Razed (Barnes Brothers #2)(64)

Keelie had a feeling they’d last all of four months.

The guy had Dionne’s tattooed around his neck.

The vacuous little blonde clinging to him was terribly sweet. But her name wasn’t Dionne.

“I want it to last forever,” Channing said, smiling up at the brick wall. So far, he hadn’t said anything. He seemed to be riveted to Channing’s cleavage.

Said cleavage was pretty impressive, Keelie had to admit. Sighing, she looked down and read the neatly printed words through once more. My hart belongs to Jason. She’d brought in a picture of an anatomical heart, pierced with a dagger. Pretty enough—a little weirder than she would have picked for Channing, although the spelling thing seemed totally on key. She looked back at the girl. “You know you spelled heart wrong. Is that how you want it?”

“Oh!” Channing’s baby blue eyes widened and a blush spread across her cheeks. “Oh, I feel like an idiot. Jason, I almost ruined your birthday present to me.”

He brushed his knuckles down the back of her cheek and Keelie found herself studying them, re-evaluating. Yeah, the guy was fascinated by the girl’s boobs, but she had seen Javi that entranced by his wife’s butt. There was a look in that kid’s eyes that made Keelie’s heart sigh.

Maybe there was more to this.

“It’s okay, Chan. She saw it, right?” He leaned and rubbed his cheek against the girl’s and something about that tender little gesture had Keelie looking away. It was almost too personal, she thought. Something that belonged just to the two of them.

Seeing something from the corner of her eye, she looked up, spied Zach in the doorway.

“Oh! Hey!” A wide, happy grin crossed the girl’s face when she looked at Zach. “I know you. I saw you in that magazine—you run this place, right? You used to be on TV.”

“Ages ago.” Zach had that easy, smooth-as-sugar tone in his voice.

“Ages ago.” Keelie snorted. “If people had their way, he’d have his face on the screen all the time. He still gets nagged for interviews.” She slit her eyes at him when he shot her a quelling look. Figuring he still owed her a bit for that night at the restaurant, she looked at Channing. “You know, before he got married, the producers of The Bachelor were always calling him—wanted to get him on their show.”

Channing wrinkled her nose. “That stuff is so fake. Nobody finds love on a TV show.”

“True.” Zach’s blue eyes promised retribution. “I’d be a lousy guy for them anyway. My heart’s always belonged to Abby.”

“She was your costar.” Channing sighed, her breasts threatening the decency of her tank top. “That’s so sweet.”

Then she beamed at Keelie. “You’ve got great people working here. Especially her. I almost had a word misspelled on my tits forever.”

Keelie bit back a snort of laughter and flicked the girl a look. “That’s why we check these things, sweetheart. We try to avoid just that.”

“Keelie’s not just a worker here,” Zach said. “She’s my partner. You and . . . ah, your tattoo are in very good hands, ma’am.”

Keelie bit back a snort of laughter as Zach disappeared. A few minutes later, she finished and turned out the roughed-out font she wanted to go with for the tattoo.

“It’s kinda . . . plain.” Channing stared at it.

“It’s going to be in color, on your skin. And you said you didn’t want it too big. The fancier we go, the harder it will be to read.”

“Oh.” After a quick look at her boyfriend, Channing nodded. “So are we ready now?”

“No.” Keelie smiled. “I need a few minutes to get the design and everything ready. If you want to grab yourself some coffee or something from across the street, that would be great. That will give me time to get this finished and get set up.”


*

Shortly thereafter, she was alone in her work area, bent over the design, everything blocked out as she worked. It wasn’t too long before she wasn’t alone, though, and she glanced up to see Zach loitering in the door.

“So what was she going to have misspelled on her cute self for the rest of forever?”

Pursing her lips, she picked up the design and turned it around for him to see. He came closer, squinted his eyes. “Hart. Nice. Well . . . she could have a thing for deer or something.” He settled against the work counter on the far side of her space, arms crossed over his chest, legs stretched out in front of him.

Keelie snorted, then slid him a glance. “I need to get the font done, superstar.”

“That will take you all of ten minutes.” He shrugged, looking unconcerned. His gaze slid away from her to focus on her walls. Unlike his work area or Javi’s, hers was decorated with framed sketches she’d done—nothing she’d do for a client, and she had been asked, often—and a few framed prints. She tensed as Zach paused in front of one, cocking his head to study it. “This is Zane’s.”

“So?”

“You’ve had these up awhile.”

She jerked a shoulder. “He’s talented. I like pictures. Why stare at tattoos I’ve done? I know what my work looks like.”

When he didn’t answer, she shot him another glance, but he had just moved over to another picture, studying it.