By the time we were walking in the door,Dakota was a bundle of nerves and I was ready for a drink.
Not an auspicious start.
Tristan came down the main stairs and tookone look at us both and began shaking his head. “It’s a party. Both of you stopworrying.”
“I’m not worried.”
“I’m not worried.”
The fact that we said it both at the sametime probably made it less believable.
He laughed, ignoring the bustle of peoplewho were running around, and wrapped us both in a big hug. “You are both goingto have fun and blush and get turned on, and then when you’re both a bitfrantic, I’m going to flog you and let you zone out completely.”
He made it sound easy…except for thefrantic part.
Dakota grinned. “Can’t we skip to thezoned-out part?”
“No chance. Austin might kill us becausehe’s just a bit worked up.” Tristan looked upstairs. “He’s rearranging theplayroom for the fourth time and I think Silas is getting ready to tie him downto something.”
I couldn’t decide if that would be a goodthing or not.
Dakota took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll godistract the drama queen.”
Looking over at me, Tristan smiled. “Willyou go talk to Tanner and make sure everyone who was hired or volunteered hasshown up?”
Nodding, I felt a bit steadier. Somethingto do always helped make things easier. “Yes, and I’ll make sure the otherpresenters are here or on their way.”
That was easier than thinking aboutanything else.
“And when that’s done and everything is ontrack, please remind people to relax and that this is supposed to be fun.”Tristan glanced around the room at the tense faces. “If I thought it wouldhelp, I’d go around and make it an order.”
He was so serious, Dakota and I bothstarted to laugh.
A frustrated sound came from upstairs, andthen we heard something about the elephant being the wrong color. Austin wasclearly losing his mind, but we weren’t sure about what. I looked at Dakota. “Worst-casescenario, tell him you’re worried about that caterer he was obsessing over andhe needs to check on him. That should at least get him out of the playroom.”
Once Austin had realized one of the newapplicants ran a catering company, he’d taken that over completely. Providedthat the evening went smoothly, they were going to talk about the company doingsome work for the club long-term.
Dakota sighed but gave a nod. “Okay,heading into battle. If I don’t return, someone make sure my computer historyis cleared before anyone sees it. I was researching stuff this morning and I’mgoing to look like some kind of sexually deviant serial killer without somecontext.”
As he charged off up the stairs, I glancedover at Tristan. “I’m honestly not sure there’d be enough context in the worldto smooth over whatever he was looking at.”
Tristan shrugged. “I’m sure the book willturn out great.”
“I’m starting to think you don’t haveenough self-preservation instincts when it comes to Dakota.” Shaking my head, Iwalked deeper into the room and started counting bodies.
Those two were going to end up on some kindof watch list or get us all on the national news.
But there was nothing I could do about itso I focused on my job. I’d been working on the volunteer and staff list for solong I knew how many there should be and had met most of them. As I finishedthe count, I knew I was missing four bodies as long as I didn’t include thecaterer. I just had to figure out who. Tanner’s voice was coming from thesmaller room where the mini stages were set up for the scenes.
“I’m halfway through the checklist and…”His words trailed off as someone else spoke, but I wasn’t sure who it was untilI walked in. Shane. Yes, I should have guessed.
They were watching each other intently, andI couldn’t decide if they were getting ready to have sex or negotiate amillion-dollar deal. “How is everything going?”
The interruption startled them both and hada young guy in the back of the room giggling. He seemed to be doing somethingwith the lights and I mentally changed the tally in my head. “I’ve countedheads and I think I’m only missing a handful of people.”
Tanner nodded. “We’ve got one monitorthat’s running late and will be here right before we open and there are twovery patient people upstairs who were willing to sacrifice their sanity for thegreater good.”
“Plus the caterers? They arrived and aredoing their thing?” When Tanner nodded again, I started to relax. “Good.”
