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And by God, the man smelled delicious If that was his natural scent, he couldit to ? Why a mind?

"Youra hand overunprofessional If you don’t et back to work now--"

"Jackson," he said He gazed down atHis voice dropped an octave "I want you to callheart tripped all over itself and fell flat on its face inside ly, "Uaze dropped to my lips

Every muscle in my body tensed

When he abruptly turned around and left, ainst the counter for support

What on earth just happened?

The next few hours passed in a blur In between directing a setup and serving staff of al the food was kept at the right temperature until ready to be served, was plated properly before it left the staging area, and that there was enough of it, I didn’t have a moment to catch my breath, let alone reflect on what had happened between , really

But it sure felt like soshouted, I jumped I whirled around to see Claudia headed towardher clipboard against her chest, her face pale as a bedsheet

I said, "What? What’s happening?"

She hustled up next to me and blurted, "Mr Boudreaux asked for you He’s in the tent You’d better hurry"

I frowned, handing off two plates of cheesecake to a waiting server, who turned around and sprinted aith theer-orange cheesecake already, and though typically not every guest would have dessert, this crowd seemed especially ravenous

Thank Jesus I’dI wanted was Jackson hearing coh

I said, "In the tent? Why would he wantnow?"

Claudia--whose hair gel had failed so her coiffure was now frizzed out into a cloudy brown halo around her face--said, "Six ave me a little shove toward the direction of the tent

I was perplexed "Well hold your horses, I’ her hands and panting

Figuring it must be some kind of culinary disaster, I went as fast as I could, rass toward the enormous tent set up on the back lawn It was all white and looked like soed peaks reached like ghostly fingers toward the twilight sky Servers strea plates and bringing drinks At one flap near the front stood a young fe ood

I stopped beside her and peered inside the tent I didn’t see anyone puking, didn’t hear any shouts of distress, could detect nothing out of sorts in the , well-dressed crowd of hundreds seated at candlelit rounds

I asked, "What’s going on?"

"Get up to the stage"

She pointed to the raised dais at the rear of the tent, where a wooden podiuht Behind the stage were three large white screens with a backdrop of a shirred black-fabric cloth hung to hide wires and audiovisual equipe?" I repeated "Why?"

The server threw her hands in the air "Like anybody tells ht now"