Just For Kicks. Susan Andersen

to get along so fine. It was almost too bad that he wasn’t twenty years older—or that she wasn’t into cradle robbing. Otherwise she might have found her soul mate.

      Still, she supposed it wasn’t copacetic to foment rebellion between relatives, so she reeled in her goofy grin and slapped her best I-gotta-be-the-adult-here expression in its place. “Now, now, I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice person,” she said, and even managed to sound as if she meant it. If you like the I’ve-got-a-plan-for-everything—right-down-to-my-own-orgasm—type.

      The latter thought kicked the slats out from under her amusement, since it brought with it a much too vivid recollection of the morning’s events. That was a memory she had no desire to revisit.

      It also had nothing to do with Niklaus, who was looking at her with the sort of hesitant longing she usually associated with her rescued pets.

      There was just no way she could turn her back on that. She’d never been able to with the furry contingent, and she didn’t have the heart to ignore the teen’s obvious need for a friend, either. The poor kid was a stranger in Las Vegas, and within the next couple of days would probably have to contend with being the new kid on the block at a new school, as well. And as if that weren’t dreary enough, he was saddled with the most humorless male in the known universe as his guardian. Who on earth had thought that was a good idea?

      She rose to her feet and looked down at the teen. “I’m going to go take a quick dip,” she informed him. “Then if you want to, you’re welcome to come upstairs to meet my babies.”

      “You’ve got kids?”

      She laughed. “No. That’s what I call my menagerie. And as I said, you’re welcome to come on up and meet them.”

      A killer smile flashed across his face and he hopped to his feet with touching alacrity. “Sweet!”

      “You think so, huh?” She smiled at his eagerness. Then a thought popped into her mind, and her smiled widened. “So, tell me. Do you happen to speak German?”

      “Yeah, sure. Grandma’s from Bavaria, and both Mom and Uncle Wolf speak it so I learned as a little kid. Why?”

      “Because you’ve just been enlisted to help me train Rufus.”

      They looked at each other. Then, as one, they grinned and said in unison, “Sweet!”