Enchanted (The Accidental Billionaires #4)(43)

“Of course it will. Now tell me about your sex life with Noah. Was he a stud?” he asked jokingly.

I raised my chin. “Like I’m going to tell you that? Butt out of that business, mister.”

I knew Owen, and I got that he was letting me make this particular decision on my own, now that he’d had his say.

He’d be there for me if I needed him, but he was letting me settle things in my own mind and in my own way.

I sighed before I said, “I’ll tell him. But no other promises.”

He grinned. “Then I’m not worried. I know my brother. If he’s crazy about you, he’s not going anywhere, and he’s sure as hell not going to let you walk away without a fight.”

Maybe that was why I was really afraid. Nobody had ever stuck with me except Owen, not even my own parents. Generally, people floated through my life, but never became . . . attached.

Deep down, I desperately wanted to feel that attachment, even though, at the same time, I’d spurned it.

“Here we go,” the owner said as she breezed out from the back room. “It’s all done, and it’s beautiful.”

She took the delicate bangle bracelet out of the box and handed it to me. My hand shook a little as I took it.

“This is it, Andie,” Owen said solemnly. “Number five.”

I held my arm up and surveyed the other four bracelets around my wrist. They were all thin, just enough of a circle to be able to number them.

Number one was white gold.

Number two was rose gold.

Number three was yellow gold.

Number four was a combination of all of the colors twisted into one bracelet.

I surveyed the one I was buying today. This one was platinum because it was special.

The jeweler had engraved it with a single word.

Five.

I pushed the delicate circle over my hand and onto my wrist with a tremulous breath.

“Done,” I said to Owen softly.

“Thank God!” he exclaimed in a deep baritone before he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

I threw myself into his arms and basked in the comfort of his rough hug.

“Everything is going to be fine, Andie,” he said in a husky voice beside my ear.

He said that every time I got a new bracelet.

But this time, I almost believed him.





CHAPTER 17

ANDIE



I went to see Noah the day after I returned from Boston, and I nearly turned around and left the moment I pulled into his driveway.

What’s the point of telling him about my past? It isn’t like it’s going to change anything.

I stopped my sporty convertible in front of his garage and turned off the engine.

It doesn’t matter whether it changes anything. It doesn’t have to change anything. It’s all about Noah and his perception of what happened the day we decided to end it.

I was going to tell him because I should have done it before we’d ever gotten intimately involved.

I’d just never expected him to say that he wanted to stay with me.

That he wanted to date me.

That he was going to want marriage in the future.

I took a deep breath and let it out as I put my keys in my purse.

Coward!

I wasn’t going to run away again. I wasn’t going to let all of this go without him knowing everything.

Even if I hadn’t hurt him, I’d thought about what might have gone on in his mind, and I hadn’t liked the direction those conclusions had headed.

What if he thought he was being rejected? He didn’t know that the issues between us were not about him and all about . . . me.

If nothing else, I might have damaged his ego, and that was the last thing I’d intended.

Noah had just started to join the world again.

I didn’t want him to feel let down before he’d completely found his way.

That was why I was here to tell him the truth. If he knew, he’d never doubt that the problem was me and not him.

The man was so incredibly lovable that I didn’t want him to think, for even a moment, that he wasn’t.

I’ll tell him, and we can both move on.

My bracelets jingled as I adjusted my purse across my body, the sound a reminder of just how far I’d come from where I’d been years ago.

I didn’t ever want to go back. Really, I didn’t even want to talk about what had happened, which was why I avoided thinking about the darker times in my life.

Just do it!

Determined, I shoved my arm against the car door and got out. I stopped in my tracks as I closed it.

His house is amazing.

The home was really big, but I couldn’t say it was ostentatious. It was beautifully landscaped, and the lawn was well manicured. However, it stopped just short of being simply another mansion on the water.

It was an older home, but it was charming, with stonework in the front that reminded me of rocks that you could find on the beach.

There were a couple of palm trees and some well-placed, colorful plants that kept the house from being too stodgy and uniform.

I smiled as I approached the front door and noticed that it was a deep burgundy shade, which was a nice pop of color to keep the washed-out rock from being boring and bland.

If a big, rambling house could be charming, Noah’s home was exactly that. Just like my adorable little cottage, the place felt homey rather than showy.