Melody should have been ecstatic. She had managed to get a bona fide lawyer to agree to look at the mess with her grandparents’ estate for free. At least she assumed this would be for free. He hadn’t said anything about her hiring him. There had been no talk of money. And honestly, Melody had gotten the vibe that he was doing this more of a favor to a friend as anything else.

“Aren’t you done yet?”

Melody looked up to find Janice—the store manager—standing in the walkthrough between the back and the front of the shop. Janice had her hands firmly lodged on her hips, and she was glaring at Melody. “We close in ten minutes.”

That was news to Melody, but since Cisco had been her last customer of the night, she had been rather distracted since he left almost forty-five minutes ago. However, she had been doing all of her closing duties just like usual, so she figured it was rather unkind of Janice to act as though Melody had been sitting on her butt all afternoon.

“I’m just finishing up right now,” Melody assured the woman that the rest of the staff referred to as the “dragon lady” behind her back.

Janice’s dark eyes narrowed, and her pinched expression grew even more sour. “Well, hurry up. You were the one who told me you had to be out of here right away.”

“I know.” Crap. Melody had almost forgotten about that. “I do. And I really appreciate you hurrying your own stuff along so we can leave.”

Janice muttered something unintelligible and then stalked back into the office. Melody waited until she was out of sight before groaning. It was a good thing she hadn’t made plans with Cisco tonight anyway. She had another job to get to. Every once in a while, Allie got Melody some extra work with the catering company that made up Allie’s other part-time job.

Ten minutes passed. Melody and Janice both finished up. They locked up the shop and left via the back entrance. And twenty minutes after that, Melody was running the six blocks to the hotel where the catering gig was located.

The city blocks flew by. Denver was a new and beautiful city compared to so many other US cities, and yet Melody almost never had any sort of opportunity to enjoy it or to even notice. In fact, the only thing that Melody appreciated on a regular basis was that Denver was relatively safe compared to other cities she knew of. Unfortunately, that didn’t say much about Melody’s exposure or appreciation of culture or history. But who had time for that kind of thing anyway?

Rich people.

In other words, the type of people who would be attending the charity gala this evening were the sort of folks that had time to appreciate Denver’s Western culture and all of the rich historical parts of the city’s history. And as Melody pounded her way up the steps on her way to the back of the hotel and the staff entrance, she knew that those people would be entering the old hotel through the historic front entrance with its fabulous facade and red carpet.

“Oh my God!” Allie moaned. “I was afraid you weren’t going to show!”

Melody caught the long black apron that Allie threw her way. “I had to close with Janice.”

“Oh. Damn.” Allie pointed to Melody’s polo shirt. “I guess the green is all right. Make sure you put tape or something over the coffee shop logo though.”

“Right.” Melody tied a knot in the neck strap of her apron and used that to cover the logo on the right breast pocket of her polo. “Problem solved. Can we just get going?”

“Yes!” Allie was already dragging Melody out toward the ballroom where the dance floor had been set up and the band was doing a sound check.

“Okay, so we’re talking trays of appetizers and drinks. There’s an open bar.” Allie pointed to the floor. “No tables, which is good. We won’t have to serve dinner. I hate that.”

“The tips are always better when they’re just putting it on your tray,” Melody agreed. “So, when do we start?”

“Antonio will have us lining up to start taking trays around in about ten minutes.” Allie pointed to the far doors where the guests would enter. “It’s pretty much the usual setup.”

“All right.” Melody stifled a yawn.

She had been on her feet in these shoes since four this morning. She was tired and ready to lie down and zone out in front of the television, but that just wasn’t an option right now. Not yet anyway.

“Are you sure you can handle this?” Allie asked dubiously. “Antonio will kill me if you screw this up. Most of Denver’s top families will be at this gala. He’s hoping to score some private parties from this job.”

“I promise I won’t screw up,” Melody assured her friend. “Seriously. It isn’t hard. What could possibly go wrong?”

The security guards paced across the open ballroom. The band started to play. And the doors were flung open. Guests began meandering inside from the ballroom’s large foyer where they had been congregating for a pre-party drink.

Allie grabbed Melody’s arm and started dragging her out of the room and back into the kitchen. “Let’s get in line. I don’t want to have something like salmon crab puffs on my tray. Then I will be smelling fish all night long.”

Melody could not help but laugh at her friend’s ridiculousness. Allie was a lot of fun to work with. They’d never hung out socially. Neither woman really had any time for such things. But at least when they were working at the coffee shop or doing a catering gig together, they could joke and have fun.

The kitchen was bustling when Melody and Allie returned. They got into the line of servers waiting to be handed trays on their way to circulate amongst the privileged guests in the ballroom. The first trays started sliding across the counter from the kitchen staff to Antonio, who would be handing them personally to the wait staff. He’d been known to spout off that this was the only way to know that he was serving the best product possible. He wanted his eyes on every single tray that went out of the kitchen in an effort to achieve perfection.

Melody thought briefly about what it would be like to be on the other side of this process. Not in the kitchen. Not holding a tray and waiting on others. What would it be like to be an actual guest at a party like this? What would it feel like to have other people bring trays around for her to peruse and reject at her whim? Would she like it? Or would it just feel weird? What kind of person let others wait on them hand and foot like this? It was an interesting question that she didn’t really have time to contemplate.

“Dammit!” Allie whispered as she took her tray from Antonio.

