Torque by Gillian Archer (10 ebook reader txt) 📕

Hope’s brow wrinkled as she turned to me. I shrugged back.

“Okay,” Hope muttered, clearly not in on the joke. “Are we going on that walk, Ry, or are you gonna spend the evening making eyes at your brother?”

Ryan snorted a laugh. “Let’s walk. You two want to join us?”

“I gotta secure her oil pan,” Nathan replied, deadpanned.

“Right.” Ryan lifted his eyebrows. “Her oil pan.”

“Oh my god.” Hope shoved Ryan as she pushed the stroller forward. “I have no idea how you can make something like that sound nasty, but you just did. This is Maddie and Nathan. You’re ridiculous, Ryan. Bye, guys!”

“Bye.” Nathan and I echoed as Ryan’s laughter washed over the parking lot followed by Hope’s muttering and Fliss’s squawks.

We watched them in silence, and when they turned the corner out of sight, Nathan turned to me.

“So that’s the way it’s gonna be? Still?”

Heart prickled my scalp. Nathan was mad. And disappointed in me. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I just want to know. What’s it gonna take? When’s the point that you’ll feel comfortable telling my family about us? Because you had no problem telling your parents.”

“That’s not the same, and you know it. I didn’t want to tell my mom, but she came over and found out all on her own.”

“And the world didn’t end.” Nathan shook his head, disappointment etched on his face. “I don’t get it, Maddie. What’s the issue? Why can’t we tell them already? You’re practically living with me. I’m sick of having to lie to them and sneak around like we’re fucking teenagers.”

“I know, Nathan. I’m sorry.” I kneeled down next to him and put my hand on his thigh. “How about we tell them tomorrow during Sunday dinner at Wendy’s?”

The last two Sunday dinners had been torture. Well, actually the first had been fun, like the two of us had a naughty secret. There’d been a few flirty looks and maybe a scorching kiss in the bathroom. But the strain was visible the second dinner. Nathan was over keeping our secret. And I didn’t blame him. It was hard.

“Dammit,” Nathan muttered, looking down at his clenched fists. He relaxed his hands and shook them out before he raised his head. “I don’t want you to do it because I’m asking you to. I want you to do it because you want to.”

“I know,” I whispered. I still felt like I was disappointing him. But then I didn’t want that feeling amplified when Wendy and Sabrina and Hope found out about us. I was still scared.

“Just promise me you’ll think about it?”

I nodded. “I will. Um, can I get you anything? Some water or a rag?”

“Nah. I’m good.” Nathan rolled under my car again. “I’ll be in in a minute.”

And that was my dismissal. I felt like crap as I walked back toward the building. I knew Nathan expected me to meet him in his place, but I needed a minute to myself.

Not that I had a place to myself. And this was a helluva time for Dylan to be home.

“Where’ve you been?” Dylan asked from his couch as I walked into his condo.

I blinked. If I hadn’t seen him with my own eyes, I would’ve sworn he was an apparition. “Seriously? Where have you been?”

He was never here when I come back from work. He wasn’t here when I woke up in the morning. He was more ghost than man.

Dylan hitched a shoulder. “I’ve been busy. Maybe like you have been because you haven’t been here when I have. What’s going on? Anything new with your apartment?”

“No.” I groaned. “The landlord is still dodging me. I sent another certified letter and he refused it again. I’m going to have to hire a process server, maybe a lawyer, to get out of my lease, and I can’t afford that.”

“That sucks, Mads. I’m sorry.” Dylan took a drink of his beer then plonked his heels on the coffee table. “Wait, if your apartment is still all screwed up, where have you been sleeping? Fuck, don’t tell me you’re going back to your old place. It’s not safe.”

“No, I’m not sleeping there.” I fidgeted and looked away.

“So…” Dylan raised his eyebrows. “What’s his name? How’d you meet him?”

“Oh my god. You sound as bad as Sabrina and Hope.”

“You told them but not me?”

“You haven’t been here. How could I have told you?”

“Touché. So what’s going on? It’s gotta be serious if you’re doing so many sleepovers.”

“It is. I think I’m falling in love with him.”

“Wow.” Dylan picked at the label on his beer bottle. “I uh, I guess that means you might want to move in with him instead of your own place?”

“I don’t know. We haven’t talked about that.”

“But he’s okay with you staying at another guy’s place?”

“Nathan knows there’s nothing going on with you and me.”

The words fell out of my mouth before I had a chance to even consciously think them. Did I really say that?

Judging by the shocked expression on Dylan’s face, the answer was yes.

Shit.

“Nathan?” He asked as he stood up, his eyes wide. “My brother, Nathan?”

“Um… Yes.”

“My brother, Nathan. The one who usually goes out with the calendar pin-up girls is dating you?”

I blinked. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Come on. You’re not exactly his type. You’re not blonde; you don’t have…you know.” He gestured vaguely.

“What? What are you trying to say? That I need a certain bra cup size to date your brother?”

He inclined his head and shrugged. “Honestly, I thought it was a requirement with Nathan. He has a type and you’re not it.” Dylan watched me flinch then rushed ahead like he was trying to make it better. “But I mean come on. He’s never had a serious relationship in his life. Why would he have one with you?”

I felt his words like a physical blow. They were words I said to myself so often before. But to hear them from Dylan, to hear his amazement that Nathan and I were together and