Page 5 of Quinn, By Design

He looked poleaxed, and Lucy was terrified she was spinning out of control.

CHAPTER TWO

The neat, single-storyterrace in the inner Sydney suburb of Newtown was a good fit for Niall’s brother. Better than the sterile high-rise apartment Liam had been renting when he’d met his now wife. Niall texted his identical twin en route. After ringing the bell, he paced the front path. Testing his thoughts aloud was the only way past this sense of unreality.

“Come in.” Liam’s grin was wide. He looked and sounded like the man he was: content, confident, married to the woman he loved, and excited about their first child. “What’s up?”

“Marriage suits you.” Niall sucked in a breath and released it on a grateful sigh. Eighteen months ago, he and his brother hadn’t been on speaking terms because Liam had been keeping their dead father’s debts a secret. Their estrangement had left Niall half whole.

“You came here to tell me that?” Liam tugged him into the hall.

“You look happy. I like that you look happy.” Even if his brother’s happiness highlighted his own solitary state.

“Aren’t things happy in the man cave?”

“Workshop,” Niall muttered, although he’d spent enough time indoors in the last few months to develop bat-like characteristics. Like finding his way to bed in the early hours relying on echolocation rather than electric light.

“Kate’s out with Anna. They’re shopping for baby clothes, but won’t be long.” Liam pushed him into the kitchen. “Stay for dinner.”

“I haven’t seen Anna in ages.” Old friends, Niall and Anna had indirectly introduced their respective siblings, who’d then married each other. Niall had appeared in a successful billboard campaign with Kate when Liam had needed to be invisible. The resulting snafu had forced a welcome reckoning between the brothers. “I haven’t got time to stay.”

“You’re the one who dropped in.” His brother opened the fridge door. “Sit down for five minutes. You took a raincheck on dinner last week.”

“I’m too unsettled to sit.” Niall paced toward the window, his gaze caught by a tree blown almost horizontal by the wind. The capacity to bend but not break was one of the characteristics that drew him so powerfully to wood. Had drawn him to Cam. “Am I wilfully blind?”

“You’re focused, ambitious, and stubborn.” Liam snagged a jug of orange juice and set it on the table. “That’s mostly about your work. You’re also kind, loyal and relentlessly honourable. Who accused you of being wilfully blind?”

“Me.” Niall continued to stare through the window, as new guilt layered on old. You’d think he’d have learned from not asking Liam the right questions when their da died. “For accepting Cam McTavish’s generosity without digging beneath the surface.”

“For the love of Mary and Joseph, you can’t still be angsting about your agreement with Cam.”

“I can.” Niall swung back to face his brother and held up a hand. “A recap. He offered me the use of his premises for a year in exchange for restoring three pieces of furniture.” Cam had batted away Niall’s objections, calling in daily to sip endless cups of tea and “give Niall the benefit of his wisdom.”

“You offered to pay rent and worked punishing hours to finish intricate and bloody difficult restoration jobs in the timeframe McTavish demanded.” Liam defended him. “I thought he convinced you the profit on them would cover rent for a year.”

“He convinced me.” Relief had been Niall’s first reaction. “When I finished, Cam showed me the original purchase invoices for each piece and the final sales dockets.” Even a short period of financial security was a weight lifted. Niall had pitched his exhibition to one of the most prestigious Sydney galleries on the strength of it. Then been blown away to discover he’d won the slot over a bunch of other creatives.

---