Page 27 of Timelessly Ours

“Wanna be the doctor?” she asks without looking at me.

“I’ve never been the doctor,” I admit cheerfully. “Usually on the other side of that,” I add, muttering the inside joke.

“You wanna try?” She hands me a pink stethoscope, which I slide around my neck. I hold the end up to her heart.

“Hmm…a little fast,” I muse, not entirely sure it’s a lie. Rory hasn’t looked me in the eye since I walked in from the porch. “Is something bothering you?”

I’ve always considered Rory a girl after my own heart. Someone who keeps things bottled up because she’s not sure anyone needs to hear what’s on her mind. That, and the fact that she’s stubborn, likes giving grownups a hard time, and well… beautiful.

I’m not conceded. But Nick and I come from some good physical genes. We both contain some sort of super strength. He uses his on the ice. I use mine…well, by any means necessary.

“I heard Daddy say that you’re moving in and you’re going to be my new nanny.”

I swallow. The man really needs to be careful about what he says in front of this girl.

“Oh,” I laugh nervously. “Honey, he didn’t really mean—”

“There you are.” His deep voice cuts into the room and I look up.

Royce’s eyes sweep past mine and focus on his daughter. “Rory, sweetie, go upstairs and change out of your school uniform.”

She sighs but pushes her toys into one central area before getting up. “Can I just change into my jammies? I don’t want to have to change again later.”

He huffs. “Nice try. I need to give you a bath before bedtime.”

She grunts and marches up the stairs.

I have a strange urge to clean up her toys but resist because I’m not trying to prove I’m nanny material here. Especially because he and I both know it.

My chest flutters annoyingly when he draws closer. I’m still kneeling over the toys when he reaches me and extends a hand. I choose to stand without his help.

He’s considerably taller than me so I move until our gaze is level—but it still feels like he’s a giant comparatively.

A giant who wants to play hero.

“I appreciate you buying me more time, but I think continuing to lie is only going to make things worse when I finally tell Nick the truth.”

His eyes sweep over the distance I just put between us. “I realize it’s probably something I should have discussed with you first, but—he was here and”—his jaw tightens— “he was threatening you.”

“Nick doesn’t threaten me. That’s just his way of—”

“I didn’t like it.”

I blink up. He’s been moving toward me slowly and everything in me tightens.

Ever since I was seventeen, when a man comes near me—if I wasn’t backing away from his threatening approach, I was drawing close to whack him in the jaw.

Everyone except for my brother, of course, who I only punched once but I wasn’t myself that night and thought he was a threat. And the few—and I mean very few—men I’ve been with intimately.

Royce seems to pick up on it because he stops his advance. “I’ve seen you with my daughter. You’re protective of her—”

“You can’t be serious,” I whisper, cutting him off.

“You’ve helped me with her on a few occasions in the past two years and…she seems to like you.”

“In small amounts…” I remind him loudly. "Rory might like my dropping by with a cake pop once in a while, but she will not like my taking over her life. And I’m pretty sure the feeling would be mutual,” I add haughtily, crossing my arms.

He takes a breath. “Sit down, Nicole. You’re going to give one of us a migraine with all this forced hostility.”

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