Melody smothered a laugh as she realized that Allie was carrying a heaping tray full of crab puffs and sushi. Her friend’s worst nightmare had come true. But when it was Melody’s turn, Antonio handed her a big tray full of white wine in glasses.

Melody bit back a groan as she held the heavy tray in front of her. Not only were wine glasses heavy, you had to keep them level for obvious reasons. Apparently, Antonio was punishing her for either being late or just being there in general. Either way, it was going to be a very long trip around the ballroom.

With a deep breath to hopefully internalize some fortitude, Melody began her trek around the ballroom in a quest to get rid of those heavy wine glasses. At least that was one bonus of carrying such a thing. Everyone always seemed eager enough to take the glasses off her hands.

The ballroom itself was oblong shaped. There were columns ringing the edge of it. They gave the place a Corinthian or Greek kind of feel. For this event, some party planner had hung lengths of watered silk from the top of each pillar. The silken streamers crisscrossed the edges of the ballroom in a pattern reminiscent of a maypole. Of course, it was May. Perhaps spring had been the inspiration for the party theme. Melody was often too busy with the everyday tasks involved in living to worry about party themes or what time of year it was.

The band was playing low-key pop songs that seemed as though they were more background music than anything else. There was nobody on the dance floor at the moment. Everyone had bunched into tight little cliques that reminded Melody strongly of the halls at a high school on any given morning.

“Excuse me? Can I get a glass of wine, please?”

Melody turned with a very practiced smile and dipped her chin to a very elegant woman in a midnight-blue sheath dress. The fabric of her dress clung in all the right places. It emphasized the tiny waist and the voluptuous chest as though it had been specially tailored to fit her Grecian goddess figure. The woman’s dark hair had been pulled into an updo, and there were gems winking on her ears and on the silver comb stuck into her hair. Her complexion was smooth and dark like caramel. Her words had carried the barest hint of a Spanish accent. It was just enough to make her about as exotic as any man could want.

“Thank you.” The woman plucked a glass from the edge of the tray, and Melody had to shift the load in her arms to avoid it toppling over. Then the party guest turned to her male companion. “Francisco, do you want a glass of wine?”

Melody felt her breath lodge in her lungs as the woman’s date turned around. He was not just familiar. He was absolutely known to her. And why shouldn’t he be? She had been fantasizing about him in the privacy of her one-room apartment for a week or more now.

Cisco—Francisco, apparently—was wearing a beautiful tuxedo. It fit his body like a glove and made his shoulders look twice as broad and imposing as before. His curly black hair had been once again slicked back from his face. Melody could not help but wonder what he would look like if he just let the tousled locks go free. His swarthy complexion was a beautiful match for the caramel perfection of his date’s. She was tall. He was taller, even than her stiletto heels. They were a power couple plain and simple.

“Melody,” Cisco murmured. His blue eyes opened a fraction wider in his obvious surprise in seeing her there. “Are you still working?”

Somehow, the words he was speaking did not make her feel as though he were being rude or decisive. Perhaps coming from anyone else they would have had a very different vibe. It was difficult to say. But when he smiled at her, Melody was powerless to stop herself from smiling back.

“I suppose I am still working.” Melody moved the tray closer to him. “Would you like a glass of wine?”

“Please, don’t mind if I do.” He took one from a spot toward the middle of the tray, which at least allowed her to keep the thing balanced. “That’s quite a heavy load to be toting around the room.”

“It’s a load that gets lighter and lighter very quickly without much encouragement on my part,” Melody told him wryly.

“Well, I appreciate your willingness to tote the tray around anyway.” Then Cisco slipped a bill onto the tray.

Melody felt her cheeks flush as his female companion stared in open fascination at Melody. Obviously, the woman had no idea why he would be speaking to the help. It was a common hang-up at these parties. For the most part, the servers were invisible. When party guests tipped, it was almost an automatic thing that happened because they were so used to tipping just about everyone. Melody had always been aware that this was almost more of a status symbol for them than a gesture of true appreciation for a service rendered. For the most part, it didn’t matter. It was still money.

“It was good to see you,” Melody murmured to Cisco. “I’m off to unload more wine glasses.”

“Right.”

Melody could feel Cisco’s gaze following her as she moved about the room. It was disconcerting to know that this was the social engagement his father had demanded he attend. Nearly twenty minutes had passed before Melody brushed up against Allie once again.

“Psst!” Allie whispered urgently. “I just realized something.”

“What’s that?” Melody was glad to be back with someone who was more like her.

“Your guy from the coffee shop?” Allie was busy trying to point across the ballroom while still hanging onto her mostly full tray. “He’s here!”

Melody didn’t want to expand on this at all. “I know. I saw him.”

“His last name is Hernandez,” Allie explained. “I should have known before, but I’d never really made the connection before. You know? His family is loaded. They’re practically Denver ranching royalty.”

Great. That didn’t really help much. Although why Melody would care whom Cisco’s family was seemed irrelevant. She wasn’t trying to marry him. She was just trying to get some free legal advice. That was all.

“His father is like the pushiest guy in the room.” Allie turned around and jerked her chin toward a very hard-looking man with black hair shot through with gray and a stony and determined expression. “I just thought you should know.”

“Well, thank you for keeping me informed,” Melody told her friend. “But we’re just coffee shop acquaintances. Nothing more.”

“Whew.” Allie pooched out her lower lip and sagged as much as she could beneath the weight of her tray. “I would have hated to see you get mixed up with that snotty bunch!”

“Yeah.” Melody sighed and moved away from Allie to take another circuit around the room. “That would be a real pity.”