by Lucy Score
Visitors to this year’s Christmas Festival would be getting an eyeful of freaking Christmas spirit if it killed her.
Lorenzo wrapped up his report, and Cat nodded with satisfaction. “You guys are killing it. Keep it up. I’ll make sure you get the new shooting schedule for the weekend.”
“Appreciate it,” Lorenzo nodded, his hands shoved in the pockets of his coveralls. He was a Mainer by birth, so twenty degrees felt balmy to him.
“Might as well take your guys home. Enjoy some family time,” she said, glancing at her watch. It was already three in the afternoon. Any other year, and she would have been holding her hands over her stomach and whining about how she shouldn’t have hit the stuffing so hard.
But not this year. Her mother was “throwing together” a Thanksgiving meal in the rental house. It wouldn’t be the same. Not without Nonni and everyone crowding around the dining table as they had for generations. But it was what they had to do if they wanted Merry to have the merriest Christmas to date.
Dinner at seven.
That would give her enough time for a quick shower and a chance to peruse the latest entries into the school location contest. Lorinda’s idea for the location contest had gone better than expected. Apparently, a trade school for women was big news. Cat had taken time out of her schedule two days ago to video chat with the hosts of a New York morning show about the initiative. In those forty-eight hours since, traffic to the website Henry had set up exploded. She even had a few applications for the school’s location already as well as dozens of information requests by potential students.
Cat flexed her fingers in her pockets as she headed back toward the street where her truck was parked. She could feel the momentum building. There was a point in every project where the flow seemed to take over. But she felt like Merry and the school were warring for her attention, and she wasn’t sure which one needed to take precedence.
If she were being honest with herself, Cat knew she was spreading herself too thin. She needed a little time off to recuperate, get her head on straight, and come back at both projects full steam. An outsider would suggest that she delegate. But when she was the one with the vision, it was too time-consuming trying to transfer that vision to someone else.
She hauled herself behind the wheel and cranked the heat. A little vacation would be nice. She closed her eyes and leaned against the head rest. Maybe a nice tropical island. White sand beaches. A hammock. A pink umbrella in her drink.
The knock on her window scared the hell out of her.
Drake was grinning at her. “Naptime?” he asked when she rolled down the window.
“Har. As if we have time.”
“Just wrapped shooting at Mrs. Pringle’s.” Paige had assigned Drake to Mrs. Pringle’s because the woman absolutely adored handsome men. Cat had seen some of the footage with the duo’s banter and agreed it had been a solid gold decision.
“How’s it coming?”
“Got the occupancy permit ten minutes ago,” Drake grinned.
“Awesome,” Cat sighed. They’d shoot a reveal at Mrs. Pringle’s and one at the diner this week. Despite the mountain of work yet to be done, they were on schedule. “Are you coming to dinner tonight?” she asked.
Drake’s family lived in sunny southern California, and due to the shooting schedule, he wasn’t able to join them this year.
He bobbed his head, grinned. “That was the plan. But something came up.”
“What came up?” If Paige or Jayla had tried to sneak in an extra scene to film on Thanks-fucking-giving Day, Cat was going to murder someone.
“I don’t know exactly what it is, but you and I have been invited to the fire station.”
“The fire station?” Cat repeated. She scrubbed a hand over her face. God, she was tired. She wanted a shower, a nap, and coffee, and then an entire vat of gravy. But if Merry’s firefighters wanted her there, she would be. Part of the success of her shows was that Cat made sure those towns knew they were important to her. She wasn’t just in town to smile for the cameras and then hide in her trailer. She had their backs. She wanted good things for them. That’s why people talked to her, opened up, shared things they wouldn’t necessarily share. It made for good TV and good karma.
“Okay. To the fire station. Want a ride?”
--------
Cat frowned at the cars lining the street outside Merry’s brick fire station. Half of the building was the oversized garage for the two trucks and ambulance that served the community. The other half was a two-story structure that housed the fire hall where community breakfasts and food drives were held. It was the heart of the community.
