He leveled his gaze at her. “Maybe you’re not as vapid and self-obsessed as I assumed you were. And if you’re not, then maybe I don’t have to be quite as hard on you.”

“That’s a lot of maybes.”

He stacked the papers together and slid them into his messenger bag. “I’ll let you get back to it then.”

She nodded, already reaching for her phone. “Thanks for the coffee,” Cat said.

“Thanks for the time.”

He paused just inside the door and glanced back at her. “You know I don’t really want you to fail, right?”

She did know and that was the only reason why she hadn’t kicked his ass yet. “I know. You’re just trying to protect your town from the boogeyman.”

Noah nodded. “I am. And I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Cat met his gaze. “So will I.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER TWELVE

Noah crossed the parking lot heading in the direction of his SUV. He thought the meeting had gone well and experienced a sliver of relief at the fact that Cat actually had a plan in place for drawing the much-needed crowds to Merry. Whether or not it would work remained to be seen.

One thing that was uncomfortably clear was that the more competent and efficient Cat appeared to be, the more attractive he found her. Which was inconvenient at best and downright stupid at worst.

While Noah was willing to be just slightly more open-minded when it came to the woman, he wanted to make sure he kept his guard up. He needed to be ready to handle things when this whole TV show thing imploded.

“Dad!”

He whirled around just as Sara ran full force into him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, simultaneously thrilled at the spontaneous hug and annoyed that his darling daughter wasn’t in school.

“It’s lunchtime. They let us leave school grounds, remember?”

Right. The school district’s population was made up mostly of students that lived within town limits. Starting with junior high, students were allowed to leave for their lunch.

He didn’t like it.

“Did you want to have lunch with me?” he asked, thrilled at the glimpse of his little girl.

“Uh. Well sure. But I saw in your calendar you had a meeting with…” Sara trailed off and took a deep breath. “Cat King,” she said reverently.

His ego took the shot dead center. Of course, Sara wanted to meet Cat. The woman stood for everything Sara worshipped: glitz, glamor, and fame.

“So, can I meet her? I mean, will you introduce me?”

Noah’s mind launched into overdrive. Was Cat the kind of celebrity who would be nice to kids? Did he really want Sara meeting a reality TV idol? And on the other hand, he’d be his kid’s biggest hero for probably the entire holiday season if he could provide an introduction.