“He has very strong feelings about you,” Paige conceded. “And he has no idea who you really are. Did you even tell him you donated your salary back to the show budget?”

Cat gave a shrug. “Why would I want to disprove his theory of me being a money-hungry hellbitch?”

“Does he know you were here dragging people out of the flood the day after the storm passed?” Gannon asked.

“You were what?” Angela screeched.

Cat threw a chunk of bread at her brother. “Thanks a lot, Gann.”

She winced as her mother launched into her version of an Italian opera, loudly asking the heavens why she was cursed with such pigheaded children.

Gabby covered her ears with her little hands.

“You pull anyone out?” Pete asked quietly. Where Angela was loud and vibrant and likely to drown you in love and carbs, Pete was the silent supportive type.

Cat nodded. “Got a few people out. I borrowed your waders.”

“Seams hold up okay?”

“Worked great.”

He nodded his approval. “Good.”

Angela was winding down her tirade, bouncing Gabby on her hip now.

“I don’t mind allowing Noah to keep his wrong impression of me.”

“We all know how you love it when people underestimate you,” Gannon chimed in with a swift grin.

Cat smiled deviously. “Believe me. The only thing that is going to give me greater pleasure than returning the Hais to their house will be rubbing Noah’s nose in transforming his town. I’m going to show that weasel-faced asshole just what a reality TV star can accomplish.”

“Handsome weasel face,” Paige corrected.

Cat groaned. “Fine. He’s good-looking. Too bad he’s a candy-coated jackass.”

“Your auntie needs to mind her language, doesn’t she Gabby girl?” Angela cooed at the little girl in her arms.

--------

Cat sat shoulder-to-shoulder with Reggie the diner owner as she went over some very preliminary designs for the diner renovation. They were crowded around a folding table that had been liberated from one of the school’s unlocked supply closets.

“We’ve got room to squeeze in an extra booth here in the back corner, or I can give you a second station for your waitstaff,” Cat said, pointing at the floorplan on the screen. “That way they won’t have to pile up behind the counter to ring up orders.

“They’d love you forever for that,” Reggie grinned his blindingly white smile. His voice carried the singsong accent of his Jamaican home.

“Okay, we’ll go with the server station, and I’ll add some shelves so they can stock supplies, and maybe we can even squeeze in a second drink fountain for refills.”

Reggie nodded his head as if to a beat only he could hear. “This is good, Cat. Really good.”