Enchanted (The Accidental Billionaires #4)(27)

I actually giggled like a teenage girl as I stood. I couldn’t help myself.





CHAPTER 10

ANDIE



“Well, what’s the verdict?” I asked him curiously as we sank into the blue, clear water of the cenote in the jungle after the temazcal ceremony.

A little moan of satisfaction escaped from my lips as the cool water washed over my body. I watched as Noah submerged his head.

I’d found the entire ceremony fascinating, but it had been so hot in the sweat lodge that it felt fantastic to get cooled off in the cenote.

He swiped his dripping hair back from his face after he’d surfaced. “I think I suck at blowing into conch shells and summoning the gods.”

I snorted. I hadn’t done much better than he had at making any kind of significant horn noise from a conch shell. “I didn’t mean that.”

I dunked my head and came up sputtering. The chill of the water was pretty bracing after the heat of the sweat lodge, so I hefted myself up on a platform beside the cenote and let just my legs dangle into the pool of deep water.

Noah swam over and rested his arms on the wooden dock right next to me.

We’d done a private ceremony, so we had the water all to ourselves. The jungle around us made it feel secluded, but I knew it was just a short walk back to the ceremony area, where we’d eat some dinner before we left.

“I feel kind of like a wet noodle,” he confessed.

I smiled. “That’s a good thing. That means you’re relaxed.”

“I don’t know about that, but I do feel wiped out. I’m glad we came here. It’s pretty peaceful.”

I sighed and leaned my head back. “It is, right? I think you take these kinds of experiences and make them into whatever you want.”

I didn’t think either one of us believed we called down the gods, but for me, the ritual had been like meditation. It had cleared my mind and left me completely relaxed.

Our surroundings were beautiful, a lush jungle that was quiet except for the occasional sounds of the local wildlife.

“It’s hard to believe that this vacation is half-over already,” he said thoughtfully. “I was dreading it, and now I really don’t want it to go too fast.”

I pulled my legs out of the water and stretched out on the platform, propping my head on my hand to look at him.

“Please don’t go back to business as usual once this is over,” I persuaded. “You look so much better already.” I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out a hand and smoothing my palm over his whiskered jaw.

I’d been careful about getting too close to him after our earth-shattering kiss, but I couldn’t hold back any longer. I had to touch him.

Somehow, I needed to make sure he was completely out of his work mode, and be certain he was never going to return to driving himself into the ground.

He reached up, grasped my hand, and just held it tightly. “I feel better,” he replied, his eyes intense and full of fire as they met mine. “I used to have headaches, but I haven’t experienced a single one since the day I got here.”

“Migraines?” I asked curiously.

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think it was just tension. I never really had them diagnosed. It was a bitch to try to work through one of them.”

“How often?” I asked anxiously.

“Right before I got here, nearly every day.”

My heart melted. Of course he’d never gone to the doctor. I squeezed his hand. “Oh, Noah. You ridiculous, absurd, stubborn man,” I said softly. “How much longer were you planning on torturing yourself?”

He shrugged. “In my mind, I wasn’t doing that. To be honest, I was just driven to finish one project and move on to the next one. I wasn’t thinking, Andie.”

“You were afraid if you stopped for a moment, your family wouldn’t be okay?”

“Yeah,” he said huskily. “It was just one huge cycle I couldn’t escape, I think. Nothing else was . . . real. Even the money wasn’t real in my mind. Yeah, I knew it existed. But it wasn’t really connected to me and my need to keep working. The only thing I really thought about was my promise to my mom, and my desperation to keep it.”

I had to blink back the tears that were forming in my eyes.

Noah had still been a kid himself when his mother had died. I couldn’t even imagine how lost he must have felt. He’d had the weight of his entire family on his shoulders when he was barely old enough to shave. “How did you do it? How did you manage to juggle that much family responsibility, get a college degree, and work like a maniac all at the same time?”

“I didn’t think about it,” he answered. “Probably if I had, it would have scared the shit out of me. But I had Aiden and Seth to help with the younger ones. And they pitched in financially with full-time jobs after they got out of high school, too. I got my bachelor’s degree locally. It took a while. And most of my master’s was done online. It was a computer-science degree.”

“Incredible,” I said breathlessly.

“Looking back, I have to wonder how we made it during those first few years. We were all grieving Mom in our own way, and really short on money, but even Owen and the twins tried to do everything they could to keep us together. They all picked up a lot of chores they shouldn’t have had to do as kids. I’m not sure how I would have done it if I hadn’t had such an amazing family. It was a group effort, really. All of us took on a lot of responsibility way too young.”