“Mmm?”
“You asked me that recently. If I was this much of a bastard before the divorce. That’s not how you phrased it, but that’s what you meant.”
“And you’re saying you weren’t.”
Caleb let out a breath. “A divorce will take all the idealism right out of you.” If his heart wasn’t open—to a potential romantic partner, to the animals he treated—then it couldn’t be broken the way it had been that day Kara had handed him divorce papers and told him she was seeing someone else.
“It’s hard to picture you as idealistic.”
Caleb laughed.
He ran his hands through her hair. He would have loved to spend the night, just talking about whatever, maybe showing her the kind of man he used to be, but he knew better. “I should get going.”
She made a protesting noise.
“I’m sorry, Lauren. I gotta get home to my dog.”
She rolled away. “I know. Of course. He’s probably eaten your rug by now.”
She sounded angry, and he couldn’t really blame her. But he couldn’t tell her why he wasn’t staying, either. That had the potential to pull down his walls, too.
It was too soon. He was still too raw. And this…thing…he had going with Lauren was never supposed to be anything but sex.
He got up and started putting his clothes back on.
She sat up and pulled her sheet over her breasts. “You are coming to the adoption event, right?”
“Do you want me to?”
“We were hoping a few of the vets would be on-hand to answer questions for anyone interested in adopting a cat.”
Ah, so it was a business situation, not that she wanted him there for support. That was probably just as well. He shouldn’t feel so disappointed, especially since he was the one getting ready to leave.
“Yeah, I’ll try to be there,” he said. “Depending on how the Jell-O wrestling goes with the other vets and all that.”
She laughed softly. “Right. Well. Say hi to Hank for me.”
“Yeah, I…” She was clearly miffed now, and he didn’t want to leave her like that. “Lauren, I’m sorry. It’s too late to make other arrangements, and I…”
“It’s fine. I know what this is between us.” She smiled, but it seemed hollow. “Good night, Caleb. I’m sure I’ll see you around this week. We seem to be forever randomly running into each other.”
“Right. Good night.”
Then he made himself leave.
Chapter 13
Since Lauren had been managing the Cat Café, they’d held adoption events once a quarter or so to make room for new cats. They were usually pretty well attended, but this party was something else. Apparently “free booze” was the only thing one needed to say to attract New Yorkers to an event.
The café’s full staff was there. Victor was posted at the cat room door to make sure none of the cats got out. Monique was overseeing the adoption paperwork and fees. Paige had gone into corporate event planner mode, walking around the room to make sure everyone was fine, helping people pick out cats, shaking hands with the shelter volunteers and veterinarians and other invited guests. The hired bartender was slinging drinks. And a handful of Lauren’s other friends were pitching in to make sure everything went well. Lauren didn’t have much to do as a result, so mostly she just mingled with the crowd.
She spotted Evan standing near one of the sofas. The little tortie named Chloe stood on the arm of the sofa and kept leaning up into Evan’s hand to be pet. Evan was humoring her.
“Thank you for coming,” Lauren said to him.
“Of course. You can’t talk me into adopting another cat, but I can be supportive.”
“Are you sure?”
