“Oh my god. Seriously the coolest thing ever. I can’t wait ’til summer so we can have sleepovers in it,” Sara announced.

“Your dad helped build it.” Cat couldn’t seem to resist throwing out a comment about Noah. It gave her a special little thrill to say his name to others. To be proud of him and to share that pride with someone who loved him.

“That’s so cool! He’s like the best, isn’t he?”

Cat nodded slowly. “He is indeed.”

“Are you spending the night since I’m at my mom’s?” Sara asked.

“Uh, I feel like it would be weird if I answered that question.”

“Then we’ll both just pretend like I don’t know that you’ll be there.”

“I can live with that,” Cat decided.

Sara left her to explore the house with April, and Cat sat down on the front porch for a moment of peace. Sure, dozens of people carting equipment bustled past her, but she’d gotten adept at finding quiet moments to herself on set over the past several years.

This had been her life for so long now, had altered the course of her life really. Five or six years ago, she’d been focused on how to keep the doors of her grandfather’s business open. Then life had thrown her a curveball. Reality TV was meant to be a temporary solution. But she was good at it. She enjoyed it. And sometimes you just had to take a swing at those curveballs to find what you were meant to do.

She spotted Noah talking to her parents at a makeshift coffee station Reggie had set up for them. Her mom beamed up at her father as he told some ridiculous story or another, Gabby balanced on his hip. Noah’s booming laugh. He didn’t laugh often enough in her opinion. She found herself doing and saying things just to tease that laugh out of him. He was so serious, and she had a feeling that scared little boy was still inside him somewhere, hoping for something better.

She felt tears prick at her eyes and forced herself to look away.

Cat didn’t know where these urges kept coming from. She wanted Noah happy. That was normal, healthy even. What wasn’t was the fact that she kept thinking of all the ways she could push him in that direction. Ways she could make him laugh. How she could make him smile that unguarded, delighted smile.

But she wasn’t going to be here much longer. And sooner or later, it would be someone else making him laugh, someone else dragging him out of his responsible shell for fun, someone else talking to Sara about boys and school.