Freddy puttered around behind the counter readying Noah’s order. He felt a twinge between his shoulder blades. A tickle. A looming shadow of doom.

He already knew who it was before he turned around.

“Well, well. We meet again.” Cat smiled that canary-eating grin at him. She was sitting with April Hai, hot chocolates, and a Merry and Bright cookie sampler between them.

“Hi, Mr. Yates,” April said cheerfully. She was a tiny little thing with stick-straight, jet-black hair handed down from her Japanese and Vietnamese parents. She smiled up at him winningly. “Did you hear the good news?”

Noah had no desire to hear any good news associated with Cat. He sent the woman a sharp look just to let her know. “No, I didn’t, April. What’s up?”

“Cat says she’s going to fix my house and the diner and the park so we don’t have to miss Christmas!” April bounced in her chair, fueled by sugar and happiness.

“Is she now?”

“Don’t be modest,” April sighed. The kid had the vocabulary of a college senior at a decent university. “She told me it was all your idea. We all knew you’d find a way to fix everything!”

Just what the hell was he supposed to do now? Tell April that the answer was no and crush her kid-holiday dreams?

Cat ran her tongue over her teeth and sat there smugly, daring him to say it.

“Cat says the festival is going to be even bigger this year! Can you believe it?” April bumped the cookie plate in her excitement and nearly sent it flying. “I thought this was going to be the worst thing ever, but it’s going to be superlative!” She jumped out of her chair and hugged Noah around the waist.

Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.

“I hate you,” he mouthed to Cat, not caring that he was behaving like an immature junior high schooler.

She blew him a kiss.

“April, do you mind if I borrow Cat for a minute?”

“Oh, sure! I’m sure you have a lot of plans to facilitate.”

He grabbed Cat by the arm and dragged her out the front door. The bells jingled happily behind them.

“That was the lowest, most underhanded manipulation—”

“I wouldn’t have had to bring in the big guns if you would have listened to reason,” she pointed out, yanking her arm out of his grasp.

“Since when is reality television the voice of reason?” He was practically shouting now. He didn’t know what it was about this woman, but she had the uncanny knack of raising his blood pressure to apoplectic levels.

“Have you ever even watched my show?”

“I saw the episode you shot here. The white-washed version of the truth. You made the Hais look like helpless victims.”