Torque by Gillian Archer (10 ebook reader txt) 📕

silently fumed. Nathan still thought he knew best. And even when we weren’t together, he was still determined to force me into his choices. It just made me so fucking mad.

“Uh…” Dylan watched me with wide eyes and gestured to the truck. “So if you’re not gonna use the shovel and the lye, I guess I’ll get to unloading your stuff. Where should I put it? The garage?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you should ask Nathan.” The words fell from my lips before I even thought them. I was just so freaking mad. Sabrina and Hope and even Dylan were right—he was too much of an asshole and I was too much of a doormat.

“Um…” Sabrina’s voice came from somewhere behind us. I whirled around and found her standing on the sidewalk with a hesitant expression. “Is this a bad time?”

“Sabrina. Hey.” I winced. The last time I saw her I’d been a sobbing mess. I guess this was a slight improvement. “I should probably help Dylan unload my stuff.”

“That’s okay.” Dylan took three large steps backward and away from me. “I got this.”

I shook my head. “But it’s too—”

“Nope.” Dylan cut me off. “This is part of my penance. I’ve got it.” He awkwardly saluted both of us with the shovel and took off for the back of the truck.

No doubt eager to avoid me and my sour mood.

“Maybe we can talk over here?” Sabrina gestured toward the front porch.

I silently followed her up the steps and took the rocker next to her. “So what’s new?”

“Um, did you make up with Dylan? I know he was worried about you, and you weren’t exactly his biggest fan the last time I saw you.”

I winced. The last time meaning when I was a hysterical mess after I’d left the police station. Between the King throwing the chain at me and Nathan leaving me on the side of the freeway, my emotions had been pretty severe. “Yeah. We talked. I think we’ll be okay. After he makes it up to me a few more thousand times. But we’ll get there.”

“So you’re going to forgive Dylan for putting you in that situation, but not Nathan?”

“I thought you’d be happy that I don’t want to be with Nathan anymore. You were so against the thought of us. You called us Romeo and Juliet, remember? Destined to end tragically. Turns out you were right.”

It was Sabrina’s turn to wince. “In my defense I was really drunk.”

“And drunk people never speak the truth. Right.”

“I just… I was afraid that he’d walk all over you.”

“And you were right. He did. He was always trying to control me. Checking my car. He arranged for me to get out of my lease behind my back. And he wanted me to work as a receptionist at the shop.” I shook my head. “It sounds kinda crazy when I say it out loud, but he was trying to control me. Change me. What kind of relationship is that?”

“I was talking to my mom and—”

“Seriously?” I had zero privacy. Zero. This was another great example of why Nathan and I wouldn’t work out. Aside from him being an overbearing ass, we would always have our families in the middle of our business. Who wanted to live that way?

“Yes. My mom. His too. We talk. May I continue?”

I huffed then made a go on gesture with my hand.

“Have you ever heard of love languages?”

I blinked. That was a weird segue. “Uh, it sounds familiar. Like a self-help thing, right?”

“Kind of. I think it came from a therapist or something. Anyway, there are five main love languages: physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, and acts of service.”

“Okay. What does any of this have to do with me and Nathan?”

“Mom and I think that you and Nathan are having a hard time because you don’t understand each other’s love language.”

I never in my entire life thought that Sabrina or Wendy were the hippy dippy type. “Sabrina, I know you mean well, but my problems with Nathan go deeper than a simple misunderstanding. He’s an overbearing ass, and I’m an accommodating doormat. I had to get out before he walked all over me and started controlled every aspect of my life.”

“But what if all those things that he did wasn’t him trying to control your life, but instead was him trying to show you that he loved you?”

“Really? Now controlling someone is a sign of affection?”

“No, what I’m saying is that him checking your oil, sorting out your apartment, and finding a job for you were all ways of him saying that he loves you. He did the same with Mom growing up. He was always carrying the groceries in for her without being asked and checking her oil and putting gas in her car. It’s how he shows that he loves someone.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Little acts I could understand, but it felt like he was trying to arrange my life for me.

“I think he was just excited and wanting to help.” Sabrina smiled. “Nathan has a rep for being the angry, bad Burns brother, but he’s really just a big, softy. If he went over the line, it’s on you to tell him as much. You can’t have a relationship without communication.”

“Huh.” I hated to admit it, but what she said made sense. Maybe I hadn’t given Nathan an opportunity to tell me what was going on. “But that still doesn’t excuse him leaving me on the side of the road after that Kings tried to kill me. I could’ve been hurt for all Nathan knew.”

“I’m not excusing it or him, but he did say he checked on you before he left.” Sabrina made a face like “He was pissed and he was out for blood.”

“And if he hadn’t tried to chase them down, we never would’ve known it was Rags who tried to kill you,” Dylan said from the porch steps.

“They IDed him?” I blinked in amazement. The