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“How does Dad feel about Molly moving in?” I ask my mom. “You two will be trouble.”
Mom links arms with Molly. “Please, he has the dog. At least I’m not the third wheel anymore.” Koda, the German shepherd, joined the family last year. That dog goes everywhere with my dad, and he started agility training for fun. My brothers and I joke we will always be second fiddle to a canine and my dad always laughs it off, but we all know.
“Where are Whitney and Reid?” Mom asks. We look around too, but we know why they’re late.
“Where’s the birthday girl?” our investor Dan Price asks from the entrance, holding a trolley of presents. Dan’s wife Makenna follows, holding more presents.
“Dan, I told you to tone it down this year,” I say. Dan and Makenna are practically members of the family. When our brewery was struggling four years ago, he stepped in, offering a hail Mary investment that turned this place around. In the last two years, we’ve been able to become not only profitable, but flourishing.
“I can’t help it,” Dan says.
“Uncle Dan!” Olive yells, running towards him, jumping into his arms. She looks down on the mound of presents. I’m not sure where I’ll put all the stuff. “Is that for me?”
“Of course.” He lets her down to her feet, and her mouth drops open in awe.
“Thank you so much.” She hugs around his waist.
“I tried to talk him out of it, but he had one too many Coors Lights the other night, and before I stopped him—” Makenna says.
“It’s fine,” I say, waving my hand. “She’s just getting money for college from me.”
“I already got what I wanted most,” Olive says, already snuggling up to Makenna.
“What’s that?”
“My parents are getting married!” Olive says.
“Congratulations,” Dan says, shaking Max’s hand. Makenna takes a look at my ring.
Dan hugs me. I lean in and whisper, “We’re doing it today.”
“Okay, sounds good.” His tone is serious as he pulls away, but smiles when he catches Mom’s gaze.
“Sorry we’re late,” Reid says, running in with Whitney following, both out of breath.
“Jackson, Shiloh, come. It’s time. Grab Dad.”
Dad is standing by the food, arranging and rearranging it in front of the cake. Shiloh links arms with him and pulls him over.
“What’s going on?” Dad asks, as he walks next to Mom.
“So,” I start, “we have a surprise for you.”
“What’s that?” Dad asks, looking between all of us.
“You’ve given so much to us that we want to give back to you,” Jackson says.
“So we pooled our money,” Cam says.
“And with one generous donation from a romance author,” Reid says, looking at his wife and winking.
“We’re buying Dan out,” I say. Whitney pulls out a cashier’s check, for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and presents it to Dan.
We made him an offer last week to buy him out, and he barely negotiated with us. “This might make me a terrible businessman, but I love the shit out of you Finches,” he said after we shook on the deal. The papers have been signed, and everything is final. The last piece is the check.
My dad is flabbergasted.
“The business is yours. A hundred percent yours,” Dan says, folding the check and tries to stick it in his back pocket, but Makenna takes it and tucks it into her purse. “Congratulations.”
