Only a Millionaire (The Sinclairs #6.5)(36)

“How?”

“Brooke didn’t have much interest in men. If she did like a guy, the relationship didn’t last long. She always seemed to be calmly waiting for something extraordinary.”

“Like me?” I joked.

“Maybe for the right one,” Noah agreed, missing my joke entirely.

“What about Jade?” I asked curiously.

“She’s completely disillusioned,” he answered unhappily. “She’s been burned, so she doesn’t trust easily. She’s still a romantic with other people, but not so much for herself.”

“She’ll find somebody to trust eventually,” I consoled him. “Tessa was the same way.”

My sister had been badly scorched, but she’d healed after she’d found Micah.

“I want every one of my siblings to be happy,” Noah shared in a tense voice.

“What about you?” I realized that Noah had been so concerned about his family that he probably had never taken the time to consider his own happiness.

“Doesn’t matter,” he rumbled. “I had too many responsibilities to worry about myself.”

“It matters,” I disagreed.

“Not to me,” he said solemnly.

I looked at his sober expression as I started walking back to the small living room filled with more Sinclairs than I really wanted to deal with at the moment. “It matters to your family,” I said quietly.

“I noticed,” he answered in a graveled voice. “Jade is trying to hook me up with every woman she thinks would make me happy. She doesn’t understand that I’m married to my business right now. I want to be worthy of the money I inherited.”

I snorted. “You were born worthy.”

“Evan and his family are successful,” he argued.

“They might not have been if they hadn’t been born into money. You can’t compare your situations.”

“Maybe not,” he agreed. “But I’ve always wanted to be successful in my own business. I have that opportunity now.”

The world was wide open to Noah now, like it never had been before. He could be whatever he wanted to be. Even though they hadn’t been raised alike at all, I could see so much of Evan in Noah. Evan’s half brother had the same ambition and drive as Evan did.

As we made our way back into the crowded living room, I just hoped he didn’t become as big of a prick as his half brother.





CHAPTER 17

BROOKE



“I know it was overwhelming today,” I said hesitantly as I walked hand in hand down Citrus Beach with Liam.

My family was always a little bit too much when we were all together in one place, but seeing and talking to them all had been a relief for me. I wished Owen could have been here, but I knew it wasn’t possible.

I sighed as I watched the waves crash onto the shore. There weren’t many people on the beautiful stretch of beach that I’d haunted when I was younger. It was too cold to swim, and it was overcast, but it felt good to be somewhere so familiar.

Things had changed for all of my family, and nothing was quite the same as it was when I’d left, but they were positive changes.

Noah was slowly building his own empire.

Seth and Aiden seemed a little bitter about what our father had done to our mother, but I couldn’t blame them for that. I think every single one of us hated our father, and the bullshit he’d put our mother through by being a bigamist.

Eventually, maybe we’d all see everything differently, but I doubted it. Someday, I hoped Seth and Aiden could at least be less angry about what happened. They were in business together now, and they seemed happy with their fates.

Jade was the only one who seemed troubled, but she refused to share whatever was bothering her.

Liam squeezed my hand as he answered, “They’re your family. I don’t have to love them all.”

“They’ll grow on you,” I warned him with a smile.

Liam was seeing my siblings at their worst right now. My brothers were overprotective. But when they joined forces for a common cause, they were downright dangerous.

Liam stopped and turned to face me. My breath caught as I looked at him, his hair slightly rustled from the breeze, and his expression somber.

“I haven’t really gotten to know them,” he explained. “But I want to.”

I searched his face. I knew he was trying to tell me something. “What are you saying?” I probed, my heart racing with anticipation.

“I want to stay here with you, Brooke. I want to build us a beautiful home, and raise our children here if you want to have them.”

My chest ached as I looked at his earnest expression. I wanted to have kids, I just hadn’t found the right guy, so I didn’t think much about it.

I watched as Liam foraged in the pocket of his jeans, and then finally found what he was looking for.

He flipped open the small box, and the breath I was holding whooshed out of my body as I saw the beautiful diamond inside.

I looked from his face to the diamond, my heart thundering in my ears.

“I love you, Brooke,” he grumbled. “I probably have since the first time I saw you, but I didn’t want to think about it back then. I hate what you’ve been through, but I want the chance to show you what real happiness feels like.” He paused before he added, “Marry. Me.”