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And they’d all been at Liam’s party—I’d seen them there myself on ZoomBoom. My heart started thumping a mile a minute, and I grabbed hold of the counter and swayed. My headache, which’d been plain old bad before, now scaled the heights of Mount Everest. Little pre-migraine lights began to twinkle.

“Mason,” Danny said, and Mason followed his team captain’s unspoken command, pushing his way forward to order half the menu.

Burton’s hands were dancing happily over the register until he looked at me. “What’re you waiting for? Get some fries going.”

Danny put both hands on the counter and leaned in, looking into the back as I started a fresh basket. “Nice place you have here.”

Burton’s chest swelled with pride. “Thanks—I saw the last game. That was something else.”

“It was,” Danny agreed, pushing himself back. His white-blonde hair glinted under the fluorescent light.

“Don’t wait here,” Burton fluttered, lest they be inconvenienced in the slightest. “Go get your sodas—we’ll bring it out when everything’s ready.”

Within the next ten minutes, Raj and I loaded up three trays full of fries and assorted half-pound burgers, and then after that all the guys in the kitchen looked at me expectantly.

I growled quietly, deep inside my throat. “What, because I’m a girl I get to be the waitress?”

“Jessica, just do something for once without complaining,” Burton demanded.

I frowned at all of them, “Fine,” I snarled, and went through the door that let us kitchen gnomes out into the dining room’s real world.

CHAPTER 10

Iwalked over to the table they’d taken, one red plastic tray in each hand.

“Here you go,” I said, trying to sound the right combination of sincere and sarcastic that would let me keep both my job and my pride. I set the heavier tray of burgers down first, and then leaned in to set the tray of fries further up the table—and felt someone pinch my ass.

“Hey!” I yelped, dropping the tray the last few inches, sending fries bouncing off. I jumped back and rubbed my butt like I could wipe away his—whoever he had been—touch.

“What?” Mason asked.

“What’d you do that for?” Liam turned to look at Danny.

“Do what?” Danny said, the very voice of innocence.

Liam frowned, and then looked at me. “I’m sorry, he’s a douchebag.”

I saw Mason kick him under the table for it.

“No—it’s—” I started apologizing like it’d been my fault, then caught myself. “Yeah, you should be,” I corrected.

Liam nodded, accepting my approbation on behalf of his team, and then I turned—and someone slapped my butt.

I whirled—and just then all the lights in the Shax flickered. “All of you can go fuck off,” I addressed them, each and every one.

“Language!” Burton hollered, from inside the kitchen. It didn’t matter, I had a vision of myself sweeping the full tray of burgers onto their laps, but then Burton got there.

“You can go back into the kitchen now, Jessica McMullen.”

“But…”

“This,” he said, gesturing at the crew and speaking slowly as if I were dumb, “is Redson’s finest.”

“Damn straight,” said Chase, holding his hand up. Mason slapped it.

Pressure built inside me, the kind that threatened to choke out any other sense, my throat tightened, my tongue went numb. I was angry, so angry—everything got shiny again, just as lights dimmed, the storm threatening to take the power out.

“Go empty all the trash cans outside before the power goes,” Burton commanded.