Mellody looked elated as she entered Cat’s number into her phone. “Thank you, so much! You don’t even know. And you.” She pointed warningly at her daughter. “None of that really annoying squealing. Don’t tackle any of Cat’s co-stars and profess your love for them. Be helpful and quiet. Got it?”

Sara threw her arms around her mother. “You’re like literally the best human being on the planet, Mom!”

Mellody pumped her fist in the air. “Score one for Mom!”

--------

Sara turned out to be an excellent addition to the set. She ran water and coffee service for Reggie while field producer Jayla walked him, Cat, and Drake through the opening sequence. She stood guard next to the sawhorses and made sure no Merry residents accidentally walked onto the scene when shooting started. She even grabbed Cat a carrot and hummus snack to go along with her protein shake when they broke for a late lunch.

“You get yourself something?” Cat asked, slipping into a heavier jacket to ward off the chilly breeze. Her on-set wardrobe was a little too light. She made a mental note to switch off to her Duluth branded coat for the shoot this afternoon.

Sara held up a panini and a Coke.

“Awesome. Let’s eat.” Cat led the girl to the curb so they could sit. “So, what do you think so far?”

“I think your life is so cool, and there’s a lot more that goes on behind the camera. Like everything takes forever. Seriously, how many times does it take Drake to say, ‘We’re going to get this done for you.’?”

Cat snorted and took a long pull of unsatisfying smoothie.

“Drake’s used to working with more of a scripted story,” she explained. “It’s a huge transition coming from ‘read this, say this’ to winging it. But we’re on a tight timeline, and we need the before shots so we can jump right into construction.”

Sara nodded and took a generous bite of sandwich. “Makes sense,” she said through her full mouth. “You work a lot harder than I imagined. It’s a lot less glamorous than I thought being a TV star would be.”

Cat grinned. “It is, isn’t it? But if something’s worth doing, it’s worth working really hard for.”

“I like that. But I bet a lot of people don’t realize how hard you work.”

Cat shook her head, bit into a carrot. “They don’t. But the point of working hard isn’t really getting people to notice how hard you work. It’s about giving it your all and being able to walk away with no regrets. Doing a good job shouldn’t be so someone else tells you that you did good. It should be about you feeling good about your effort.”

“That’s deep,” Sara grinned.