“I hate that it was about money. I hate that we couldn’t just behappygetting by, that he cared so much about mewasting my timeat the sanctuary when private practice was so lucrative. He was a dental student and he was making something like four times what I made his first year out of college. He called me… all kinds of things. Useless, mostly.”
“Jesus,” Nolan said, unable to stop himself reacting in time. “I’m sorry,” he added. “I just… how could anyone who was supposed to love you say that?”
Finn held him a little tighter, burying his nose in Nolan’s hair.
“That was what I figured after about the twentieth time. It helped that I had Oscar by then. He… had some choice words to say about it.”
“Good,” Nolan murmured.
“But losing Mike meant losing my home here, and I couldn’t really afford another place by myself. So I packed up and went back to Iowa with my tail between my legs. And you know what?”
Nolan looked up to meet Finn’s gaze.
“My parents were fighting when I walked through the door,” Finn said wryly. “And by then I was so sick of fighting that it made my stomach hurt, but I didn’t have anywhere else to go. So I shut myself in my room and started looking for jobs. Until May called me two days later and asked me where the hell I was.”
“You didn’t tell them you were leaving?” Nolan asked.
“I told Oscar and asked him to pass it on. He didn’t. Because he knew that May would call me and I’d have to explain myself to her.”
“What did she do?” Nolan asked.
“Told me to haul my ass back here and live at the sanctuary until I was back on my feet again,” Finn said, smiling a fond, distant smile at the memory. “That’s a direct quote. Thehaul my ass back herepart, anyway.”
“Doesn’t surprise me. She seems… formidable.”
“She is. Best auntever,” Finn said, grinning this time. “So anyway. I got in this car and drove the whole way back without stopping for anything more than gas, food, and naps. The end.”
Nolan was silent for a few moments, processing everything Finn had just told him.
“You have my word that I’ll never shout at you,” he said. There was a whole lot more hewantedto say, but that was enough for now.
He could hardly remember feeling closer to anyone than he did to Finn right now. This wasn’t exactly asecret, but it wasn’t something Finn had needed to share, either. He’d done it because he trusted Nolan the way Nolan trusted him.
Nolan didn’t plan on breaking that trust.
“Thanks,” Finn murmured. “And thanks for… listening, I guess. I’ve never really told that story to anyone who wasn’t there for it.”
“I’m honored,” Nolan said. “And anytime.”
Finn opened his mouth to speak, but a knock on the window made both of them jump.
“You boys waiting for a mechanic?” a woman’s voice called out, muffled by the glass and the rain.
Finn let go of Nolan and wriggled his way free of the nest of blankets, practically falling out of the back passenger-side door as he rushed to get out of the car.
“That definitely wasn’t two hours,” he said.
“I was in the area,” the woman responded. “Didn’t wanna leave you out in this storm.”
Nolan stretched out on the blankets for a moment, letting the muffled conversation wash over him and trying not to betoodisappointed.
He rolled over to look at Ollie, who was still sleeping peacefully in his cage.
“I’m starting to think Finn likes me,” he said to the unconscious otter, unable to stop himself grinning. Sure, they’d been interrupted, butbeforethat, they’d been in the middle of the most intimate moment of Nolan’s life so far.
He wasn’t about to stop glowing for a while.
Finnlikedhim. Like-liked him.
This was the best day he’d ever had, breakdown and all.
