Enchanted (The Accidental Billionaires #4)(4)

“I’ll have to see her pretty soon,” Owen said unhappily. “All of the paperwork is nearly done. The practice will be mine very shortly. I wonder if she knows I’m going to be her new boss.”

“She knows,” I informed him. Layla had sounded about as enthusiastic about the reunion with Owen as he sounded about seeing her again after all these years.

I’d spent a lot of time wondering if something had happened that I wasn’t aware of, and why exactly the two friends weren’t excited about seeing each other again.

Competitive or not, we had all been good friends.

Owen had returned to Citrus Beach less than a week ago, just in time for his brother Seth’s wedding.

He was home for good now, and currently camping out at my house with most of his belongings in storage until he found a place of his own.

Not that I minded. I’d enjoyed having his company. I still wasn’t completely acclimated to being back in Southern California myself, and I didn’t really have many friends left here.

It had been kind of a shock to leave the frigidly cold weather in Boston for a warmer climate. “I can’t say that I miss the Boston weather,” I said jokingly. I’d grown up in Southern California, and I’d never gotten used to the winter climate in Massachusetts.

“Me either,” Owen agreed heartily because he was a California native, too. “Winter sucked. Not that I ever got outside all that much.”

I shot him a sympathetic look. He’d worked his ass off to get through medical school and then his family-practice residency. Plus, he’d always carried at least part-time work on the side until he’d very unexpectedly come into money near the end of his residency. Becoming a doctor hadn’t come easily for Owen financially, and my heart had bled for him every time I’d looked at his exhausted face during those years. He might be brilliant, but there had only been so many hours in a day, and he’d used very few of them to sleep.

Not that he’d complained. Ever. If anything, he’d suffered from a healthy dose of guilt because his family was helping him financially to get through med school.

I’d experienced an enormous relief when Owen had become a billionaire, like all of his other siblings, because of an inheritance from his absent and long-deceased father.

I stopped packing and went to sit beside him on the bed. “It’s over, Owen. Your family is wealthy now. You’re a doctor, and all of your family is grown and doing well. The hard times are done.”

Thank God.

Although I wasn’t as rich as Owen was now, I came from money, and I’d begged him to let me help. I had a healthy bank account because of the inheritance my grandmother had left me, and I wouldn’t have missed the money if the obstinate ass would have let me help him.

Stubbornly, he’d refused my assistance every time I’d offered to help him financially.

The guy had the personality of a pigheaded mule. He’d been determined to get through school or die trying without taking any handouts from friends.

It hurt me that he’d never let me do anything for him after he’d been there for me when I’d needed him.

Owen’s emotional support had been so much more valuable than money.

He locked his hands behind his head and sat up beside me. “Maybe my siblings are happy now,” he agreed. “All of them except Noah. As far as Noah is concerned, it’s like nothing has ever changed. He’s working himself into an early grave. I don’t get him. We all have more money than we could ever possibly spend, even if we spent our entire lifetime trying. Why in the hell can’t he take a break? He’s lost weight, and he looks like hell. Have you seen him?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Probably because he never gets out of his damn office,” Owen grumbled. “It’s like he doesn’t even realize that he doesn’t have to work that hard anymore. Did he miss the part where we all became billionaires?”

Owen looked so troubled that I put a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know. Noah was always a workaholic,” I reminded him.

“Because of us,” he said anxiously. “He had siblings to support. But he doesn’t have to do that anymore. Hell, my sisters had to beg him to take this vacation to Cancún we gave him for Christmas. And he owns his own business now. He doesn’t take contracts. He sells his apps once they’re developed. It’s not like he’s on a hard deadline. He can work whenever he wants, but I think he works even harder now than he ever has before. That punishing work schedule is starting to show. He doesn’t look good.”

I put an arm around his broad shoulders and bumped his arm with my head. “I’ll be there for him in Cancún,” I promised. I could tell that Owen was worried about his eldest brother’s health.

In fact, he was so concerned that he’d asked me if I’d fly to Cancún and force Noah to relax. Make sure his eldest brother had leisure activities and didn’t work like a maniac the entire time that Noah was in the Caribbean. I’d readily agreed since I was a blogger and travel journalist who visited locations to write about my travels and the cuisine. Yeah, I’d been to Cancún several times, but as a foodie who loved spice, I never got tired of it, and I hadn’t been stretching the truth about Cancún being a popular and highly requested location for my blog and articles.