CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
One week to Christmas Eve
Cat peered into Noah’s office. He was alone, focused on his laptop, muttering to himself. She loved watching him focus on a problem. He approached everything with seriousness and logic, carefully weighing options.
He’d been invaluable helping her narrow down potential locations for her school. Though, if she took the network’s offer, all of their work would be pointless. She’d be setting up shop in L.A. But it was pointless to mention it to anyone until she saw the official offer, so she’d just obsess about it internally until she saw what they’d given her agent.
The only time she wasn’t obsessing about whether she should say “yes” was when she was naked under or over Noah chanting the word. Last night, they’d spent a particularly adventurous hour in the backseat of Noah’s SUV after dropping Sara off for Elf Camp—a Merry tradition where junior high schoolers helped elementary students shop for their family members in the dollar store equivalent of Santa’s Workshop.
Giddy as teenagers, they’d shed their clothing and set that fogged-window SUV to rocking. She couldn’t tell for sure, but she thought there might be the slightest hint of a hickey poking out above the collar of Noah’s button down.
Cat knocked on the open door, breaking his concentration. “It’s time,” she said with mock solemnity. The advertising dollars had kicked in, and with a week to spare, Cat was squeezing in the new roof on Town Hall.
Noah rose, accidentally kicking over a bucket behind his desk. “Sorry. New leak,” he said sheepishly.
He was so fucking cute in his jeans and leather boots. The neat knot of his tie visible over his sweater. His glasses were askew, which meant he’d been rubbing his eyes. Noah’s dark hair was mussed, and Cat smothered the urge to further muss it. Because she knew once she got started on him, she wouldn’t be able to stop. Even after having him inside her groaning out her name as they came together on the cold leather of his backseat less than twelve hours ago, she was primed for another go.
“I don’t see why I can’t work in here while the roof is redone,” he said, frown lines appearing between his eyes as he packed his laptop and folders into his messenger bag. He was loosening up, marginally, but Cat was starting to find Noah’s natural resistance to change a little adorable. It was as if he thought he actually had a choice.
“Noah,” Cat said, stepping into the room. The closer she got to him, the brighter the electricity between them sparked. He closed the flap on his bag and took the long way around his desk, keeping the furniture between them. “It’s going to be dirty and loud and very, very messy.”
He tripped on a lump in the carpet, and Cat smiled, showing her teeth. Carolanne was long gone for the day. It was just the two of them. And if the tension in the room was any indication, they were both thinking about last night.
“Still. I could just move into an office downstairs.”
Cat shook her head. “The whole building is being checked over by an architectural engineer to make sure there aren’t bigger problems than your Swiss cheese roof. It’s easier if the building is empty. You’ll be back to your musty, moldy cell in no time.”
Noah skirted around her. “It’s not that bad,” he said. A floorboard groaned out its protest under his foot.
“This place is a fire trap,” Cat insisted.
“Hey, I don’t go around dissing your office, do I?”
“My office is the dining table in an RV.”
“Well, you don’t see me pointing out its many flaws.”
“Like the fact that it’s missing a leg because you fucked me too hard on it?” Cat shot back. He blushed. An honest-to-goodness blush.
“Jesus, Cat!”
“Awh, loosen up, cutie.” Cat slapped him on the ass and had the satisfaction of watching him jump away from her hand.
“Catalina,” he said, his tone full of warning. “If I didn’t have a meeting in five minutes, you’d be in big trouble.”
She laughed and pushed him toward the stairs. “Naked and bent over your desk trouble?” she whispered in his ear as they descended.
His sharp intake of breath was reward enough.
“You’re evil. Pure evil,” he muttered under his breath.
“You love it. Now give me your key and have a good meeting.” She paused to tuck his office key into her pocket and then sneaked a quick peck on his cheek. “Bye, Noah.”
“We’ll revisit this desk thing,” he promised on his way down.
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She was feeling playful, Cat thought as she steered her pick-up off the highway in the direction of the rental house her parents were sharing with Gannon and Paige. Being sneaky had that effect on her. Poor Noah. He had no idea she’d been lying her ass off to him. And wouldn’t he be surprised? Hopefully he’d take the gift as it was meant. As a thank you for their time together. He’d been more special to her than anyone outside her own immediate family.
