Fifteen #2
He was falling in love with her—maybe he was already there. He wanted her to love him back, but he wanted to earn her love.
After moving the tray outside and slipping Nadia’s dinner into the mini-fridge, he crawled into bed beside her.
Lying on his back, he stared at the ceiling.
He was going to win her over. He was going to be everything she expected and more.
He was going to rise to the man she deserved—he just had to figure out how.
When Elliot awoke, the sky was still black. Nadia slept soundly beside him. He frowned into the shadows, a troubling thought on his mind.
Slipping out of bed, he grabbed his laptop and moved to the chair.
Once he found the site he was looking for, he typed in the address to Nadia’s house and plugged in his credit card information, purchasing access to a fully inclusive report. The property was listed under Ada Szoke, her grandmother. He jotted down the name to get the spelling accurate.
Within thirty minutes he had everything he needed, the land and tax evaluations, all previous sale information, and the most recent appraisal of the property.
While on the site, he also did a search on the neighboring property, that of a Mr. Roland Hegedus.
The man had remortgaged three times and was looking at thirty more years of payments with practically zero equity.
While that man barged into her family’s lives parading about like the gaudiest form of wealth, he had nothing to show for it. His funds were liquid and his property belonged to the bank more than her grandmother’s, yet he had them convinced he could somehow bail them out of financial crisis.
Sitting back, Elliot laughed quietly to himself. “You son of a bitch.”
Closing his laptop, he checked his watch. They had roughly nine hours until they were on a plane back to the States.
Calculating the time difference, he grimaced. He shot a text to all three of the guys, hoping at least one of them would get it before morning.
Tossing the phone aside, he gently nudged Nadia. She opened her eyes and smiled. “Hey, you.”
“Hey.”
She rolled onto her back and frowned, noting the sun had yet to rise. “What time is it?”
“It’s early still. I need to talk to you.”
She rubbed her face. “Is something wrong?”
Taking her hands, he chafed them gently. There was a good chance his nosing around could upset her.
“Nothing’s wrong. Nadia, is your grandmother’s name Ada?”
She frowned, her eyes suddenly guarded. “Yes. Why?”
Relieved, he relaxed a bit. “She owns the house. Did you know that?”
“How do you know that?”
“The information’s accessible online.” No need to mention he paid for that access. “My point is, if she sold the property to you at a much lower cost, the taxes would be taken out of escrow and the payments could be stretched over time.”
She frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Elliot. I don’t want to buy that house, nor do I have that sort of money.”
“I’m talking about a loan. Let’s say the house is valued at a hundred thousand dollars, but she sells it to you for only twenty.
You stretch that out over thirty years with a very low interest rate and you’re only paying a little over a hundred dollars a month with taxes figured in.
Your mother could definitely afford that and still live a decent life. ”
“Elliot, I don’t have twenty-thousand dollars. And I don’t want that house.”
“Why? You don’t need to have the money up front. You just need to get approved for a loan. Your mother would be maintaining it.”
“That will never work. I once tried to buy a car and they laughed at my credit score. I’m not worth anything.”
He scowled. “First of all, yes, you are. Second, if you’ve never had a loan and don’t have any substantial debt, you don’t have bad credit, you just don’t have any period. You have to build it. I can help you do that.”
“How?”
“I’ll cosign for the loan.”
She shook her head and slid out of bed. “No.”
“Why?”
Pacing, she flung out her hands. “Ne keverjük a szerelem és a pénz. Nem akarom, hogy tartozom neked semmivel, és—”
“English, Nadia.”
She paused and shook her head. “I do not want to owe you anything. What if I mess up and it hurts you?”
Over twenty-thousand dollars? She honestly had no concept of his wealth, which was endearing.
“You won’t. As cosigner, I’d keep abreast of all transactions, penalties, and fees. If there was an issue with making a payment, I’d intercept before the banks could.”
“Then you’d be paying for my family’s home. No.”
“I wouldn’t be paying. I’d be a safety net.” A legitimate one that wouldn’t lord it over her or her family.
“And what happens when we can’t make ends meet?
My mother isn’t reliable. She has to work, but if she thought she could get away with no job, believe me, she would.
She doesn’t have the same work ethic as the rest of my family.
You don’t want to do business with her and neither do I. Don’t get involved.”
He frowned. “But you’d let Roland bail your family out?”
“That’s them, not me. My father trusted him, so they automatically think he’s a good person. My grandmother’s old, Elliot. She doesn’t know him the way I do. And my mother … she is lazy. She will always take the easiest shortcut.”
“Don’t they care how he treats you? You can’t negotiate with bullies. They’re never satisfied.”
“He doesn’t bully them. Just me, and we’re going home tonight. He can’t get to me in America.”
“But he keeps you from visiting.”
“Money keeps me from visiting.”
And yet she continued to send them money. “They shouldn’t bargain with him, especially when you’re sending them money on occasion. This is your home, too, Nadia. If your family knew how he actually treated you, they’d probably feel differently.”