said it. Now he'd really raise her hackles. How in hell did one go about approaching this topic carefully?
Maya's brave smile faded, and she shrugged. "There are a lot of things I'd like. Not many of them are attainable. Kids don't really notice their surroundings too much. What they notice is how much they're loved. Just tell me what I have to do to get you to hire the inspector. I have no idea what one costs or how to go about hiring one. I just know I can't afford him."
Amazed at how easily she cut to the chase, Axell raised his glass in salute to her astuteness. She offered a wry grin and a lift of her glass in return. He admired a woman who could speak his language.
"My interest in all this is Constance. I don't want you returning to California. I don't know how you do it, but you're bringing my daughter out of her shell. If you leave, she might regress and give my mother-in-law the means to pry her out of my hands. I'll do whatever it takes to prevent that."
He'd considered offering her a place in his home again, but the incident this morning had given him second thoughts on that. He didn't need wide-eyed waifs in his kitchen at four in the morning. He didn't need women giving birth on his kitchen floor. He'd never have any privacy. "I own the building next door to this one."
Her head jerked up, her eyes widened, and she stared at him with an awakening hope and fascination that shot Axell's hormones into overdrive. She was pregnant, dammit! Just because she looked at him as if he'd handed her the moon didn't mean he was free to lose control.
His libido never had listened to reason. That's why he'd ended up married to Angela.
Shifting uncomfortably, Axell gulped his iced tea before continuing. "The last tenant left it in fairly reasonable condition. It's not earning any money sitting there empty. Maybe we could make some kind of deal."
"If we can get the inspector's approval to move my stuff," she reminded him. "What kind of a deal did you have in mind?"
Had she not been twenty-months pregnant, all kinds of possibilities would have danced through his lecherous mind. But her pregnancy ruled out all his low-minded thoughts, simplifying his answer. "You can move into the upstairs apartment, set up shop downstairs, and pay me a percentage of your gross every month. My only stipulation is that you be available to Constance as much as possible. Keep her with you as you do Matty while I work. Except on busy nights like Friday and Saturday, I'm usually away from the bar around nine or ten. If she's right next door, I might be able to see her more often."
Her eyes lit up like a child with a new toy as she contemplated his promises. Grown women should be a damned sight more wary of men offering candy.
"We'll have to move the counter. Do you think I could hire someone to help me dust all that stuff before we put it back out again? Could we look at the building now? I want to tell Matty..."
She was already across the booth and almost out of her seat before Axell could help her. Like quicksilver, she shimmered and glided and disappeared before his eyes. His front door closed after her before he could cross the restaurant.
Feeling considerably less burdened now that he had the problem with Constance solved, Axell loped after her, whistling a happy tune.
* * *
"This is marvelous! This is gorgeous." Maya whirled around in the vast open space of the downstairs shop of the restored old building. "The light from here is heavenly."
"The foot traffic outside is heavier and should draw more customers," Axell added.
Ignoring him, Maya ran her fingers over the mahogany banister to the upstairs. "Someone treated this place with respect. There's a much happier aura in here."
"It's called profit." Axell examined the ceiling tile twelve feet above them. "Heating and cooling is a problem though."
"There's a ceiling fan. And look at the floor! If I could just have it waxed..." Seeing that Axell was counting pennies, Maya slipped up the stairs. She really shouldn't take another place with stairs, but what choice did she have? The baby would come when it was ready. Ignoring a frisson of fear at her lack of preparation for that event, she peeked around the corner at the living quarters. She didn't