She smiled, definitely teary now. She leaned forward, cupped his chin, and pressed her lips against his.
That was when he knew they might be all right. If he remained open to Lauren, they would figure the rest out.
He slid his fingers into her hair. He’d missed this hair, missed the silky feel of it between his fingers. He’d missed her voice, he’d missed the freckles across her nose, he’d missed how heartfelt and genuine she was. He’d missed this woman, period. He deepened the kiss and pulled her into his arms, and before he even knew what was really happening, she was straddling him on the sofa.
“Are we doing this?” he asked, her hair hanging down around his head like a curtain.
“Yeah, we are.”
He laughed, encouraged by the growl in her voice. “This is the easy part, you know.”
“What, the sexy bits?” She grinned. “I know. We’ll have to work at the other stuff. As long as you’re willing, I am, too.”
“For you? Anything.”
They kissed again. Caleb settled back into the sofa and took Lauren into his arms. And he felt…content. Right. Like everything was falling into places. Why had he been fighting so hard to accept this in his life? He’d been so sure Lauren would betray him the way Kara had, but this felt different. He’d learned things in the decade since he and Kara had made a commitment to each other. He’d changed. Things would be different this time. And rather than be afraid of what the future might hold, he’d be open to it.
“So, ah…” Lauren said with a smile, running her hands down Caleb’s chest. “Should we, um, seal the deal?”
“Are you making a sexy double entendre?”
“I am.”
She waggled her eyebrows, which made him laugh. Had he laughed this much with Kara? No, he didn’t think so. And he would stop comparing Lauren to Kara, because this was a different relationship with an entirely different woman, and the potential was there for this to be something really amazing, as long as he stayed open to it.
Epilogue
Lauren was putting her earrings in as she walked out of the bedroom. Hank was asleep on the living room rug, with Molly curled up in a ball against him.
Lauren shook her head. Of all the developments of the last few months, the fact that Hank and Molly got along was the strangest. When Diane had agreed to lease them this place—a two-bedroom up a floor from Lauren’s old one-bedroom—Lauren had been convinced putting the animals together would end with Molly scratching Hank’s face off, but they’d become fast friends instead.
Caleb was in the kitchen pouring himself a bowl of cereal. He was still in his gym clothes, beads of sweat standing out against his hairline. His one complaint about the building was that it wasn’t near any good places to run, so he’d taken to running on the treadmills at the gym across the street instead. Lauren felt a little bad about that, but not enough to give up her discount on the apartment. There were New Yorkers who would have killed to get the kind of deal they had.
“We still on for dinner tonight?” he asked, his mouth half-full of cereal.
“Elizabeth’s at six, yes. See, I’m getting better at letting go and delegating. The Cat Café is open until eight today. Paige is closing.”
“I’m very proud of you.”
“Uh-huh.”
He grinned at shoveled another spoonful of cereal into his mouth. “I like how those earrings go with the new ring.”
“Yeah?”
He smiled again.
“All right, buddy. Calm down. You look like a cat who just caught a mouse.”
“I’d say more like…a dog…who caught a cat?” Caleb laughed. “That metaphor doesn’t work at all, does it?” He set his now-empty cereal bowl aside.
“Nope.”
Caleb hooked his arm around Lauren and pulled her close. He gave her a quick kiss and said, “I love you. That’s all that matters, right?”
“Yeah. I didn’t know you’d end up being this sentimental, though. Kind of makes me want old jerk Caleb back.”
“Really? That guy’s a dick.”
Lauren laughed. “Yeah, yeah. Go shower, big guy. We’ve both got to get to work.”
A half hour later, Lauren walked into the Cat Café, the morning rush already in full swing. After ascertaining that the counter crew had things under control, she walked into the cat room and spotted Evan sitting at a table in the corner. He’d been working out of the Cat Café for the last few months, finally having given up on finding a good café from which to freelance. Working from home didn’t seem to be ideal, since he’d recently acquired new neighbors in the apartment next door, a lesbian couple who had quite loud, passionate arguments, based on Evan’s descriptions.
Lauren knew a little about that.
Although she and Caleb argued hardly ever these days, they still had the occasional dumb arguments over who forgot to pick up milk or whose turn it was to clean Molly’s litter box. Caleb got grumpy on rainy days because Hank was sometimes a little too precious about getting wet and there wasn’t much in the way of good park space within a ten-block radius, especially as all the new high-rises were eating up downtown Brooklyn. They could both get worked up about their interpretation of a newspaper article or an episode of television, but more often than not, arguments like that ended with them making out on the couch, so it wasn’t all bad.
In fact, they were pretty happy these days. And Lauren was about to make Evan happy, too.
Lauren walked up to Evan now and placed a ten-dollar bill on the table.
“What’s this for?” asked Evan.
“You told me when he proposed, I owed you ten dollars. I never welch on a bet. So, there you are. Ten dollars.”
“He proposed? Are you kidding?”
“Nope.” She held out her hand to show the ring.
“Holy shit!”
“He proposed last night. In the most Caleb way possible. On the pretense of needing to help Hank stretch his legs, we walked up to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, and
