Page 23 of The Christmas Fix
“I don’t know how you juggle all these projects on your plate,” Angela sighed to her daughter. “Pop’s business, your show, the clothing line, and now a Christmas special. You’re gonna get wrinkles and gray hair and be unemployable,” she teased.
Cat laughed. “I like being busy. And I have a very good dermatologist and colorist. So, unemployment is a few years away.”
“When does your very handsome co-star get here?” her mother asked, wriggling her dark eyebrows. Angela King had a soft spot for the elegantly attractive Drake Mackenrowe.
“Drake gets in tomorrow,” Cat said, mentally calling up the information. Drake would arrive with Henry by noon. Following a briefing, she’d give Drake the afternoon to get comfortable in his new digs before dragging him around town so he could get the lay of the land.
“Speaking of handsome men, Noah Yates isn’t hard on the eyes,” Paige commented.
Gannon shot his wife a feigned glare of jealousy and nudged her with his beefy elbow. Much to her brother’s embarrassment, he’d been named Sexiest Reality TV Star by a well-known magazine. Gannon favored his mother in traditional Italian looks. Cat took after her blond, mostly German father.
Paige snickered. “Not for me. For a certain single TV star we both know and love.”
Cat scoffed. “The man is a monster, and he’s made it very clear that he hates me.”
“No one can hate you, pumpkin,” Pete King chimed in with oblivious fatherly confidence.
“I don’t know. I think it’s more sparks than abject hatred,” Paige cut in.
Cat rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Please. You’re going to make me throw up the six pounds of fettuccini I just ate.” Her dad patted her absently on the back.
“Tell me more about this handsome man who hates our Cat,” Angela demanded, plucking Gabby up and settling her granddaughter on her lap.
“I happened to walk in on a verbal sparring match, and you could have started a forest fire from the smolder that was in that room,” Paige continued as if Cat weren’t sitting two feet away from her.
“You’re blinded by love for this big lug,” Cat countered, poking her brother in the shoulder. “You don’t know what it looks like when two people hate each other.”
Gannon and Paige shared a smug look.
“Noah Yates hates my guts and is watching my every move to see if I’m going to destroy his town.”
“He has very strong feelings about you,” Paige conceded. “And he has no idea who you really are. Did you even tell him you donated your salary back to the show budget?”
Cat gave a shrug. “Why would I want to disprove his theory of me being a money-hungry hellbitch?”
“Does he know you were here dragging people out of the flood the day after the storm passed?” Gannon asked.
“You werewhat?” Angela screeched.
Cat threw a chunk of bread at her brother. “Thanks a lot, Gann.”
She winced as her mother launched into her version of an Italian opera, loudly asking the heavens why she was cursed with such pigheaded children.
Gabby covered her ears with her little hands.
“You pull anyone out?” Pete asked quietly. Where Angela was loud and vibrant and likely to drown you in love and carbs, Pete was the silent supportive type.
Cat nodded. “Got a few people out. I borrowed your waders.”
“Seams hold up okay?”
“Worked great.”
He nodded his approval. “Good.”
Angela was winding down her tirade, bouncing Gabby on her hip now.
“I don’t mind allowing Noah to keep his wrong impression of me.”