Cat wondered if they should add a food drive to the show. Maybe for the Christmas Eve park reveal? Merry giving back, paying it forward.
She was so lost in thought that it took her a full second to realize what she was seeing when Drake opened the glass door for her.
The fire hall with its ugly drop ceilings and even uglier wood paneling was filled with folding tables and chairs, all occupied by production staff, contractors, and Merry residents.
“Surprise!”
Cat clapped a hand over her mouth.
“You didn’t think we’d let you skip Thanksgiving, did you?” Noah asked, appearing at her side. He wore charcoal gray trousers and a navy pullover that hugged a chest more defined than a desk jockey nerd’s had any right to be.
“You did this?” she asked. The scent of turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy were thick enough to fog the windows from the inside.
“Merry did this,” Noah corrected her. “One more surprise, a little speech, and then you can attack that stuffing,” he promised.
“Another surprise?” Cat parroted.
Noah pointed over her shoulder. There at the corner table were her parents, Gannon, Paige, Gabby in a highchair, and beside her—
“Nonni!” Cat flung herself at the tiny woman. Her grandmother’s cloud of white hair smelled just as it always had. Shalimar and baby powder.
Nonni’s strong fingers dug into Cat’s shoulders, pulling her closer. “You didn’t think I’d miss a family Thanksgiving, did you?” she chided Cat.
“No, ma’am,” Cat grinned down at the woman who had put her on this path. “How did you get here?”
“Your father picked me up this morning and drove like a demon to get back here.”
Nonni loved her son-in-law but found his driving skills left much to be desired. She found anyone who drove above forty miles an hour to be a terror on the road.
“I can’t believe you’re here.”
“Believe it,” Nonni commanded. Her spine of steel was evident even in her diminutive stature. She gave Cat another squeeze. “Now, that handsome man has his words to say and then we eat.”
Nonni nodded in Noah’s direction.
With the help of Reggie—festive in a turkey sweater—drumming on one of the tables, Noah quieted the room.
“I’d like to thank everyone who turned out for this meal today. This year we’ve become more than a community. After the storm, we became family.” Cat saw him wink at Sara who was sitting between Mellody and another older, unsmiling woman. She had lines carved into her blank face. The man on Mellody’s left had his arm around her. “That family has grown to include our friends from the Reno and Realty Network.”
Spontaneous applause burst forth, and Cat slid into a chair next to her father.
“Now, you may not know that I wasn’t a fan of the idea of allowing the network to film their Christmas special here.”
Several sarcastic gasps filled the air, and Cat laughed. Mr. No’s reputation was widely known.
“Ha ha.” Noah took the ribbing in stride. “Believe it or not, I’m not always right. So, I’d like to thank Cat and Drake and their team for riding to our rescue and putting our town back together. I have a feeling this Christmas, with their help, is going to be the most memorable one Merry has ever seen.”
/> The applause kicked up again, and Cat joined in. It was true. She’d do whatever it took to make sure this town got their Christmas.
“So, for their time, their attention to detail, their genuine caring, I’d like to thank you all for spending your Thanksgiving with us. We’re honored to have you.” Noah raised a plastic cup of Sprite. “Happy Thanksgiving.” He said it to the room, but his eyes were on Cat. She felt the familiar warm flush roll through her body.
When he looked at her like that… Well, it wasn’t safe to think those thoughts when Nonni was sitting near her. Nothing got past her grandmother.
The toast echoed around the room and cheers rose up when the first dishes of food appeared.
They dined family-style on turkey and ham, roasted vegetables, stuffing, and enough mashed potatoes and gravy to fill a community swimming pool. Cat’s plate was never empty and neither was her heart. The people she cared most about were in this room, and there was nowhere else she’d rather be.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Somewhere between the best slice of pumpkin pie Cat had ever had and the worst cup of coffee, Sara popped up at her elbow. “Hi, Cat!”
