“I’ll walk you to your car,” he said to Addie.
Okay, that was seriously nice. Nova wanted to soften toward him but steeled herself. She didn’t need to have too many positive thoughts about her boss. They’d already established that they weren’t a good fit, but he was good-looking enough that she might change her mind if he revealed an actual personality beneath that uptight exterior.
After they disappeared, Nova shut down the lights in the dining room and hurried to the employee area that held the lockers. She grabbed her things out of the locker, intending to be out of the restaurant before Torin returned.
Unfortunately, by the time she returned to the kitchen, Torin was coming in through the back door. The kitchen was empty, which meant the rest of the crew must have left already.
He stopped just inside the door and stared at her for a long moment.
“C’mon, I’ll walk you upstairs,” he finally said.
“I can go by myself if you have stuff to do,” she said, edging around him.
He frowned at her. “I’m done for the night.” He watched her move around him toward the door. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Leaving,” she said.
He sighed and dropped his head to stare at his feet. “Give me two minutes to shut everything down.”
“I’m good. I’ll go by myself,” she replied again.
His head snapped up and his piercing blue eyes landed on her. “Wait for me,” he said. “Two minutes.”
Nova sighed and relented. “Fine.”
He made a sound she’d never heard before, but it was so quiet, she wasn’t sure exactly what she heard. It sounded like a cross between a growl and a bark. Without another word, he turned on his heel and stalked away, his shoulders stiff and set.
Nova shook her head and took her phone out of her pocket when it vibrated. It was a message from Addie.
Don’t let him intimidate u.
She laughed beneath her breath. If Torin Gallagher wanted to intimidate her, he would need to take lessons from her grandfather. That man could scare the shit out of people just by breathing.
Nova heard Torin moving around as he shut off lights and quickly texted Addie back.
I’m fine. He’s grouchy but tolerable.
The bubble with three dots in the center popped up but Nova saw Torin come through the door between the kitchen and the dining room. She tucked her phone back into her pocket and aimed to wipe all expression from her face.
“Ready?” he asked, almost barking the word.
“Waiting on you,” Nova replied.
She had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at the irritated look that crossed his face. If he didn’t want her to bait him, he shouldn’t be so obvious about his annoyance.
It was just too much fun.
Torin gestured for her to walk to the back door that led to the alley. She didn’t wait as he turned off the lights to the kitchen and locked the door. Instead, she took five steps to another heavy metal door and stuck her key in the lock.
By the time she had it open, Torin was standing behind her, sighing heavily and taking the handle from her grasp.
“After you,” he growled.
Nova clenched her teeth again to keep from laughing as she all but skipped up the stairs that led to the apartments on the upper floor. There were only two, one on each side of the short hall. She wasn’t sure what Torin’s looked like, but she had immediately fallen in love with hers. The exterior walls were exposed brick and the living, dining, and kitchen area were all open and bright with huge windows. There were several poles throughout the living space that she’d unfortunately walked into a few times, but other than that, there was nothing between the windows and the back wall that separated the kitchen from the pantry, half bath, and laundry room-slash-storage room.
An ultramodern metal staircase zigzagged up to the spacious sleeping loft and a good-sized full bath.
There were other windows upstairs, but they were slightly smaller than the ones downstairs, but not by much, and either Torin or his rental agency had installed black out curtains that could easily be pulled over them. There were curtains for the downstairs windows as well, but they were much thinner and allowed some light through.
