Niall rolled his eyes, not appreciating mycomment or our audience. “We talked quite a bit, thank you very much.”
I grinned, refusing to let his uptightouter layer make me react. “I’m sure you did. You like giving orders.”
And the lady behind us started choking onher drink.
We really should’ve had this conversationsomewhere more private.
But damn it, I wanted pancakes.
He huffed but really couldn’t argue withthat, so he changed the subject somewhat. “I assume that you spoke with Keegantoday?”
That made me laugh again. “I talk with himanytime he takes a break or switches gears. He calls or texts and then justdisappears when he gets a random idea. It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.”
He’d wandered away from the phone severaltimes while I was still on it.
He’d ask me to hold on for just a moment,and thenbam, squirrel brain would hit and he’d be off working on aproject. It was too cute to get offended by, especially since it was usually meor Niall he was using as his muse for the piece.
Niall shook his head. “At least it’s not justme he does that to.”
He might’ve been complaining, but the lookin his eyes said he was just as enamored of the scamp as I was.
“No, we’re both good at bringing out hiscreative side.” My answer had Niall staring at me oddly.
“So he’s really some kind of artist andmakes a living at it?” Niall’s confused expression said he couldn’t seem tograsp that. “I mean, he talks about his mother, but all he does is art. Ididn’t want to seem rude or like the butt of some kind of stupid boomer joke.I’m not that old. It just seems…”
God, he was so funny and such afuddy-duddy.
“Niall. He’s Keegan Banner.” Nothing. Hejust blinked at me. “He’s one of the best young artists in the entire country.He’d be an artist whether he was able to live on his sales or not, but he’sthat good.”
Niall had shifted to awed surprise, makingme shake my head. “And yes, he still lives at home, but that’s because shebuilt a studio for him in their backyard when he was younger. There’s been allkinds of articles about it. He left regular schooling by the start of highschool because of his career. He finished it up online while he worked andtraveled.”
Shit. How did no one know who he was?
He was fucking incredible.
“So I don’t blame him for living at home.Especially since he’s so easily distracted by work that I’m not sure he’d beable to pay bills and that kind of stuff on time.” Alexandra was too good a Domand a mother to let him just wander off in life alone. “I’m pretty sure hehadn’t eaten since breakfast yesterday when you invited him over for dinner.”
“Ah.” Niall was back to fiddling with hissilverware. “That explains a few things.”
Since I’d sound a bit like an obsessive fanif I kept going on and on about Keegan’s abilities, I changed the subjectslightly. “So yes, he’s going to see things differently than you or I would.”
Hopefully that gave Niall a bit moreinsight into why Keegan thought this was the perfect idea.
“That makes sense.” He leaned back,studying the table before looking back up at me. “But you are not an eccentricartist. Why did you entertain this idea at all?”
He went right to the tough questions everytime.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, not willing tolie, but not ready to discuss everything in my head just yet. “I explained alot about where I was coming from and about our past once he told me who he’dmet. When he started talking about it, he made it sound so reasonable that Iwanted to see what you thought before I completely nixed the idea.”
Was Keegan right?
Was he just thinking with his dick?
I mean, yeah, the three of us togetherwould be hot as fuck, but that didn’t mean it was a good idea.
“Yes, he was…excited.” Niall’s word choiceseemed deliberate, but it just made me grin.
“Yeah, I heard about that.” He hadn’t beensure why Niall had nearly choked to death when he’d just been trying to share awonderful idea.