“Hey, Sara. Guys, this is Noah’s daughter Sara.” Cat made the introductions to her parents and grandmother.
“My grandma is here too,” Sara said. “I’ll go get her!” She skipped over to the table and pulled the woman in the gray dress out of her chair. It looked like she rose with great reluctance. Her hair was streaked with gray, her face was bare and lined. Her forearms seemed painfully thin.
“Grandma, this is my friend Cat and her family.” Sara made the introductions like a pro. “This is my grandma, Louisa.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Louisa,” Cat said offering her hand.
Louisa stared blankly at it for several seconds before accepting it limply. The skin of her hand was paper thin. “Hello,” she whispered, her eyes flat and dark, looking everywhere but at them.
“Sara,” Mellody said, appearing at the table. “Why don’t we let Grandma get back to her pie?” she suggested cheerfully.
Louisa gave them a ghost of a nod and left.
“Cat, this is my husband-to-be, Ricky,” Mellody announced, drawing the man in the argyle sweater to her side.
“It’s nice to meet you, Ricky,” Cat said, offering her hand.
He shook it warmly. “Great to meet you.”
Cat made the introductions around the table. “It’s really nice of you to give up your own plans with your family to spend Thanksgiving with us,” she told Mellody.
“Merry is family, and best of all, I didn’t have to cook or clean up,” Mellody grinned. “Best holiday ever.” She snuggled into Ricky’s side.
“Shall we check out the pie, babe?” Ricky asked.
“We shall.” Mellody waved her good-bye as they made their way over to the dessert table.
Cat watched them go, curious whether Louisa was Mellody or Noah’s mother. Whoever she was, it seemed that the will to live had left her long before. Cat rubbed at the goosebumps on her arms. She felt as if she’d just crossed paths with a ghost.
Cat rejoined her family’s conversation and listened to Gannon and Paige banter about work and babies. Her parents doted on each other and little Gabby. Nonni struck up a flirtatious conversation with Drake and Henry.
It felt so good, so right, being in this funny little fire hall on a holiday like today. Outside the brick walls, a town was on its way to being rebuilt, and spirits and expectations were rising. She wouldn’t let them down.
Cat grabbed her Styrofoam cup and headed over to the coffee table.
“That stuff will scrape the lining off of your intestines,” Noah warned, nodding at the thermos.
“I’ve had worse,” Cat said, filling her cup. “Not much worse, but worse.”
She turned to study him as he filled his own cup. “Thank you for this,” Cat said gesturing around the room that was full to bursting. “You gave my guys a family holiday even without their families.”
Noah shrugged. “After everything that they’ve done for us, what kind of town would Merry be if we didn’t give back?”
He looked relaxed, happy. “Well thank you anyway. This was a really sweet, unexpected gesture.”
“I had to make up a little bit for being such an ass,” Noah teased. “I mean, you did save my life and all.”
“Ah, yes. And now I’ll be saving your town,” Cat said airily. “However will you thank me for all of my goodness?”
He eyed her long and hard. “I can think of a few ways,” he ventured.
Noah Yates was flirting with her. Suggestively.
“What kind of ways?” Cat asked, testing him by stepping a half step closer. She watched his reflexive nervous glance toward his ex-wife and snickered.
“What?” Noah asked.
“You look like you’re looking to Mellody for permission to flirt with me,” Cat pointed out.
“I’m a little rusty when it comes to flirting,” Noah admitted. “And I still feel new at this whole divorce thing.”
“Do you still love her?” Cat asked, kicking herself for asking a question she didn’t really want the answer to.
“Of course,” Noah said, looking perplexed.
“Oh.” It was the only word she could manage. Noah was still in love with Mellody? How had she gotten her wires so crossed? Embarrassed and more than a little devastated, Cat turned her focus on the dessert table. Dozens of homemade pies, cakes, and candies were lined up. A smorgasbord of goodies.
