Torque by Gillian Archer (10 ebook reader txt) 📕

“Like what?” I asked as I whirled around, my hand still resting on the doorknob. “A people-pleasing doormat? Isn’t this the exact opposite of what someone like me would do?”

Hope raised her palms. “Okay, I think we all need to take a breath—”

“Of course you’d say that!” I interjected. “You’re good at taking a breath and saying so much without saying a word.” I shook my head, so mad, and so…just done. “Have a nice night.”

I pulled open the door and stepped through without another word from them. Closing the door quietly behind me, I headed for Dylan’s condo and tried to keep it all together. The last thing I wanted was to have to explain to Dylan or Ryan or Nathan why I was so emotional.

But I didn’t need to worry. I didn’t run into Nathan or Ryan on my short walk, and like always Dylan’s condo was empty when I walked inside.

Chapter Eighteen

Nathan

It’d been a tough afternoon interviewing women who spent most of their time hitting on me. There hadn’t been a single qualified candidate—unless you counted wet t-shirt contest winners, in which case, you’d have your pick of applicants. I wasn’t joking; at least five women had it on their resumes.

I was pretty sure my brothers thought I’d been exaggerating the quality of the applicant pool. That had been cleared up today when they sat in on the interviews. I thought Austin said it best when after the last candidate left, he put his head in his hands and groaned, “Holy fuck.”

I didn’t know if it’d be aired but it was memorable for me. And for the first time in a long time, I felt like we were all on the same page.

Well, all of us except Dylan. He’d never shown back up at the shop.

Now all I wanted was my sofa, a beer, and the warm, wet heat of my girl.

But Maddie was at girls’ night next door, and we were still pretending in front of my family that we weren’t dating. I couldn’t even crash the party and drag my lady home.

Which was why I was sitting on my couch with a beer in my hand but not my girl when someone knocked on my door. I briefly debated not answering, but the quiet babble of my favorite niece clued me in on who was on the other side.

I opened the door, and the second she spotted me Fliss screamed, “Na!” and jumped out of her daddy’s arms to me. I caught her and only slightly bathed us both in beer.

“Sorry about that.” Ryan laughed as he stepped in, closing the door behind him.

“No problem. I love holding my favorite niece.” I kissed the tip of Fliss’s perfect little nose while she babbled away, grinning at me. “What’s new with you, Felicity? Hanging out with Daddy? Is he treating you right?”

Fliss blew a raspberry. Ryan and I both cracked up at her timing. She grinned and laughed with us.

I looked over at Ryan. “You two get kicked out? Want a beer?”

“More like fled the scene, and hel-heck yeah, I’ll take one.” Comfortable in my place and with me holding Fliss, Ryan headed for the fridge to get his own beer.

“Does it get crazy during girls’ night?” I was totally pathetic, pumping my brother for a hint of what Maddie was up to.

“When I left, Sabrina was teasing Maddie about the new guy in her life giving her orgasms.” Ryan’s upper lip curled. “Like I wanna hear Sabrina saying that. Or think about Maddie having—you know what? Let’s talk about something else. What’s going on with you?”

“Not much.” I shrugged, acting lowkey when my mind was racing. Maddie had told the girls about me? Maybe since I’d told her mom, she decided we could tell others? I wanted to ask Ryan for more details but then he’d know something was up, and if she hadn’t told the girls, I really didn’t think Maddie would appreciate me outing us to everyone on the same day.

After last night, I really wanted to keep her happy.

“…last one. I never really thought about all that went into belly dancing. What did you think?”

I blinked back into the present just in time to catch the last part of what Ryan’d said. “I don’t want to hire any of them. You guys should’ve seen the first round. At least these ladies kept their clothes on.”

Ryan’s eyes rounded. “Maybe I will sit in on the next round of interviews.”

“Ha. I’m sure Hope would love that.” Was I seriously discouraging him from helping me out? “You know what? I’d appreciate the help. It’s not like I can count on Dylan to show up when he’s supposed to.”

“Yeah,” Ryan said quietly as he rubbed thumb over the condensation on his beer can.

I sat on the couch and pulled out the little basket of baby toys I had stashed in the corner and let Fliss loose on the rug. She crawled over, pulled one toy out, looked at it, chewed on it, and then reached for another. Satisfied that she was distracted, I headed to the kitchen for a new beer and rinsed the sticky beer off my arm. After grabbing a wet paper towel, I took a second and wiped all evidence of our spill off Fliss then joined Ryan on the couch.

Where he was giving me a funny look.

“What?”

He hitched a shoulder. “Nothing.” He smirked.

“What?”

“It’s just you have this edge—that don’t fu-fudge with me attitude that keeps most people away. But you’re really just a big ole marshmallow. I mean, you keep toys in your house for your niece. That’s precious.”

“Fu-frick you.” I tossed a look at Fliss, who was still happily occupied with the toys, but babies heard more than you thought. Or so Aunt Wendy loved to lecture us. “I love my niece. I’m not ashamed to admit it.”

“There’s loving your niece, and then there’s keeping toys and diapers on hand for when she stops by.”

“I don’t—”

“I’m not