CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Four weeks to Christmas Eve
It was Thanksgiving Day, and Cat was knee deep in a dirt pit. The pit had, until recently, been home to the gigantic hemlock that the citizens of Merry had been decking out with miles of Christmas lights for the past fifty years. Now all that was left was a frozen hole in the ground where the toppled tree had once lived.
The landscapers were busy giving her the bad news that there was no way in hell that a replacement tree could be planted. Too cold. Not enough time for roots to establish themselves. Blah blah blah.
Cat wasn’t interested in what couldn’t be done. She only had time for solutions. And walking this frozen mud pit had given her one hell of an idea for a solution. She just needed a welder and several extra thousand dollars in the budget.
She flexed her fingers in her fleece lined gloves. Winter had moved in and decided to never leave Merry from the feel of the wind as it bit through her layers.
“Okay, Lorenzo,” she sighed, already mentally calculating how to bring her new vision to life. “Don’t worry about this for now. What I do want to focus on is the river wall and the swale for drainage.”
They walked and talked, Lorenzo filling her in on their progress so far. That was one lucky thing about this damn hurricane and its timing. Cat had her pick of landscaping crews since it was between the demands of summer and the winter holiday decorating season. In less than a month, they’d cleared all the debris from the park and begun re-laying sidewalks that had met with unfortunate flood damage. Tons of mulch had already been distributed, and if they had to plant fake poinsettias and Christmas trees in the gutted flowerbeds, so be it.
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?”
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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.