Cat looked over his shoulder at their new master suite. She’d taken over the third floor of the house opening it up into one large room with spacious en suite and two gargantuan walk-in closets. She’d white washed the floors and was in the midst of painting the brick and plaster walls the same. Color came from the bedding and pillows stacked high on the high-backed king bed. There were plants in every window, books and photos carefully organized on the low shelves. And the fireplace was ready for chilly fall nights. It was peaceful.

Except for when the kids and cats—Felipe had showed up one night with a girlfriend and they’d never left—snuck in…

Sara and the twins were one floor below them. And there was invariably someone in one of the guest rooms.

It was home. And though Cat’s list of projects for the house might never end, every coat of paint, every new appliance, every opened wall made it more theirs. And every root that she and Noah planted in Merry erased a shadow from his eyes.

His mother, Nana now, had finally begun her own healing after Cat tricked her into a therapist’s office two years ago.

“How’s your speech?” Noah asked, pushing her toward the shower.

“Will you read it? It’s on the dresser.” She pointed to her tablet.

Noah used the opportunity to drop a kiss on the inside of her wrist over the tattoo that he regularly worshipped. “Confession. I snuck a peek at it last night when you fell asleep. It’s perfect.”

Cat brightened. “Are you sure? You’d tell me if it wasn’t?”

Noah grinned, and the boyishness of it melted her. She hadn’t managed to build an immunity to him. Not yet, after three years of marriage, of kids and pets and projects. He and their boys traveled with her when she filmed in the late spring and early summer. Sara joined them most weeks, sometimes with Mellody and Ricky, sometimes with April.

Cat paused just outside the tile shower. The steam billowed around her. “I’m not dreaming, am I? This is all real?”

Noah’s smile was soft, knowing. “Reality check. You’re still a TV celebrity, albeit only for a few months a year. We have three children who seem to have made it their life’s purpose to drive us insane. Because of you, we’re about to watch several dozen young women graduate from a school you envisioned and built. And your husband still thinks you’re the most beautiful, exasperating, determined woman in the history of the world.”

Cat fished her fingers into the neck of Noah’s t-shirt. “You know, I hate to use this gigantic shower all by myself…”

“Catalina King, are you trying to tempt me with sex while your parents deal with Ms. Teenager and Double Trouble downstairs?”

“Is it working?”