Page 54 of The Christmas Fix
“To Cat!” the rest of the crowd echoed.
Cat smiled and gave the girl’s hand an appreciative squeeze.
“Are you going to teach?”
“When does the school open?”
“Are you offering financial aid?”
“Will any of the instructors be men?”
Cat’s head spun with the questions she hadn’t answered for herself yet.
“Guys!” she laughed. “Let’s talk about something else. Who else has good news?”
It turned out everyone did. Sound Guy Eddie’s girlfriend wasnotpregnant. Story editor Noelle had just wrapped up online classes to earn her bachelor’s in creative writing and scored a date with a cute local. Gaile, a camerawoman with twenty years in the industry, announced that her mom’s biopsy came back negative. Flynn had managed his handy little hammer trick on camera today, making Gannon buy lunch for everyone. And Drake—dear, handsome, Drake—everything was always good in his universe. He had a line of area rugs coming out with a high-end retailer in the new year, and he’d wrangled a new, fat contract with the network.
Henry, the workaholic, pushed a bottle of water at her and some printouts. “New Duluth ads for your approval.” At her behest, the company had happily created a campaign using real female blue collar workers.
“Loving this,” she said, tapping the group work wear photo. Cat stood in the center, arms around the women closest to her. They were all laughing. There was a feeling of motion and joy and confidence. A rainbow of ethnicities and shapes and sizes.
“I’ll let them know,” Henry announced crisply. “I gave your call sheet updates to Maria, posted your new blog, scheduled your next four Instagram posts, made some notes on the press release about the school location contest, and talked to your website designer about building an online application for interested communities to use. All information will be organized in a database and ranked.”
Cat blinked. She considered herself a hard worker, but Henry could out-efficient her any day of the week. She grabbed his wrist. “Never, ever leave me, Henry.”
That got her the tiniest hint of a smile out of the man.
“You also have a FaceTime workout with your trainer at five-thirty tomorrow morning. All body weight so you can do it in your trailer.”
“And I’m back to not liking you.” She employed a personal trainer whenever she was in the city to prevent any damage from too many meals on the road. Nicki was a sadistic bitch who took great joy in making Cat beg for mercy. Cat had never finished a workout with Nicki without ending up on her back in a puddle of sweat staring up at the ceiling wondering what happened to her.
“I knew you’d be pleased,” Henry said, heavy on the sarcasm. He shrugged out of his coat and pushed up the sleeves of his red cashmere turtleneck. “Where’s the wine?” he demanded.
Drake leaned in over the back of the banquette between Cat and Phil, a short, black, wiry camera man who spoke so softly his nickname was What. “Hope you don’t mind, but I invited Noah.”
Cat spun around so fast she thought she might have given herself whiplash. “And why did you think that was a good idea?”
Drake gave an elegant shrug and that playboy smile. “He’s a nice guy. And I get the feeling he’s a little overworked and wound too tight. Thought he could use the chance to blow off some steam.”
“Did you tell him I’d be here?”
“I did warn him that his nemesis was in residence tonight.”
“And he’s still coming?” Well, points for Noah holding up his end of the truce.
“Didn’t seem to throw him too much.”
“Ugh,” Cat grunted. “Well, keep him away from me. And tell him to bring pizza.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Noah felt stupid carrying two pizzas and wandering through the rows of trailers listening for the sounds of a party. He wasn’t even sure what had made him decide to come. Besides the fact that Sara was at her mother’s, and he was currently in limbo after submitting over a dozen aid applications and facing an evening of small talk in his own living room with a basketball game on.
Besides, Drake had insisted. And the truce was still on. And, if Noah was being completely honest with himself, he wanted to see Cat again. She’d kissed him today, knowing it was him. And though it had been the kind of kiss she’d just given her sister-in-law, it had stirred his blood yet again. And he’d left before he could yank her out of Drake’s arms and resume their alleyway make-out session.
So here he was, standing outside a monstrous RV that sounded like it was hosting a frat party and debating if he should knock.
He gave the door a kick with his foot.
