Endeared (The Accidental Billionaires #5) - J. S. Scott Page 0,17

She married the captain of the football team and has a couple of kids now. She’s in San Diego,” I said. “We tried to hook up for coffee or lunch a couple of times, but something always came up with her husband or her kids, so we never ended up meeting in person.”

“Do you have her number?” he asked gruffly.

“In my phone,” I replied.

“Call her,” he demanded.

I shot him a startled look. “Now? Andie will be here any minute.”

“This party isn’t starting for another hour. Call her. You owe me that, Layla. You just accused me of lying and intentionally stealing that scholarship from you,” he said grimly.

“You did lie to me,” I shot back at him as I opened the small cross-body purse I’d left on the island. “I just don’t understand why you won’t own it. Maybe then I could completely get over it. It’s not like I don’t know that you needed every scholarship you could get.”

“Maybe because I didn’t do it. Whether you believe it or not, I wanted you to get that scholarship once I’d found out that you’d applied. I was aware of just how badly you wanted to be a vet. Hell, I was blown away when Andie mentioned that you were going to nursing school instead. What I don’t get is why you’d ever believe that I could crush your dreams like that intentionally and still be able to live with myself, Layla. You never shared all that much about your family life, but I knew enough to know that it wasn’t good. Why in the hell didn’t you tell me you couldn’t get much financial aid, or that your chances of becoming a vet were heavily dependent on that scholarship?”

I rarely discussed my home life with anyone back then. I’d been ashamed of what I had, compared to the way Owen’s brothers and sisters always supported and encouraged him.

Maybe I’d been embarrassed to tell him too much about my life.

Owen had never had two pennies to rub together, but he’d had so much . . . more.

I took a deep breath. “There was nothing I could do about it, so I didn’t talk about my home life, and there wasn’t much I could do about my college situation, either,” I said defensively. “I was hopeful about getting the Manheim to help get me through a bachelor’s program since I did a lot of volunteer work for the animal shelter and a couple of other animal-welfare organizations.”

Actually, it had been the director of the shelter who’d made me believe I could become the recipient of the Manheim. She’d known one of the committee members for the scholarship, and she’d shared that I was at the top of the list when I’d first applied.

My dreams of going directly into a bachelor’s and then to vet school had been flying high.

Which had made the crash-and-burn part pretty damn painful when I’d found out that all of the required recommendations hadn’t been received before the deadline.

“You never told me about your financial worries about the future,” he commented.

I snorted. “You never told me much about yours, either.”

“I was a hell of a lot more open than you were,” he contradicted as he nodded to the phone I’d pulled from my bag. “Call her.”

Did I really owe it to Owen to get a confirmation from Bea that she’d sent my recommendation for the scholarship? It wasn’t like all the evidence didn’t point toward him.

If I don’t owe it to him, maybe I owe it to myself.

I’d never even considered the possibility that it could have been Bea who didn’t send in the required letter.

Everything had pointed toward Owen, and I’d been blinded by the pain of his perceived betrayal.

I need to just do it. Even though I know it was Owen, I’m a grown-up now. I have to rule out every possibility.

Now that I was discussing all of this with Owen face-to-face, maybe there was a small, niggling doubt in the back of my mind.

Yes, it still made sense that he’d been the one to crush my adolescent dreams.

But it was really difficult to completely ignore the devastated expression on his face.

I turned my back on Owen, found Bea’s number in my phone, and waited for her to pick up.

CHAPTER 5

OWEN

“Oh, God. I’m so sorry, Owen.” Layla dropped her phone on the counter and plopped onto one of the stools at the island.

I was so pissed off at her that I didn’t want to feel any