Endeared (The Accidental Billionaires #5) - J. S. Scott Page 0,23

things she regretted to Owen, but she had an excuse. She’d been extremely sick, and fighting cancer.

“He says he’s already over it,” I explained. “But how can he be after I’ve been such a bitch to him over something that never happened?”

“Because he cares,” Andie answered softly. “Owen is the kind of guy who believes life is too short to hold something against someone once they apologize for it. He doesn’t take it personally. It’s one of the things I adore about the man.”

“I still feel guilty,” I muttered.

“Cut him a break and he’ll be happy. Honestly, I think he could use a friend. I’ll be gone, and he’s in a weird period of his life right now. Owen has spent his whole adult life studying to be a doctor, and then suddenly, he’s been dropped into a whole new life. I don’t think he has any idea what to do with this life of not studying, not going to school, and being filthy rich on top of all that.”

“Yeah, we talked about that a little,” I shared.

“I think you can probably relate,” Andie mused. “Be there for him, Layla, because I can’t be. He needs somebody right now, and I feel like shit about leaving him when he was always there for me. Owen has never asked me for anything. He’s always been a giver.”

“What can I do?” I asked her eagerly.

I wanted to do whatever I could to help Owen, if he’d let me.

“He’ll never really admit that he needs someone, or that he can’t handle everything himself,” she warned. “But if you get to know him again, you’ll see how his mind works. The man is freaking brilliant, but I don’t think he was prepared for how much his life would change once he was actually done with school. He was too busy just trying to get through each day.”

“Do you think coming back to Citrus Beach was a little bit weird for him? I think he feels like so much has changed here,” I said thoughtfully, remembering what little Owen had said to me earlier.

“It has changed. For him and for me. You probably haven’t noticed because it’s grown a little at a time, and you never really left. But it’s grown a lot. There are so many new businesses and new housing tracts that were built after Owen and I left. It’s kind of embarrassing, but I actually got a little lost a couple of times looking for places I thought I knew so well. All of the previous landmarks that led me to those places were gone, or hidden by new builds.” Andie chuckled as she mocked her own ability to find her way around Citrus Beach again.

“Maybe that’s why he’s never been to Russo’s,” I mumbled. “But he must have GPS.”

“Oh, God, no!” Andie exclaimed. “It took me forever to finally admit that I needed my GPS to find some places. This is my hometown. I felt like I should remember, but I finally gave up and pulled out my GPS to find Russo’s. When I did, I found out they’d moved. They had a fire in the old building. The owner told me that they used that opportunity to expand and rebuild right down the street. They sold their old site. I think it’s a fast-food joint now.”

“Oh, God,” I groaned. “That was over seven years ago.”

“I’ve been gone for over a decade, so it was all new to me.”

It had to be new for Owen, too, but it had been so long ago for me that I’d actually forgotten that they moved down the street a little. “Owen asked about Russo’s and if they were still on Baker Street. I told him they were, because they’re still there. But I didn’t think to tell him that they weren’t in the exact same location.”

I was almost certain now that Owen had been asking because he’d tried to go there and hadn’t seen the pizza restaurant.

He can pull a nine-digit number out of his head after only seeing it a couple of times over a decade ago, but he’s too damn stubborn to turn on his GPS?

I smiled. Yep. That kind of sounded like Owen.

Andie sighed. “Like I said, it’s new if you’ve been gone for ten years. Maybe you should just take him there and feed him. The guy could use a few good meals. I think he lived on hot dogs and ramen noodles in Boston, and he only had those