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“He also draws exceptionally well.” I took a bite of the burger Zee got me and felt it melt in my mouth. It was blasphemy to say, but it was way better than the Whataburger that I’d been eating moments before. “He also tattoos.”
“You do?” Cabe asked, eyeing Zee’s ink-free arms. “I always wanted to get more ink, but the ones that I trusted to permanently mark my skin are too far away for me to go to any longer.”
Zee shrugged. “It’s just a side hobby. I only ever tattoo club brothers and their wives.”
Really? I’d heard he was picky about who he inked, but I hadn’t realized how picky.
“You don’t even ink any of the officers that you work with?” I asked curiously.
He shook his head. “Once in a blue moon, maybe. But most of them don’t know that I can tattoo.”
That made more sense.
“He’s really good,” I informed my uncle before taking another bite of my burger.
Zee shook his head. “I’m not that good. Average I would say. I’m just better at drawing, which I think separates me from other artists who can only follow lines. Artists that draw their own shit are rare to find.”
That was true, or so I’d heard.
The last tattoo I’d seen someone get, the woman had printed the picture out from the internet and then had copied it onto paper that transferred the temporary to the skin for them to follow the lines with their tattoo gun.
Was that normal?
For some reason, I highly doubted that Zee had ever had to do that when it came to his artistry.
Zee popped one last bite of his lettuce wrap thing into his mouth and then popped open his salad. It had vinaigrette dressing instead of ranch—the good shit that actually made salads worth eating.
Gross.
“If you’d ever like to venture out and do someone else’s tattoo, I’d like to get one done. I still have one more kid and a grandkid on the way that I need to get put into my family tree.” Cabe pulled his shirt up and showed off the tree.
Zee’s eyes went to it in a calculating way. “That’s a nice job. Who did you have that done by?”
Zee and Cabe continued to talk about tattoo artists, and I finished off the burger before sitting back, sighing contentedly, in my chair.
I looked up long moments later, after staring at Zee entirely way too long, to find both Brittany and Channing staring at me knowingly.
“What?” I mouthed at them.
Brittany’s smile grew, and she looked from me to Zee and back.
I won’t blush. I won’t blush.
At least, that was what I kept telling myself.
Unfortunately, due to my milky white skin, it was very easy to see the rush of hotness that rose to the surface at the reference of me and Zee being ‘a thing.’ Or at least that was what I got from Brittany’s look.
Meaning, seconds later when I felt my face get hot, I knew that I’d failed.
I’d also given myself away.
Brittany’s smile grew wide as she said, “So what happened to the other man? Your mom told me that you’d been seeing some man from the limo company that you use during services.”
I felt my face go white.
“Redmond?” Zee asked.
Alex Redmond, to be more specific, was the man I’d gone out on a date with once.
One single time.
That was it.
And it was all it took to get his attention focused solely on me.
Honestly, the man was freakin’ creepy, and the one and only time I’d gone out on a date with him was our last.
I’d also had to find a different limo company.
Which was hard seeing as there were only two in the area, and one wasn’t always willing to come all the way to Bear Bottom some days.
I rubbed my face. “Did you know that he offered to buy the house next to me? We saw that guy that got killed outside when he was dropping me off from our date. Redmond laughingly told him he’d buy the house from the guy, and the weirdo was his usual self and told him to go fuck a duck—or maybe a pig. I don’t know. Pissed Redmond off fast.”
“You sure do know how to attract them,” Zee muttered.
I looked over at him. “You’re really not one to talk.”
His lips twitched, then he shoved the rest of his salad into his mouth and chewed.
“Anyway, long story short, after that first and only date of ours, I never went out with him again.” I grimaced. “I did have to change limo companies.”
“What did he do that was so wrong?” Cabe asked.
“Other than offering to buy my neighbor’s house? Which he was serious about?” I confirmed with Cabe.
He nodded once.
“Little things. Just creepy things that I didn’t like,” I admitted. “We watched a movie, and his fingers kept dragging along my skin. I had my arms crossed over my chest, held tightly to me. He rubbed the exact same spot so long that it started to hurt.” I shook my head. “He took me out to eat afterward, and when I went to sit on one side of the booth, he followed me to the same side and pretty much blocked me in. When I came back from the bathroom, I waved him off from standing and sat across from him, and I could tell that I’d pissed him off.”
