Did Lauren want kids? Did she have plans? Caleb wanted to know. And he’d listen this time. He’d learn from his mistakes instead of letting his mistakes rule him.
Now, as Caleb stared at a display of chocolate from around the world, he realized there had been a fundamental incompatibility from the beginning. Caleb liked to travel…on vacation. He’d rather have stability. He’d rather have family nearby. Instead, following Kara around like a lovesick puppy had stranded him in Brooklyn, three hundred miles from his family, working at an urban practice. It wasn’t how he saw his life going. He wasn’t upset about it per se; he did really like the Whitman Street Clinic and the other vets who worked there. And Brooklyn was charming in a way he hadn’t expected. He could see himself potentially having a life like the one he’d once envisioned here in Brooklyn.
But he’d been too jaded to see that, too upset at Kara for ending everything, too angry to see Lauren was perhaps willing to give him the family he’d wanted once upon a time.
He hadn’t thought about that conversation in years. A family and a practice taking care of the pets in a community. If he was willing to get over himself and trust in the potential for something great with Lauren on Whitman Street, he could have that.
He grabbed a bag of gummy bears and headed back toward the counter, cutting through an aisle of travel size products. Then something colorful caught his attention.
It was a display of luggage tags and keychains with tags cut into unusual shapes. The luggage tags were shaped like dresses or sunglasses or flip-flops. The keychains were mostly shaped like New York landmarks. But there was one keychain that had a tag shaped like a suitcase.
And he heard Lauren’s voice in his head, yelling at him about his baggage.
He took the keychain from its hook and headed for the register.
Chapter 27
Lauren sat in her office, staring at a computer monitor and trying to balance the account books to put together a report for Diane. She wasn’t ready to let go of the idea of possibly hiring a pastry chef, even though actually using the kitchen to prepare food was probably asking for Randolph and Newton to try to shut them down again. Still, a girl could dream.
Paige stuck her head in the door. “There’s someone here who is interested in adopting a cat. I thought you might want to talk to him.”
“You can’t handle it?” Lauren slid away from her desk and opened a drawer. She pulled out a manila envelope. “All the forms are in here.”
“You aren’t curious about which cat he’s interested in?”
“I mean, I am, but my numbers aren’t adding up right for some reason. I think I mistyped a digit somewhere. It’s only off by a few dollars, but…”
“Lauren? Boss lady? Please take a break. I think you’ll want to talk to this customer.”
Paige smiled in a way that made the dimple on her left cheek prominent, which made Lauren think she was up to something. Was the customer a celebrity? That had happened a couple of times. There were a few pretty big actors who lived in the neighborhood, and sometimes they popped in to check out the Cat Café. Lauren had seen the hot young star of a popular HBO show on the street a number of times in the last couple of weeks, and it was plausible he wanted a cat.
“Yeah, all right. Give me one second.”
Lauren scanned the column of numbers again, finally found where she’d made a mistake, and fixed the error. When the formula recalculated the numbers, the balance came out correctly. She let out a breath.
“We’re still in the black for this month,” she said to Paige.
“I’m glad. Come on.”
Lauren followed Paige out to the cat room. On the way, she tried to remember all of the famous people who lived in the neighborhood to narrow down who this might be. Maybe it was the mayor. Or a popular writer; there were a few of those in the neighborhood, too.
But, Lauren saw when she arrived in the cat room, it was actually Caleb.
Paige stepped away. Lauren looked around the room and noticed Lindsay and Evan were there, too, standing off to the side and grinning.
“What is happening?” Lauren asked. “There’s no way on earth Caleb is going to adopt a cat, and the way you all are smiling makes me think I’ve been betrayed.”
Monique walked over. “Dr. Fitch has filled out the paperwork for cat adoption,” she said, handing over a form.
“Et tu, Monique?” Lauren took the form and scanned it.
The top part contained Caleb’s name, address, and contact information. But in the box under Why are you interested in adopting a cat?, he’d written, Because I made a terrible mistake and I want Lauren to know I’m sorry and I want her back.
“Are you kidding me with this?” she asked, holding up the form. It felt like a cruel joke. She’d been trying so hard for the last week to push Caleb from her mind, because it was clear nothing would happen between them, and here he was with some jokey cat adoption form.
Caleb frowned. “All right, you got me, I’m not really here to adopt a cat.”
Lauren cursed and crumpled up the form. She tossed it at a trash can. Caleb watched the ball of paper sail through the air. Then he turned his attention back to Lauren.
“Did you read it? I meant what I wrote.”
“So, wait, I’m supposed to believe you, a man who told me just a couple of weeks ago that he couldn’t give me what
