Page 22 of Levee

“Canvas?”

“Of course.”

“Do you have a website?” Zayn asked. In that posh, yet unplaceable accent of his, he actually suddenly seemed like someone from Teddy’s circle of friends. And less like the larger-than-life arms dealer I knew him to be.

Zayn and Jade continued to talk as I turned to share surprised looks with Coast and Kylo.

“Where did Raff and Coach go?” I asked.

“Back to the bus with a couple girls,” Kylo said. “Which is where we are heading, right, darlin’?” he asked the brunette.

“Hey, what about me?” the blonde asked.

“Right, darlin’?” he asked, nipping her earlobe.

Behind them, some of the other vendors seemed to be wrapping up for the day.

Kylo took his two girls back down toward the bus, leaving Coast to look at me, questioning.

“I’ll be there in a few,” I said, getting a nod from him before he headed back as well.

In the corner of my eye, I spotted Daniyal situated a few booths down. Far enough to be able to scope out the whole area, but close enough to rush toward Zayn if needed.

“Do you see my friend over there?” Zayn asked Jade, pointing toward Daniyal.

“I do,” Jade said, offering him a smile that he didn’t return.

“I want to commission you to do a canvas of him. For his birthday.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Jade said.

“I would like him to be astride a unicorn with a cowboy hat on,” Zayn said, getting a snort out of me, who knew he was serious, and a bemused laugh out of Jade, who thought he was kidding.

“He means that,” I told her.

“Really?” Jade asked, eyes brightening.

“Really,” Zayn confirmed. “He is young at heart,” he insisted. “Would it be possible to have the unicorn surfing?” he asked.

“Ah, yeah, sure,” Jade said, nodding. “That sounds fun.”

“And could he—“ Zayn started again.

“Zayn, look, there’s a pretty redhead,” I said, turning him to point her out.

“Indeed there is. Jade,” he said, reaching for her hand and bringing it to his lips. “I will be in touch.”

With that, he was gone.

“If I didn’t stop him, he was just going to keep going, coming up with more and more asinine ideas. Next thing you know, he’llhave rubber ducky shoes on and a tattoo of a dinosaur merman on his chest.”

“He does seem very… eccentric,” Jade declared, glancing around, then starting to pull her own pictures off of the walls of the booth.

“He’s richer than God and is used to the whole world being his playground.”

“What I’m hearing is he won’t scoff at the five hundred bucks I was going to charge him for the portrait.”

“Doll, I don’t think he would blink an eye if it was five hundredthousand,” I told her as I helped her pull down the rest of her art.

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