Ty, Fin and I burst into laughter while Grandma chastised him from across the table. After that Fin said grace per Grandma’s request and then the food was passed around. We fell into comfortable conversation, laughing and joking.
I easily fell in love with Declan, faster and harder than I ever had with Fin. He was so sweet and charming, I couldn’t help myself. And all the while I interacted with Fin’s family he sat back with an arm across my chair just watching me, like I was the most precious thing he’d ever held. And I fell for him all over again when he patiently helped feed his brother, leaving Declan with both his dignity and pride. Fin humbled me in a way no other person had before, leaving my heart a big mushy puddle of love.
I enjoyed watching how everyone interacted and even how they included Ty and forced him to relax. Ty told me that he was meant to do something for this family but over lunch I could easily see how much they were doing for him too.
“Now, Tyler,” Grandma cut in very sternly. “When are you going to bring over a girl? If Fin can find a good one, I know you can.”
“Hey!” Fin objected.
“Turns out they’re not so easy to find, Grandma,” Tyler ignored Fin completely. “And besides, has your grandson told you how he went about getting this one? He forced her to work for him and held her hostage by a huge debt of money.”
Fin paled next to me, I watched the color drain out of his face from the corner of my eye. If I wasn’t so amused by it I would have probably gone to his rescue. Maybe….
“Finley Davis Hunter is that true?” his grandma gasped while Declan laughed.
“By the way,” Ty cut back in. “You should have come to me first, son. I’ve been trying to help this family for the last three years and not one of you has let me so far. I’m giving you this money. If you want to pay me back you can, but I won’t argue about it. You’re going to take the money.”
Tears immediately pricked at my eyes and not at all because that meant I was free from the debt. Fin already made me feel like the debt was forgiven. These tears were for Declan, because no matter what happened between Fin and me I was never going to be able to come up with that kind of money.
“What’s this money for?” Grandma demanded, setting her knife and fork down.
“Declan’s facility, Grandma,” Fin explained. “Thanks for the offer Ty, but I don’t need it.”
“What do you mean you don’t need it?” I snapped, whirling around to face him.
Fin chuckled, and then explained, “It became clear very early on that you were not going to be able to come up with the money, Ellie. Besides, it was only seven thousand dollars. I knew it wouldn’t take much for me to come up with that, so I made some small changes.” He shrugged casually like I hadn’t beenobsessedwith this amount of money for the last six weeks. “I was able to save the majority of it pretty easily.”
“What changes did you make?” I gritted out.
“I cut back on my expenses, upped my cut on the games and stopped dating random girls.” Fin grinned at me.
I was gaping at him, mouth unhinged, eyes bugged out, hands shaking. “What?” I squeaked. “I’ve been sick over this money!”
“I told you not to worry about it,” he reminded me sternly as if I should have listened to him.
“Yes, I know you told me that. But I did it anyway!” I argued helplessly. “Ididworry. And I even saved money. Plus all that time I spent with you! I can’t believe this!”
“You don’t regret the time you spent with me, do you?” Fin teased. He didn’t even feel bad about this, not even a little bit.
“Yes, I do. Some of the time I do regret.” But then I broke into a smile and ruined the whole thing. “But what about the money I saved?”
“How much did you save?” he asked carefully.
“Like,” I cleared my throat, embarrassed to admit this next part. “Like fifty dollars.”
Ty and Fin broke out into laughter. Even Declan smiled at me.
“Ellie you exist on Ramen Noodles and pay for gas in loose change. I never really had high expectations for you to pay me back. Besides, I have been meaning to take a bigger take of the winnings anyway.”
I sat back in my chair speechless.
“So you don’t need any help?” Ty asked gruffly.
“Thanks man, but no I don’t.”
“This means Declan can go now? We can afford the facility?” Grandma asked with so much hope in her voice I almost started to cry again.
“Yep, Dec, it’s for sure now, you can go,” Fin said proudly.
