I did add the .tostring but I got that error above. Instead I added this code as mentioned and the error went away

Code:
Function GetSettingInt(ByVal name As String) As String
        Check()
        If FileIO.FileSystem.FileExists(subdirName & "s." & name & ".n") = True Then
            Return File.ReadAllText(subdirName & "s." & name & ".n")
        Else
            Return Nothing
        End If
    End Function