Page 22 of The Christmas Fix
Sadie, the county’s chief of emergency services, who looked as though she hadn’t slept more than two hours since the flooding started, was smiling at Cat as if she were the embodiment of salvation. Velma nodded thoughtfully to his right as Cat wrapped up the meeting, a slight smile curving her lips.
“It’s all going to be okay, Noah,” Velma said. “You made the right call.”
He had no idea what magic spell Cat had woven to give them confidence. He was far from convinced. Sure, she was prepared and far more knowledgeable than he had expected, but it would take more than a detailed timeline and a pretty printed packet to put his faith in her.
The meeting was breaking up around them. “I’m going to clarify a few points with her,” he announced, pushing his stool back from the lab table.
“Be nice,” Velma cautioned him. “I’ll catch a ride home with Sadie so I can insist she takes the night off. She looks like she’s ready to drop on her face.”
The meeting broke up, and Noah took his chance cornering Cat.
“Problem, Yates?” she asked, without looking up as she tucked papers into her leather portfolio.
“I’m interested in hearing your plans for increasing revenue for the festival when the timeline is abbreviated.”
“You mean you’re dying to poke holes in my plans with your ‘no’ stick,” she corrected him.
He saw it in her eyes. The same exhaustion he’d seen in the mirror. Just a flash of it before she straightened her shoulders and glared at him.
“I have legitimate questions,” he insisted.
She glanced down at her watch. “I’ve gotta go, but I can carve out fifteen tomorrow around eleven. I’ll go over the plan with you, and then you can poke all the holes in it you want.”
“Fifteen minutes?” He found it hard to believe that a TV star’s schedule was as packed as his own before shooting even began.
“Take it or leave it.”
“Eleven here,” he agreed.
“Don’t bring your attitude,” she said snidely.
“I’ll try not to interrupt your time with your manicurist,” he shot back.
“Your insults need work,” Cat said.
The corner of his mouth turned up. “I’m tired. Off my game. I’ll insult you properly tomorrow.”
“Looking forward to it.” Her voice was thick with sarcasm. But there was just a hint of sparkle in her eyes. Were they hazel? There was something vaguely familiar about those eyes. Something that tugged at him.
“If you’re done staring at me, I have work to do,” she said.
“You have something in your teeth,” Noah announced and walked away grinning while she swore and dug a mirror out of her bag.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Cat’s trailer was full-to-bursting with bodies, and it smelled like garlic and bubbly marinara. She was in heaven.
“I can’t believe you guys are all here,” she sighed. Cat swooped in pretending to steal Gabby’s baby bite of breadstick. The little girl crowed her pleasure at the joke and shook her dark curls at Aunt Cat.
“No! Mine!”
“I see she’s a King through and through,” Cat and Gannon’s mother, Angela, said wryly. She slapped her husband of thirty-four years as he tried to snitch a fourth lemon ricotta cookie.
“She gets her bossiness from her mother,” Gannon insisted, leaning in to kiss the frown off Paige’s mouth.
Figure be damned.There was no way Cat could say no to her mother’s cooking. It had been a blessing to her waistline when her parents had made the part-time move to Florida a few years back. Then she only had to contend with Nonni’s bi-monthly carb-filled dinners. A few truly torturous personal training sessions took care of that. Though she still fantasized about the day when her time in front of the camera was over and an extra five pounds wouldn’t spark pregnancy rumors on Twitter.
Cat placed a smacking kiss on Gabby’s round cheek and patted her father on the thigh. They were crowded around the miniscule dining table in her trailer. Their empty plates had made it as far as a stack at the center of the table, but no one was in any hurry to start the cleanup or the inevitable good-byes.
