“Gorgeous,” Ross said, taking Hannah’s coat and hanging it on the rack. “I love that color with your hair. Come with me. I’ve been waiting for you to arrive.”

Hannah could believe that. Ross had been standing by the front door of the community center to usher her in, and she’d just barely resisted the urge to ask him how long he’d been there. Having a man wait for her arrival was certainly flattering to a woman’s ego, and Hannah was smiling as she walked down the stairs to the banquet room.

One look and Hannah was impressed. Ross had hired a firm from Minneapolis to cater the event, and they’d gone all out. The large banquet room was decorated with flowers and candles, and food tables draped in pristine white had been set up around the perimeter. Formally clad waiters and waitresses manned the food stations, and there was a live five-piece band playing for dancing at the far end of the room.

“Would you care to dance?” Ross asked. “Or would you like to inspect the food tables?”

Hannah turned to give him a look and Ross laughed. “Never mind. It was a silly question. Follow me. We’ll go see what the caterers have on the menu.”

They had anything and everything on the menu, as Hannah soon discovered. There was a table with caviar, which Hannah avoided like the plague, and another with cheeses and a variety of crackers. Pâté and toast rounds were on a third table, and shrimp wrapped in bacon on a fourth. Cracked crab wrapped in flaky sheets of filo dough were next, and another table held a variety of fruit cut into bite-sized pieces, each speared with its own food pick. There were hot little sausages in tiny buns, and miniature sandwiches on tiny croissants. Smoked salmon commanded a whole table, along with a round silver platter of pumpernickel triangles decorated with cream cheese rosettes.

Part of one wall was taken up by what Hannah called “hot carts” containing meat sliced to order. There were beef roasts, ham, turkey, roasted chicken, and baked salmon, all aromatic and succulent. The meat was carved by chefs in white aprons and toques, and served as dinners with baked potatoes loaded with your choice of toppings, herbed dinner rolls, and sides of creamed spinach, green beans, creamed corn, or all three.

The next food section contained the display that interested Hannah the most. One look, and she was impressed. The caterer had provided colorful Italian ices for the party.