It was bittersweet. Knowing that the end was looming. That in just a matter of days she’d be packing her bag and driving away from him.
The thought, the visualization of the actual moment, had Cat slamming on the brakes and swinging off the road onto the snowy shoulder. Her breath caught in her throat. What the hell was that? That white-hot blast of… pain? Fear? Regret?
It was temporary. She knew that, had preferred that, had made it abundantly clear.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” Cat muttered. She flipped the visor down and studied her reflection. Her mother could always tell when something wasn’t quite right, and if Cat didn’t want to face an Angela King inquisition, she’d better get some color back in her cheeks.
Consciously, she relaxed her face, draining the tension out of the muscles. She smiled with forced cheer. She’d been smiling on command for nearly five years now and had mastered faux sincerity.
She took another deep breath to slow her heart rate.
“I’ve just been working too much. I’ll take a few weeks off in January, get my head on straight, and—” And what? Move across the country? Away from her family? Her home? Noah?
“Sweet baby Jesus, woman. Get it together,” Cat told her reflection. She slammed the visor up and pulled back onto the road. “Everything is fine. I’m happy. I’m excited. I’m just fine.”
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“What’s the matter?”
The first words out of her mother’s mouth told Cat she wasn’t as skilled an actress as she thought.
“Geez, Mom. Hello to you, too,” Cat said, pressing a kiss to her mother’s cheek before unwinding the evergreen and navy scarf from her neck.
“Stir this and tell me what’s wrong,” her mother ordered, pointing at the pot on the stove. A stew, thick and savory, simmered within.
She grabbed the spoon and dutifully went to work. “Nothing’s wrong. Can you give me the recipe for this? Sara would love—”
She wouldn’t be seeing Sara again either. Sure, maybe on her annual pilgrimage to visit the Hais, but would Cat even have that opportunity next year?
“Who’s Sara?” her mother demanded, dressing the baby greens with her homemade vinaigrette.
“Noah’s daughter.”
“Why do you sound like you’re choking when you say his name?”
“Geez, Mom. I don’t know.”
“Are you in love with him?” Angela was relentless.
“Mom!”
Her mother shrugged. “What? One minute, I see stars in your eyes. The next, you’re moping around like when you didn’t magically sprout boobs at thirteen.”
They had thankfully made a spectacular appearance at sixteen, making the year of her driver’s license one of the most entertaining.
“I like him. A lot,” Cat admitted. “Sara too. They’re good people.”
“So, marry the guy.”
“Marriage is not the answer to literally every problem in the world,” Cat argued.
“It worked for your father and me,” she pointed out smugly. “And just look at your brother and that wife of his.”
“Speaking of, where are they?”
“Gannon and Paige took Gabby to see Santa at the mall. They want to test her out with the big guy before she has a meltdown on camera on Christmas Eve.”
Gannon’s little cherub sitting on Santa’s lap had been Cat’s personal brainstorm. Viewers would eat that shit up with a spoon.
“It’ll be funnier if she cries,” Cat said.
“If she takes after your brother, she will,” Angela grinned. “Every year until he turned seven. Hysterics.”
“I think we should remind him of that tonight,” Cat decided.
“I already pulled all the pictures. They’re on the table.”
“Diabolical. That’s where I get it from,” Cat told her.
Her mother bumped Cat in the hip as she picked the colander of green beans out of the sink. “Now, back to you and Noah.”
Cat dropped her head back and growled at the ceiling.
“Might as well talk now before your father wakes up from his nap and you have to discuss your sex life in front of him.”
“Do you ever regret not having a career?” Cat asked suddenly.
“I worked in Pop’s office off and on for years.”
“Yeah, but when you were growing up, what did you want to be?”
“An equestrian, a librarian, and then in my teenage years, I thought about physical therapy.”
“Do you regret not going for it?”
Angela dropped the beans into the strainer over the boiling water and wiped her hands on the towel stuffed in the waistband of her slim black jeans.
“You mean, do I regret focusing on family over a career?”
“Yeah. That.”
