She took a step closer. “The little red dots?”
“That’s right, although they’re not actually red. More of a brownish-green. But when they’re clustered together, they appear to be brick colored.”
The girl frowned. “Who are you?”
“I’m Grace,” she said, sitting back on her feet. “I’m a scientist and I collect these spores to use in experiments. Who are you?”
“I’m Swoozie,” she said, and folded her arms across her narrow chest. “I’m staying at the hotel with my parents.”
“I like your name,” Grace said. “Do you like science?”
Swoozie made a face and shook her head. “I’m failing math and science.”
“Oh, that’s interesting. Those are my two favorite subjects.” She smiled good-naturedly. “But I’ve always been kind of weird.”
“My friend Charlotte likes math, too, but I don’t get it.”
Swoozie looked about ten years old, thin, with long, brown hair and big brown eyes.
“What’s your favorite subject?” Grace asked as she packed up her bag.
“I guess I like English.”
“Do you like to read?”
“Yes, but mostly, I just want to graduate high school so I can go and be a model in Europe.”
“You want to be a model?”
“A supermodel,” she specified.
“You’ll need to know math and science if you’re going to be a model,” Grace said casually as she stood and brushed the bits of sand and dirt off her legs.
“No, I won’t.”
“You will.” Grace began to walk with her back to the hotel. “Say you’re in Paris and you want to have dinner after your photo shoot with Pierre, the world famous French photographer. You’ll need to calculate the daily exchange rate to make sure you’re on budget and not overtipping your waiter. So if you know that the day’s rate is 1.44 euros to the dollar, and your meal is twelve euros, you’ll be able to figure out that you’re about to spend over seventeen dollars, and that might not be within your budget.”
“Oh.” Swoozie frowned, then her face screwed up in deep thought. A few seconds later, she grinned. “But I’ll be with Pierre and he’ll be happy to calculate all those numbers for me.”
“Well.” Grace laughed and waved her hand in the air. “As long as Pierre is with you, he should just pay for your dinner.”
Swoozie laughed. “That’s even better.”
They walked through the palmetto grove until they reached the beach. “So what are you studying in math right now?”
“Multiplication tables,” Swoozie said miserably. “I’m supposed to memorize them while I’m on vacation, but I suck at memorizing stuff.”
“Oh, there’s a better way to learn multiplication,” Grace said, leading Swoozie over to a shaded table on the terrace. “I’ll show you.”
Logan stood at the bar sipping his single-malt scotch as he waited for Grace to finish her shift. This would be their last night together for a few days and he didn’t want to waste a minute of time, so he’d decided to camp out at the end of the bar and watch her in action until it was time for her to clock out.
She was balancing cocktail trays like a champ these days, as long as she only carried two or three drinks at a time and moved very slowly. The customers didn’t seem to mind. Hell, half the time they followed her to the bar and grabbed the drinks on their own. It was a bizarre way to do business, but Logan was no longer complaining.
A thirty-something couple walked into the lounge and headed straight for the bar. The woman called the bartender over and said briskly, “Which one of your waitresses is Grace?”
Logan’s hackles stiffened as he watched Sam scan the room. Spying Grace across the room wiping off a four- top for a small group of guests who waited nearby, Sam pointed her out to the couple.
“Oh, yes,” the woman said, nodding. “I was told she was a redhead.”
As Grace walked back toward the bar, the couple met her halfway. Logan followed them. He didn’t know what this was all about, but he didn’t want any trouble, especially if it involved Grace.
“So you’re Grace,” the woman said.
“Yes, I am,” she said, smiling. “Can I help you?”
“You spoke to my daughter Swoozie this morning.”
“Oh, yes. She’s a sweet girl.” Grace’s eyes suddenly widened and she looked mortified. “Oh, I’m so sorry I suggested that Pierre pay for her dinner. I was thinking about that later and realized-”
“Thank you so much!” the woman exclaimed, and grabbed Grace in a tight embrace.
“Oh, well,” Grace said, nonplussed.
“You have no idea what we’ve been through,” Swoozie’s mother cried.
The woman’s husband glanced around the room nervously. When he made eye contact with Logan, he shrugged, clearly clueless.
When the mother finally let her loose, Grace raked her hair back self-consciously. “But I really didn’t-”
“She came back to the room and did three pages of math homework!”
“Three pages.” Grace smiled and nodded. “That’s nice.”
“She was so excited,” the woman continued. “She kept saying ‘I get it!’ over and over again. When I asked her what happened, she told me you explained it to her in a way that finally clicked for her.”
“I’m so glad,” Grace said. “I just showed her an easy way I have of remembering number systems. I can show it to you if you’d-”
“No, no,” the woman said quickly, holding up her hand as she took a step back. “Whatever you did, it worked and I’ll just leave it at that. Swoozie has seen the light! That’s all that matters to me. Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.”
Logan stood next to Grace as the couple walked out of the bar.
“Isn’t that sweet?” Grace murmured. Logan wasn’t sure what had just happened, but he knew right then that Swoozie wasn’t the only one Grace had helped to finally see the light.
“Come with me to the airport,” Logan said early the next morning. “The driver will bring you back.”
Grace was dressed in shorts, tank top and sandals, ready to leave his room. But Logan decided he didn’t want to say goodbye just yet.
“Are you sure you want me there?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He grabbed Grace with one hand and his suitcase with the other, and they left the suite to meet the limousine out front.
He and Grace were already waiting in the limo when Aidan climbed inside. Logan ignored his brother’s fulminating glance and breathed a sigh of relief when Eleanor arrived a few seconds later. They all drove to the airport in companionable silence.
Aidan assisted Eleanor out of the car and they walked to the jet, leaving Logan to say goodbye to Grace.
Standing on the tarmac, Logan kissed her goodbye. “You’ll still be here when I get back?”
“Yes, of course,” Grace said with a smile. “I still have a few weeks of work to do before I have to go back to Minnesota.”
“Good. I’ll see you in a few days, then.” He kissed her again, then turned and walked away.
“Have a good trip,” Grace called.
“Hell,” he muttered. A glance at the plane and his twin standing in the open doorway watching him reminded Logan that he still hadn’t asked Grace about the stupid note. And if he didn’t, Aidan would rag his ass for the next three days. He turned back to her. “I keep forgetting to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“You passed a note to Sally the other night in the bar. What did it say?”
She flinched and her face turned pale. “You saw that?”
