Page 30 of Accidentally Marrying the Billionaire

"Do you actually believe that?"

I open my mouth to say yes. The word doesn't come.

"No," I admit quietly. "I don't."

"Then what are you really afraid of?"

I close my eyes.

Becoming Dad.

The words sit in my chest like a stone. I don't say them, but Mitchell hears them anyway. He always does.

"You're not him," he says firmly. "You know that, right?"

"He was certain too," I say. "Every time. Every wife. He'd look at them like they were the answer to everything, and then six months later he'd be looking at someone else the same way."

"Dad was certain he'd found someone who could fix him," Mitchell counters. "That's not the same thing. He wasn't choosing them. He was choosing escape."

I swallow hard.

"You're not looking at Evelyn like she's going to fix you," he continues. "You're looking at her like you want to be there for her. There's a difference."

Is there?

I think about the way she laughed in Kurt's driveway. The way she tucked into my side on the couch like she belonged there. The way she looked at me after—flushed and dazed and happy—like I'd given her something she didn't know she was allowed to want.

"She looks at me like I'm steady ground," I say quietly. "Like she's not waiting for me to disappoint her."

"Then don't disappoint her."

"It's not that simple."

"It is," he says. "It's exactly that simple. You're just scared."

"I'm not—" I stop. Breathe. "Okay. Fine. I'm scared."

"Good. That means it matters." He pauses. "You know, I spent the entire drive from Houston to Vegas trying to convince myself I wasn't falling for Evie. Told myself it was just proximity. Just adrenaline. Just the situation."

"And?"

"And by the time we hit the Nevada border, I knew I was completely full of shit." He laughs softly. "Sometimes your heart knows before your brain catches up. Sometimes you just have to trust that."

I think about the moment I saw Evelyn in that ivory dress. The way something in my chest clicked into place like a lock finding its key.

"Two brothers," Mitchell continues. "Two women with the same name. Same place. Same day. You really think that's random?"

"When you put it like that, it sounds insane."

"It is insane. Think about the insanity, though, and what it actually means.”

“You might have to connect the dots for me,” I say.

“Statistically speaking, it is completely improbable for both of us to meet women with the same name. Add in all the other weird shit that happened… me falling for Evie and telling you that you couldn’t marry her, you already being married. Doesn’t all of that feel so random that it’s actually intentional?”

“Like it was meant to happen that way?” I ask.

“Yeah, like that. Fate, soulmates, whatever you want to call it. It feels bigger than either of us. It feels like the kind of happy accident you don’t let pass you by. The kind of mistake you grab onto with both hands and refuse to let go of.”