“Where’d you go, Cat?” Noah asked. His fingers closed around her arm just above the elbow. A warm, hard pressure.
“Oh, ah, I was just thinking about how much work I need to get through after dinner.” She gave a careless shrug of her shoulders. Careless. Right. She didn’t care if Noah was still carrying a torch for his ex-wife. The ex-wife who was counting down the days to her wedding. Maybe Noah was lining Cat up as a rebound? But Catalina King was no man’s rebound.
“You look like you’re enjoying yourself,” Cat said, changing the subject, casually sipping the sludge like coffee.
He leaned in conspiratorially and pointed at his table. “I am. I never get Sara for Thanksgiving. It’s too… depressing at my mother’s. So Mellody and I agreed that it’s better for Sara to spend it with her family instead. It’s usually just me and my mother, sitting quietly, staring into space for two hours with a meal that we reheat from a grocery store.”
“That’s… awful,” Cat managed. So, the ghost of a woman was Noah’s mother after all. A thousand questions landed at the tip of her tongue. What about his father? Was his mother always so cold, empty? What was his childhood like? He’d made allusions to the fact that it hadn’t been a happy one. She wondered how much of his overprotectiveness now was due to the way he was brought up.
“But with this Merry-wide Thanksgiving celebration? It was something Sara would hate to miss, so Mellody generously offered to share her today.”
“You two seem to have a really good relationship,” Cat said, feeling like she was choking on the words.
“It’s getting better again,” Noah agreed. “I’m happy about that. Anyway, enough about me. How are things going with the school? Are you getting a lot of submissions in the location contest?”
Cat nodded mutely. She felt tongue-tied and brain freezy. He’d yanked the rug out from under her feet with his declaration of love for his ex-wife. Moments earlier, she’d been debating whether she should invite him home with her tonight so she could finally peel off all those layers of clothes and get a close-up look at the muscled physique she’d felt every time they’d touched. She’d wanted to kiss him again, dizzyingly, brashly.
But Cat was no second fiddle no matter how attracted she was to someone.
“Uh, yeah,” she said, still nodding. “I need to go over the latest submissions, but it looks like we’ve got a couple possibilities that would be good fit fo
r us.”
“Pretty exciting,” Noah prodded.
“Yep. Yeah. Sure is,” Cat said without the enthusiasm. She shook herself. She was a woman to be lusted after. She was not a pouter. If Noah Yates had his stubborn head shoved up his own ass that far that he couldn’t see the amazingness that was right in front of him? Well then, he didn’t deserve to see her naked.
She squared her shoulders. “Well, I’d better go share my Thanksgiving thankfulness. Uh, thanks again for this, Noah. It was really thoughtful of you.”
She left him alone by the motor oil coffee and plopped down at the first table she found with an empty seat.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Noah raised his fist ready to knock and then shoved it back in his pocket. He walked away, shaking his head. He was an idiot. And in this case, he didn’t know exactly what idiotic thing he’d done or said, but it had been enough to get Cat to stop flirting with him and become desperate to get away from him.
He paced back to the trailer door. He could hear the TV on inside. Or was that voices? Maybe she had someone in there with her. Maybe she had a boyfriend, and he’d been misreading everything since Day One… or whatever day he’d decided he wasn’t going to keep fighting this attraction to her.
Maybe it wasn’t a boyfriend. Maybe it was a hookup.
Oh, god. He paced to the back of the trailer. Was he coming here for a hookup? Or was this something more? Why would Cat be up for something more? She had a life in New York. She had a TV show. A glamorous, busy schedule that didn’t leave room for a torrid, long-distance affair with a boring Connecticut city manager or being a stepmother to a 12-year-old.
Noah tripped over a cable running beneath two trailers. Well that had mentally escalated quickly. He rubbed the back of his neck. He went from thinking about having sex with Cat to thinking about having a life with Cat.