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handed it ceremoniously to the redheaded woman. “Here you go. Enjoy.”
    “Thanks, hon, I will.” She shot a considerably less friendly glare at Grace before turning away and heading back to her table.
    “Whew,” Grace said. “Nicely defused. If she’d had anything in her glass to begin with, she’d have thrown it at me.” She pulled off her hat and set it on the bar, then ran one hand through her blonde hair to fluff it up again.
    “Hey, it happens. If people get the impression you believe you’re better than they are, they get testy real fast. Better not to talk seriously to them. Just smile and make ‘em happy.”
    Grace hadn’t expected to learn anything from a football player, but she looked at him more carefully and said, “I’ll remember that.”
    Luke sat, looking at her more carefully now that she had removed her hat. He turned his stool outward so his long legs could stretch in comfort. But the crowd was tight, so he swung back toward Grace. His knee bumped hers in the process. He didn’t appear to care that his jeans were marked with a perfect handprint of automotive grease.
    Grace re-crossed her legs. “You obviously know how to handle people.”
    He continued to study her more carefully. “It’s not hard. You gotta relax, that’s all. People can sense you’re uptight.”
    “I’m not uptight.”
    Luke laughed.
    “I’m not!” Although in her borrowed clothes, Grace had to admit she wasn’t as comfortable as she’d prefer.
    The bartender slid Grace’s drink across the bar to her, and Luke’s beer appeared a second later. Luke reached for his and took a slug.
    Still stewing about being perceived as uptight, Grace heard her cell phone jingle, and she reached into her handbag to politely shut it off. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It rings constantly.”
    “Answer it,” he said. “It might be your airline calling with an update.”
    It wasn’t the airline. Instead, Grace heard Nora Blackbird’s distressed voice. She tuned out the noise of the bar to listen.
    “Grace? Grace, darling, I’m so sorry, but I can’t meet your flight this evening after all. I’ve got an emergency on my hands.”
    “Don’t worry about me,” Grace said, plugging her finger to her ear so she could hear Nora more clearly. “What’s wrong?”
    “It’s Emma,” Nora said, and Grace could imagine her pacing the hallway of her chic condo in Philadelphia. “My naughty little sister has disappeared. Run off or captured by aliens, I’m not sure which. I’d vote for aliens right now, and I hope they torture her. But I’ve got to track her down to make sure she’s okay.”
    Nora’s younger sister Emma was always causing some uproar in the Blackbird family. Grace chastised herself for not hearing the concern in Nora’s voice earlier. She had probably been worried about her sister hours ago, but Grace had been too wrapped up in her own minor problems to notice.
    Grace said, “Do you have any idea where she might be?”
    “Not a clue,” Nora replied. “Probably a bar, though, so I have to find her before she self-destructs.”
    “Has she been drinking again?”
    “For months,” Nora replied. “You can get a cab? And find my condo?”
    “Rittenhouse Square,” Grace said. “It’s easy to find. If you’re not there, I’ll ask the doorman to let me in. But listen, Nora, my flight has already been postponed. If it’s canceled, I’ll do my best to get there in the morning.”
    “Your television interview is at one o’clock.”
    “Don’t worry. I’ll be there. After the interview, you can enlist me. I’ll do whatever you need. We’ll beat the bushes together.”
    Nora thanked Grace and wished her love, then said a hasty good-night.
    Grace ended the call, but sat for a second staring at her phone. With all her heart, she wished there was more she could do for Nora. A friend in need.
    When she turned back, Luke was finishing the act of signing an autograph for the bartender. With a friendly