Accidental Sire(104)

She was not about to have all of that preparation undone by a cater waiter who didn't know how to keep a bow tie on straight.

"Go," Margot said, nodding toward the warm, humid air of the false tropical jungle. He moved silently away from her, into the opulently lit space.

Margot turned and tried to survey the greenhouse as it would appear to the guests, the earliest of which were already filtering into the garden, oohing and aahing. Calling it a greenhouse seemed like an understatement. The glass-paneled dome reached four stories into the sky, allowing the tropical plant specimens inside plenty of space to stretch. Carefully plotted stone paths wound through the flower beds, giving the visitor the impression of wandering through paradise. But knowing how much Chicago's riche-est of the riche enjoyed a nice soiree, the conservators had been smart enough to add a nice open space in the middle of the greenhouse to allow for a dance floor. She'd arranged elbow-high tables around the perimeter, covered in jewel-tone silk cloths. Gold LED lights cast a hazy sunset glow over the room, occasionally projecting animated fireflies against the foliage. And since society's ladies would never do something so inelegant as visit a buffet, the waiters had been informed to constantly circulate with their trays of canapés in a non-obvious, serpentine pattern around the enormous shrimp tower in the middle of-

Wait.

"No," Margot murmured, shaking her head. "No, no, no."

She snagged the next waiter to walk through the entrance and took his tray. The sweet-faced college kid seemed startled and alarmed to have the chief planner for this event grabbing him by the arm. "You, get two of your coworkers and very quickly, very quietly, very discreetly get that shrimp tower out of here. If anyone asks, just tell them that you're taking it back to the kitchen to be refilled."


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The poor boy blanched at the brisk clip to her tone and said, "But-but Chef Jean was very specific about-"

"I don't care what Chef Jean was specific about," she said. "Get it out of here now."

The waiter nodded and pulled away from her into the gathering crowd.

Margot stepped forward into the fragrant warmth of the greenhouse, careful to keep her expression and body language relaxed. She was aware that, while professionally dressed in her black power suit, she was not nearly as festive as the guests in their tuxedos and haute couture gowns, but she was perfectly comfortable. She'd attended hundreds of events like this growing up. She would not be intimidated by some plants and a pretentious wannabe Frenchman. She pressed the button of her earbud-size Bluetooth and whispered, "This is Margot. I need to speak to Jean."

She could tell by the way her words were echoing in her own ear that the head chef of Fete Portable had taken his earpiece out-despite Margot's repeated requests to keep a line of communication open with her-and set it on the stainless steel counter in the makeshift kitchen. She blew out a frustrated breath. Jean LeDille was not her preferred caterer for high-profile events, but the de facto hostess of tonight's opening-Melissa Sutter, first lady of Chicago and head of the botanical garden conservators' board-had insisted on using him. So far he'd been temperamental, resistant to the most basic instruction, and a pain in Margot's Calvin Klein–clad ass. And when she was done with this event and had secured her partnership at Elite Elegance, she would have Jean blacklisted from every Chicago party planner's contact list. Theirs was a close-knit and gossip-driven circle.

Someone in the kitchen picked up the earbud and said, "Ms. Cary, he says to tell you he's unavailable."

Margot gritted her perfect white teeth but managed a polite smile to the head of the opera board and his wife as they passed. Jean wouldn't be able to get a job making a clown-shaped birthday cake by the time she was done with him.

"So I guess I'll just have to make myself available to him, then."

Margot's assistant, Mandy, a sleek brunette who reminded Margot of a Russian wolfhound in four-inch heels, fell in step behind her. "Make sure that tower is gone. You have two minutes."

"On it," Mandy snapped, and peeled off after the hapless waiters.

Margot pushed through the heavy plastic doors that separated the greenhouse from the kitchen tent. Far from the muted music and golden-green light of the greenhouse, the tent was ruthlessly lit with fluorescents and heating lamps. Jean's shouts filled the air, demanding that the canapé trays be restocked tout de suite.