“No one was watching.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Right. Well, let’s go, lover boy. Your place or mine?”
“Mine. I gotta take Hank out.”
“I’m not presumptuous in inviting myself over, am I?”
“Nope. I want you to come home with me. Will Molly be okay?”
“I fed her before I left for the symposium.”
“Then let’s go.”
They rode the subway back to Brooklyn across from a couple that was apparently very into each other. Lauren was talking about some customer at the Cat Café, and Caleb wasn’t really listening, but he was satisfied when she faltered in her speech as he put his arm around her.
“I thought we weren’t a couple.”
“Let’s pretend for a few hours.”
She looked at him with a furrowed brow as if this confused her, but then she shrugged and said, “Okay.”
Chapter 21
Caleb liked to sleep late on his days off. Often he felt like he needed it, especially after an overnight shift. The last overnight had been particularly harrowing. A dog had been hit by a car. The dog, miraculously, hadn’t sustained any life-threatening injuries, just a broken leg, but the stress of having to test for internal bleeding coupled with the frantic owner who blamed herself for the dog bolting out into the street had left Caleb feeling wrecked when he finally got home.
So the doorbell pulled him out of a deep sleep. He was a little startled to see it was nearly noon. He hastily threw on a robe and went to the door, expecting it to be a package, probably some clothes he’d ordered a few days before.
But, no, it was Lauren.
Caleb rubbed his eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m sorry. I’m on a Diane-mandated day off and I got bored so I thought I’d come over to say hi. So, hi.”
“Hi. Um. Come in?”
Caleb stepped out of the way to let her in. As wakefulness came over him in waves, he realized he was somewhat uncomfortable to have her here. They weren’t the sort of couple who just popped over to each other’s apartments. They weren’t even really a couple. Well, okay, theywere, it was hard to deny that now, but he did not like her showing up unannounced.
“I brought lunch,” she said. “Sandwiches from that Italian deli on Joralemon.”
“Oh. Um. Let me just put on a pot of coffee.”
He went to the kitchen and tried to shake off the sleepiness as he got the coffee maker going, mostly through muscle memory. He was curious what Lauren had brought, mostly because he was hungry, but he wondered how she knew what to get him.
Well, they had eaten a lot of meals together, hadn’t they?
When he returned to the table, there were two heroes wrapped in white deli paper. “Meatball parm,” Lauren said pointing to one, “and prosciutto, mozzarella, and roasted red peppers. Pick one, or we can each have half of each.”
Both sounded good. But Caleb was still uncomfortable with Lauren in his space. He decided to keep the peace while he got some food and caffeine into his bloodstream. They wound up sharing both sandwiches, and the meatball was particularly delicious. Lauren pulled some of the prosciutto off her half of the other sub, declaring it too salty.
He liked this woman. A lot. But this was not the sort of relationship they had.
As if reading his thoughts, Lauren said, “What is it?”
“What?”
“Something is clearly bothering you. You’ve been fidgety and looked uncomfortable since you sat down.”
He should really just tell her. No sense in putting himself through this anytime she got a notion to see him. “You’re gonna think I’m a dick.”