“Of course not. You and your brother would have wrecked the house and set each other on fire if I hadn’t been around.”
“Har. Har.”
“I see your face. You’re thinking it has to be one or the other: career or love. Why do you think you have to choose?”
“Mom, I can’t see where things go with Noah and be traveling for the next however many years.”
“You film how many months out of the year? And with the school, aren’t you looking for a more permanent place?”
“The network made me an offer,” Cat confessed. “A really good one.”
Angela lifted the green beans out of the water and drained the pot. “What kind of offer?”
“They’d invest in my school. Set it up in L.A. Base a show around it. I could still do my show, too. But I’d be based out of L.A. and traveling the rest of the time.”
“Los Angeles?” There was clearly an opinion behind the near shriek. Her mom wasn’t one to withhold her opinions. So Cat waited her out. “What would you be giving up by taking the deal?” Angela finally asked.
“The network would want to make certain calls on staffing. They want to pick the students, too because of the show, but Marta drew the line in the sand there. I hadn’t considered the west coast. It’s not ideal. But the money they’re willing to throw at this? It would mean better equipment, maybe more qualified staff. Both could impact the learning experience for students.”
“And Noah?” Her mother prodded.
“I’d be living in L.A. It wouldn’t be fair to ask him to come with me or wait for me.”
“So, either this opportunity or this relationship?” Angela sighed. “You think you can’t have both, but you’re wrong. You’re smarter than that Cat.”
“I don’t even know if things would work out between us. I mean, we’re so different. He’s got a kid, a great one. But he can’t just pick up and fly to Texas or Washington or Idaho with me.”
“Do you love him?” Angela asked again.
“Geez, Mom. Don’t you think that’s something I should talk to him about first?” Did she? Was that the feeling that kept fluttering through her chest? She wanted to protect him from his past, wanted to make him laugh every day, wanted to go to him for advice and to tell him good news. She wanted to lean on him when she was tired and wanted to cook more barefoot dinners with him and Sara. Was that love?
“Do you want to know what I think or not?”
“By all means. Tell me,” Cat said, frustrated.
“I think life just threw you a curve, and it’s up to you to decide whether or not to go for it. Figure out your top two priorities, and then figure out how to make at least one of them work. Go with your gut. No one’s going to be able to tell you what the right choice is.”
“It would be a hell of a lot easier if someone would,” Cat grumbled.
“You wouldn’t believe them anyway.”
“Yeah, well, I get that from you.”
“You’re only looking at the obstacles. You gotta start looking at solutions. If you want it to work. Though why you wouldn’t want to lock down that sexy hunk of man is beyond me.” She sighed. “You know, I’ve always had a thing for glasses. I was so excited when your father got his first pair of cheaters. You’re lucky you didn’t end up with a baby brother or sister that night.”
“Oh my God, Mother.”
Angela grinned and laid a hand on Cat’s arm. “Fine. One last thing, and then I’ll shut up. It drives me batty to hear your generation going on and on and on about balance. There’s no life-work balance. Okay? Get it? It’s all life. You get the same twenty-four hours as the next girl. Fill yours with what you love.”
Cat blinked, processing.
“There’s my girls,” Pete King boomed as he shuffled into the kitchen.
“Hi, Dad,” Cat said, offering him a kiss on the cheek and a squeeze around the middle.
“Your daughter’s considering a move to California,” Angela said with the accusing tone of an Italian mother.
“California, eh?” her father said, scratching his belly. “What’s for dinner tonight, my angel?”
Angela slapped at his hand. “Your daughter wants to move across the country, and you want to know what’s for dinner? This family!”
“Who’s moving across the country?” Gannon, Gabby bundled in his arms, marched into the already crowded kitchen with Paige on his heels.
“Your sister!”
Gannon leveled a look at Cat. “And you didn’t think we’d want to know?” he demanded.
Paige peered over his shoulder. “Why don’t we open some wine and get our daughter a snack before we jump all over your sister,” she suggested.
“How did it go with Santa Claus?” Pete asked, swooping in to steal Gabby from her father’s arms.
“Perfect,” Paige grinned. “She screamed like a banshee until Gannon jumped over the fence to save her.”