either.

“You were lonely,” I said as the truth hit me. Andie had seemed so lost as a kid because . . . she really had been.

Maybe she hadn’t just lacked self-confidence. Belatedly, I realized that she’d had no idea where she really belonged.

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry for that,” I told her remorsefully.

“Don’t be,” she insisted. “It wasn’t your job to parent me. You were basically still a kid yourself, Noah, barely eighteen, with more responsibility than any eighteen-year-old should ever have at that age. You did an amazing job. You have a great family now.”

“I think so,” I agreed. I was proud of everything my siblings had accomplished. But that was all them. It didn’t have anything to do with me.

“I got through my childhood, and you helped me, Noah. I never forgot how you made the time to talk to me when I needed somebody older to give me some advice or just to tell me that I was okay.”

I frowned. “I could have been around more if I’d realized how alone you were. I guess I didn’t know that your parents were gone quite that often. I figured they were still in the picture sometimes.”

It was becoming pretty obvious that Andie hadn’t been a spoiled little rich girl. She’d been a lonely one whose parents weren’t ever there for her. I’d had no idea that her parents had left her to her own devices year-round. I’d figured that they just sometimes had to travel for work or something.

Andie continued, “I used to blame myself for not being the kid my parents wanted, but I don’t anymore. Becoming an adult means you start to see life like it really is, and not what you thought it was when you were younger. As a child, I thought they didn’t want me, but the truth is that they didn’t want to give up their lifestyle for a child. Period. It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d been different back then. I kind of wish I hadn’t spent so much time trying to twist myself into something I wasn’t, just to get them to want me.” She squirmed, looking uncomfortable before she changed the subject a little. “My parents like to travel, so I guess I come honestly by my own tendency to wander.”

I’d gotten a quick glimpse of the vulnerable side of Andie, and I didn’t want to let her shut that down, but I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, either. I decided to let it go . . . for now.

“What’s it like to be in so many other cultures most of the time?” I stretched my legs out on the lounger, ready to listen—eager to listen, actually.

She might be younger, but Andie had experienced a lot more of the world than I had.

“Most of the time, it’s exhilarating, but it can be exhausting. It seems like I’m always coming in and out of different time zones and trying to acclimate to how things are in different parts of the world. But I feel grateful to have experienced all the wonderful things out there, too. I love food, so I definitely like that part of the job. I also love to blog and tell other travelers about my experiences. I think what I do is valuable. I educate people, and I can steer them away from dangerous situations, or just things that are a waste of time and their money.”