Page 33 of Levee

“One of you clueless bikers sitting across from me, all up in their heads about a girl.”

“Oh,” I said, realizing that Teddy likely was the person a lot of the guys ended up confiding in. He, like Eddie, was a friend of the club without being a direct member. And that little level of detachment made it seem like he was a safer person to confess something to.

“History goes like this. Sad sack feeling all confused and lost about a beautiful woman. Me, offering eloquent and spot-on advice on how you can’t logic your way out of feelings. Them, completely disregarding that advice and going out of their ways to be complete fucking idiots. Only to circle back around, realize I was right, do what I said to do, and get the girl and the happily-ever-after,” he said, making me let out a small chuckle, easily seeing the other guys in the club acting exactly like that. “So how about we cut to the chase and you just take my advice.”

“I’m… not opposed to that,” I said.

“I know you guys are the party hard, different girl every night, nothing serious kind of men. Which generally means you have the emotional intelligence of fleas,” he said, making me snort into my drink. “But let me break it down for you. Whenyou finally come across a woman who makes you leave a night of partying early to come and sit in an empty penthouse with a man you barely know, that’s the woman you want to slow down and spend some time with.”

“I’m seeing her in the morning,” I admitted.

“Let me guess. She’s being chased by a dangerous member of the Russian mafia or is being stalked by an ex-boyfriend.”

“Eh, not that I know of.”

“No shit,” he said, nodding. “Interesting. Well, even better. How’d you meet?”

“She chewed me out for not taking good enough care of my uncle. She’s his neighbor across the hall.”

“And she’s not writing super secret fan fiction about you online?” he asked, making me smile at the mention of Donovan’s girl.

“Not that I’m aware of. She’s an artist, not a writer. I did offer to pose nude for her, though,” I said, smiling.

“Oh, is that who Zayn was talking about?” Teddy asked. “He was spouting something about a commissioned art piece for Daniyal. Which seems like the last thing in the world the man would want.”

“Precisely why Zayn would get it for him, I think,” I said. “But yeah. We happened to run into her at the farmer’s market earlier. I bought this,” I said, producing the goldfish print and handing it to him.

“This is really well done.”

“It’s Swim Shady.”

“Excuse me?” he asked, brows raising.

“That’s her goldfish. His name is Swim Shady.”

“Does she exclusively do animals?” he asked.

“No. She does a little bit of everything,” I told him, finding her website, then passing him my phone.

“Hmm,” he said as he scrolled through the images.

“Hmm, what?” I asked, not realizing my tone was a little sharp until he shot me a knowing look.

“She’s very good,” he said. “I’ve been looking for art for that new hotel,” he said.

“I’m sure she’d be over the moon at the idea. It would be nice for her to be able to get out of the building she’s in.”

“Same one you, Seeley, and Cato grew up in, right?”

“And Ama,” I agreed.

“Yeah, that’s not an ideal place for a single woman to be living,” he said. “I’m going to have the designer reach out to her in the coming weeks if you want to tell her to be on the lookout.”

“I will,” I agreed. “So, do you know a good bagel place around here? Particularly if they have cinnamon raisin ones.”

“Already know her food preferences, huh? Maybe you didn’t need the pep talk after all,” he said as he handed me back my phone. “There’s a great place about five minutes down the street. Mo’s. But you have to get there early or there won’t be anything left. Now, I’ll trust you can see yourself to bed,” he said, putting his glass on the coffee table. “I have an obnoxiously early meeting.”

With that, he headed off.

---