Free Betting on Grace by Debra Salonen Page B

across the bar to where Nikolai was sitting. The silver-haired gentleman in a windbreaker who’d occupied the stool beside him was gone. Probably a tourist asking how to operate the video poker game.
    “Is he someone I should be concerned about?” Charles asked, apparently following her gaze.
    Grace ducked the implication behind the question. “He’s someone I’m concerned about,” she answered, keeping her tone flat. “Another mouth to feed until he finds a job and moves out on his own. I don’t know what Mom was thinking when she invited him to stay with us.”
    “He’s living at Yetta’s? With Kate and the child right down the hall?” His thin eyebrows pulled together, almost touching. Not his most attractive look.
    The child? He knew Maya’s name. Didn’t he? Kate had accused Charles of being self-absorbed and Grace had defended him, but maybe she’d been too hasty. “No. He’ll be staying at Claude’s, but I’m sure he’ll eat at Romantique and borrow Mom’s car and hang out in the backyard, like the rest of the family.”
    Charles put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed supportively. “I’ve always admired the way your family interacts. Loud, robust, opinionated. Just like in the movies.” He smiled. “Not what I was accustomed to, but very entertaining.”
    Grace leaned over and started to roll up the plans. “Yeah, well, togetherness can get old, believe me. I love my cousins, second cousins and sort of cousins, but this big-family/one-boat thing only works if everyone is rowing together.” She sighed. “And believe me, there are one or two who don’t even have their oars in the water.”
    Charles laughed then gave her a quick, one-armed hug before she could protest. “Don’t worry, my sweet. I’ll take him off your hands and put him to work for me. Do you think he can mop floors?”
    Grace looked at the man in question. Nikolai’s back was broad, his shoulders obviously well developed. He looked fit and capable. “I’m sure he could, but will he?” She shrugged, dislodging Charles’s hand.
    “Let’s ask,” she said. A sudden, urgent need for fresh air sent her hurrying across the room. Too late, she remembered Alex’s warning, “Full-bosomed women should strive to glide.”
    Nikolai turned when she was halfway across the room—prompted, she was sure, by some innate, male sensory organ that detected bouncing boobs within visual range. She saw his eyes widen appreciably.
    Using the rolled-up plans as a pointer, she aimed one end at Nikolai. “Job interview. Don’t blow it. I’ll be in the car.”
    She paused just long enough to tell Charles, whose long stride made gliding his natural form, “I’ll give these a look-see. Sorry about the lack of enthusiasm. You just caught me off guard.” As an afterthought, she added, “Don’t keep him too long. Mom would kill me if the prodigal cousin missed his welcome-home party.”
    Still responding to an urgent need to be out of thebuilding, Grace left the restaurant, the word kill echoing in her brain. She had no idea why. She had enough on her plate without fantasizing about murder.

CHAPTER SIX
    “S O, YOU’RE Grace’s cousin.”
    Charles wasn’t thrilled to put another Radonovic relative on his payroll, but he had little choice. His life had taken an unplanned and complicated turn a couple of weeks ago, and if he had any hope at all of getting things back on track, he needed Grace’s help—and her money. Which, when it came right down to it, was rightfully his.
    “Not really.”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “Supposedly my old man is related to Grace’s mother. I never heard a word from these people until last week.”
    “Why is that?”
    “I guess dear ol’ dad started feeling guilty. First about being in jail when my mother got hit by a bus and died. And then for simply handing me over to some other family. After all these years this Yetta lady calls me up and says my birth father is sick and I should come to