Enchanted (The Accidental Billionaires #4)(47)

“She doesn’t want to hurt anyone, Noah. I think she was afraid that it would hurt more if she promised you the moon and then died on you. Yeah, she just passed a really pivotal year in her recovery, but her thinking hasn’t had time to catch up with that yet.”

I jerked my head up. “Don’t fucking say that. She’s not dying on anyone.”

Christ! If I didn’t know better, I’d think the crushing pain in my chest was a damn heart attack.

If she was going to get sick again, I wanted her to be with me. Period. She needed me by her side. Somebody other than my brother should have been there to protect her, to hold her when she was feeling weak, to be there like a permanent fixture that was never going away.

“Do you think you can hold off death?” Owen asked ruefully.

“I’d sure as hell try,” I growled.

“I honestly think you would,” Owen agreed. “But you’re right. She’s not dying on anybody. Not anytime soon, anyway. But it’s going to be a while before she believes that. This was a big year for her. Year five is a huge milestone. She’s still completely clean. We even picked up her five-year bracelet.”

“Five-year bracelet?” I asked, confused.

“Every year that she’s clean, Andie has gotten herself a bracelet to mark that year as cancer-free. Didn’t you see them in Mexico?”

I suddenly remembered the pleasant sound of those bracelets jingling together, and understood the significance of every one of them. “I noticed. I just didn’t know they meant that much to her.”

“They do,” Owen said solemnly. “We added the fifth one in Boston. She’s reached the point where she’ll just be getting a yearly check next year, and then they’ll only need to see her if her symptoms return.”

“They won’t,” I rasped. I’d make damn sure she stayed as healthy as possible.

“Noah, Andie has never really had a guy in her life except me, and I’ve never been anything other than a friend to her. This is all new for her. She’s going to stumble a little. Can you be patient? The Sinclair men aren’t actually known for taking things slow once they find the woman they’re supposed to be with, but Andie is still adjusting.”

It wasn’t like I was all that much experienced at relationships, either, but now that I understood why Andie had still been a virgin, I wished I had been more patient. I wished that I had built up her trust instead of being ruled by my dick. “I did more than stumble,” I told Owen disgustedly. “I fell flat on my ass, and I don’t have the excuse that Andie does for that.”

Owen chuckled. “You two really are perfect for each other.”

I gave him a dirty look. “I want to be with her. It doesn’t matter how long it takes for her to look at the future. I just want . . . now.” I wanted every damn moment she’d spend with me.

I could keep my dick in my pants, because I was hoping to build her trust this time. If she’d trusted me completely, she would have told me the truth in the first place.

“Then tell her that,” he suggested. “Andie deserves to be wined and dined, treated like she’s important to a guy. She’s never had that, but she should.”

“I can do that.” Holy hell, I wanted to do that.

“If you two can just be honest with each other, you’ll be fine. You’re going to get impatient at times, and she’s still going to be afraid of a relationship. If you understand each other, you’ll get through it.”

“I don’t plan on being impatient,” I argued.

Owen shot me a doubtful look. “You will be. Look at Seth and Aiden if you need an example. Once they fell, it was hard to hold either one of them back.”

“I still wish she’d told me about everything that happened to her while we were in Cancún,” I said.

“Seriously, Noah? What’s she supposed to say? ‘Hi, I’m Andie, and I had cancer and almost died’? Who does that when they first meet someone? And consider her history. Her illness drove her parents away from her. Can you imagine what she’d be thinking about telling anyone else?”

“I’d like to strangle her parents,” I said murderously.

“Get in line,” Owen retorted. “But Andie has accepted that it’s just the way her parents are made, and she’s at peace with it.”

There was a silent pause in the room before I said earnestly, “You’ve been a good friend to her, Owen.”

He shook his head. “She was a good friend to me, too. It’s not hard to love Andie.”

“Apparently, it’s pretty damn easy,” I said in a self-mocking tone. “I was a goner within a day or two. She turned my whole damn world upside down.”

“Do you regret that?”

I answered immediately. “No. She forced me to look at what’s really important in my life, but I don’t regret it.”

“Just be good to her, Noah. She’s one of those rare women who are worth working hard for, and I don’t want to see either one of you hurt. Maybe her threat of the cancer is pretty much over, but she’s still living it. She just hit year five.”

“She’s had enough hurt in her life,” I told him reassuringly. “Like I said, you have been a good friend, Owen. You’ve taken care of her, been there for her. But I’ll take it from here.”