Romero walked in behind her. “Damn, you’re big!”

Alex shot him a look that shut him up before he could say anything else. Sal couldn’t help laugh. Both Romero and Eric had grown up with Sal and his brothers. They lived right up the block from them. Since they were Angel’s age they were closest to him, but they’d always been like extended family.

Romero and Isabel met at Angel and Sarah’s wedding shower. It was almost funny how fast Isabel had brought womanizing Romero to his knees. They were married within months, something Sal hadn’t been able to fathom but was now beginning to understand.

After eating, the girls all huddled around Valerie, chatting, including his mother who hadn’t acted too impressed with Grace’s cooking, but was on her second helping of the casserole.

The guys all stepped outside to the backyard minus his dad who nodded off on the sofa, after overeating, as usual.

They all stood under the patio. Alex had upgraded to a bigger house after he found out Valerie was pregnant with twins. This one was twice the size of his old one and had a pool and Jacuzzi. Since Valerie was an agent and managed her own real estate office, she’d gotten them a good deal.

“Say it, Sal,” Alex said, after passing out beers. “I hit a home run hiring Grace.”

The way he said it, Sal got the double meaning loud and clear.

“Who’s Grace?” Romero asked.

“It’s one dish,” Sal said. “And Sundays are slow for specialty stuff off the menu. We still have to see what’s she’s like under pressure.”

“Who’s Grace?” Romero asked again.

“Dude, I saw her today. Things picked up after brunch and she handled it beautifully. That jerk-off you hired could barely keep up with her.”

“Who the hell’s Grace?”

“The new bartender at the restaurant.” Eric answered Romero for them. “Sofia said she’s real good. Not just at bartending but cooking, too.”

Sal took a swig of his beer, ignoring Alex’s smug grin. His brother was loving this.

“But that’s a hell of a commute she’s got,” Eric added. “Sofia said all the way to Chula Vista, and on the bus?”

Sal stopped before taking another swig. “She gets picked up, though.”

“No. Well, not today, Sof said she almost took the bus, until one of the guys offered her a ride.”

Sal squeezed his bottle. “What guy?”

“I dunno, she just said one of the waiters.”

There were only two male waiters on the payroll and Oscar was the only one scheduled today. Sal exchanged glances with Alex. The smug grin was gone. He was sure they were thinking the same thing. Oscar was a cool dude to hang out with—a guys’ guy. He was funny as shit even, but he didn’t know the first thing about treating women respectfully. He said they were only good for one thing. He openly joked about it. It was all in fun, so long as he didn’t disrespect anyone at the restaurant. So far, he hadn’t.

Sal took that swig of beer he’d held off on. The beer didn’t go down as smooth as his first swig. He’d get things straight with Oscar first thing tomorrow.

~*~

This was the first time Grace had a job where she didn’t look forward to her day off. To most people that would be a good thing. That meant they liked their job so much they loved being there, but Grace knew it was more than just the job.

She had to tell someone about this already. She needed someone else’s perspective on it, someone who would tell her to snap out of it. The very notion that she could somehow interest Sal in any way, was ridiculous and someone needed to put her in her place. Two people who came from different worlds hitting it off was not unheard of. But when one of them was clearly uninterested and had much to keep him preoccupied in the way of feminine companionship, the other should accept it. It just wasn’t happening. She needed to stop before she fell even deeper, especially since she was sure her experience with men in no way measured up to any of the women he was used to dating.

Still, Grace was falling fast. She could feel herself becoming delusional. The whole night before she thought of what Sal had said to her yesterday morning. At one point, she came to the conclusion that maybe Sal had asked about her personal life because he wanted to know what her status was. She nearly woke her sister up when the absurdity of it kicked in and she laughed.

After her first class, she met Joey at their usual Monday morning watering hole—the school’s coffee shop. She’d already called him the night before, to tell him how it had gone with her time in the kitchen but she left out everything else that happened. They had exactly twenty minutes before their next class. Joey was so good at reading her, as soon as they sat down he said, “Okay, spill it.”

“Really? It’s that obvious?”

“Yes, tell me everything.”

She ran her fingertips up and down the sides of her cup. She didn’t even know where to begin. The stupid girls in her class, even Joey, Taylor and George had gone on and on about how good looking the Moreno brothers were. How could she let herself get sucked in? He wasn’t even nice to her. She’d never been so shallow as to get taken in purely by a man’s looks.

“Grace, I’m waiting.”

“I feel so stupid.” Oh, no. There it was. She was getting choked up again. She stared at her cup, willing the tears to go away.

Joey reached out and touched her hand. “Why, what’s wrong?”