Enchanted (The Accidental Billionaires #4)(3)

Owen was definitely put together differently on the surface than he had been a year ago, but unexpectedly inheriting billions of dollars hadn’t changed Owen’s personality at all.

He was still annoyingly intelligent.

He was still sweet at the most unexpected times.

He was still a jokester.

And he was still the thoughtful, insightful guy who had always been my close friend.

He’s just wrapped in a more attractive package.

“So I take it you’re liking your new home?” he asked with a grin. “You better be careful. The two women who owned this place before you bought it ended up married to billionaires. It might be cursed.”

One of the previous owners had been Owen’s sister Jade, who had ended up married to the ultrarich Eli Stone.

The other had been Riley Montgomery, who had just recently tied the knot with Owen’s brother Seth.

I smiled back at him before I returned to my packing. Owen knew I wasn’t looking for that kind of relationship at this point in my life.

I’d come back to my hometown of Citrus Beach several months ago. I’d had a nice apartment in Boston as a home base between my travels, but I’d been yearning for the temperate climate of home for a long time. I’d finally made that move and purchased the adorable cottage on the water from Riley Montgomery.

It was the first time I’d ever owned a place of my own, and the cute little house had felt like . . . home.

“Eligible Sinclair men seem to be in short supply nowadays,” I said in a teasing voice. “I think your siblings and Eli Stone are the only resident billionaires in Citrus Beach.”

“Hey, that doesn’t mean all the good ones are taken,” Owen said, playfully pretending he was offended. “I’m still single, and so is Noah.”

I snorted. “Not happening. I plan on breaking the house curse.”

Owen and I teased each other like this all the time, since neither one of us had ever been in a relationship that had been headed toward matrimony.

Owen hadn’t had time to date during school, and I hadn’t had the inclination.

He groaned. “I’m officially a doctor now. Are you telling me that I’m still not good enough for you?”

Owen was way too good for most women, even without a medical degree. But I wasn’t about to inflate his ego. It was plenty big enough.

I rolled my eyes at him as I tossed a bathing suit into my bag. I waved at the suitcase. “Do I look like I’m ready to settle down?”

“I guess not,” he said in a sullen voice as he pounded on my pillow to make it fluffier. “Can’t say I’m ready to fall into domestic bliss, either. Maybe that’s why we’ve always gotten along so well all these years.”

I laughed. We’d gotten along so well because there had never been a single spark of attraction between the two of us. I didn’t buy the fact that Owen wasn’t ready for a serious relationship. It just hadn’t happened for him . . . yet.

Both of us had been ecstatic when we’d left Citrus Beach after our high-school graduation to go to college in Boston. We hadn’t really planned to go together. It had just worked out that way.

Unfortunately, my move to the northeast hadn’t gone quite as well as Owen’s had.

At least, not in the beginning.

Owen had breezed through his bachelor’s degree in a little less than two years. He’d been prepared for that by taking AP classes in high school, testing out of classes, and busting his ass in summer school.

My first few years in Boston had gone a lot differently, and nothing like I’d expected. So I’d been grateful to have Owen around when I’d desperately needed his support as a friend after my entire world had fallen apart.

I rifled through my underwear drawer and added a handful of panties to my suitcase. “Have you seen Layla yet?”

Me, Owen, and Layla had hung out together in high school, but when it had come time to go to college, Layla had stayed behind to go to school in California. She and Owen would be working together now, since he planned on taking over the elderly Dr. Fortney’s practice where Layla was working as a nurse practitioner.

“Not yet,” Owen said flatly. “I’m sure she’ll be the same pain in the ass she always was when we were in school.”

“You liked her. She was our friend,” I scolded him. “You two were just too . . . competitive.”

“I wasn’t competitive,” Owen argued. “For some reason I could never understand, she just . . . changed. She wasn’t even speaking to me by the time we graduated.”

I turned to him and put my hands on my hips. “You and Layla were the two smartest people in our class. You were competitive. But I think you liked being challenged. You just won’t admit it.”

While Owen and I had been like brother and sister, I couldn’t say the same about Layla and Owen. The three of us had been friends, but there had been enough friction between those two to send out plenty of sparks. The two of them had just never acted on that attraction.

“We’re not kids anymore,” he grumbled. “She’s a professional. I’m a professional. I’m sure we won’t fight like adolescents.”

I smirked. I’d gotten together with Layla a lot since I’d returned to Citrus Beach. I’d made my move home and bought the cottage way before Owen’s recent arrival back in California. He was going to be in for a surprise when he saw just how much Layla had grown up. Honestly, I thought that Layla would be pleasantly surprised about how Owen had matured as well. “She loves what she’s doing at the clinic,” I told him. “She seems happy, and God knows she deserves to be happy.”