Page 13 of Breaking the Habit

He crunched loudly in response.

“Come on. Why did you go there? There’s no way you could have possibly known. And LA is too big for this to be coincidence. Fess up.”

He shoved a forkful of rice into his mouth and moaned. “It’s sooo good.” Face brimming with mischief, he jerked his chin toward the nearest set of her photos on the wall. “So what are you gonna do with all these pictures? Shouldn’t they be in a gallery somewhere?

She grimaced, stabbing a particularly soft floret of cauliflower. She shivered with anticipation. It was gonna beso good.“Ideally, yeah. I mean, that’s the goal someday. If any gallery ever shows an interest in my work.”

“You have a dream gallery or something?”

“Yes, actually,” she said. “DRK. It’s the coolest place ever.” She paused, furrowing a brow. “Wait. You distracted me. Nice try, bucko. How’d you know about Curry Up?”

Levi grinned and started humming.

“Levi,” she said.

“I like it when you say my name.” He forked a slice of carrot. “Maybe I’ll bring you vegetarian curry every day.”

On the inside, she sighed. That would be a very effective way of winning her over, though she didn’t dare admit it. Maybe that’s all it took—well-timed curry.

Riley tried to hang onto her suspicions while she ate, but it was hard as the gingery cumin flavors overcame her. Curry Up was the all-time best,ever. And she couldn’t stop from gushing about it as she swiped up some chickpeas with her naan.

“Definitely going to have to bring you this daily,” Levi murmured. “What’s that bread called again?”

She sighed tersely. “See? You don’t even know what naan is. There’s no way you went there of your own volition. Come on. Tell me the truth.”

Levi slurped up some of the sauce from his bottom lip, eyeing her. “I knew I was gonna be late, so I asked Amara what your favorite place is.”

The confession stopped her in her tracks. She stared at him for a moment before jerking her gaze back down to her bowl.

“She said you were crazy about it, and she wasn’t wrong,” Levi said.

Riley stuffed another forkful of rice and veggies in her mouth, trying to figure out why his confession had warmed her as much as saddened her. Maybe because Levi was basically a stranger. Maybe because he didn’t know her at all, but he’d still managed to weasel his way into a tender space. Maybe because this was the nicest thing a man had done for her possibly…ever.

“You’re sweet,” she finally said, and then wiped at her mouth. Time to move this back to the realm of professionalism. She cleared her throat and stood, heading for her laptop. “Want to see what I worked on tonight?”

“Yeah, but only if you tell me why you have that creepy recording whenever someone opens the front door.”

She laughed, scooping up her laptop. “It’s notcreepy—”

“It’s creepy.”

“It’s John Stamos,” she clarified. “I like to start and end my work day with God’s gift to humankind.”

As she headed back toward their sitting area, the sight of him nearly toppled her. His big, fighter’s frame, completely filling the fuchsia arm chair. He had to hunch a little to eat, his biceps stretching the thin fabric of his heather-gray tee. As she came back over, he glanced up at her, the light scruff on his face highlighting the squareness of his jaw in a way that made her weep both as a fertile woman and as a professional photographer.

“If that’s what you wanted, you could have just asked me to live here permanently,” he said.

She gave a sarcasticha habefore settling back in her seat. “Nobody competes on the Stamos level, okay? Now look here.” She opened her laptop, navigating to the completed images she’d touched up. She didn’t get to the first image before Levi’s phone pinged. He scrambled to unearth it from his pocket without spilling the box of food in his lap.

He frowned as he read the screen and then tapped out a quick reply. When he swung his attention back to Riley, she could tell he’d checked out a little.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Let’s see it.”

Riley started the slideshow of the images she’d curated from that afternoon’s practice. As she scrolled through, she explained some of her approach—what she’d been aiming for, the mood she’d tried to capture, the shooting challenges posed by the cage. After going on about the manual shooting mode she’d opted for, she looked up and found Levi buried in his phone.Again.

“Am I boring you?” Her insides burned with embarrassment.

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