“You could have talked to me about that.”
“Would you have listened? The things I wanted weren’t a part of your plan.”
“You didn’t give me a chance to revise the plan!”
“I didn’t call you to fight.”
It hit Caleb quite suddenly that Kara had made assumptions. She’d assumed Caleb was immovable. He might have resisted, but he would have listened to Kara. Maybe he wasn’t the most flexible, but she hadn’t even given him a chance to try.
Just like he hadn’t given Lauren a chance.
He sighed. “Maybe there’s some magical future where we can talk civilly again, but that time is not now. Youhad an affairandleft meand destroyed the clinic we ran together. In what universe is that something I should just get over quickly? More to the point, you haven’t been in touch with me at all except through your lawyers in eight months, and you’re only getting in touch with me now because you need something. So don’t pretend like this is some friendly overture. I can’t talk to you right now.”
“Just like Caleb. So fucking stubborn. Are you really so hurt you can’t even talk to me?”
“Kara. It’s not even that you left me. That alone is something I shouldn’t forgive you for. It’s that you didn’t trust or respect me enough to come to me to talk to me about why you were unhappy. We never had a conversation. You made a decision without involving me. But I was yourhusband, Kara. You should have come to talk to me. You should havetrustedme.”
“Well, that’s all over now. And if you’re just going to yell at me, I have better uses for my time.”
She hung up, which seemed right. Caleb sighed and put down his phone.
Was he just playing old tapes? Had Kara tried to tell him, but he’d just been too stubborn to hear it? Was he being too stubborn now?
Well…yes. He’d closed himself off from any kind of love or romance. He didn’t trust anything. But was that fair? He was right to guard his heart, but he hadn’t realized the degree to which he’d locked himself up.
Lauren had tried to pry him back open, and he hadn’t let her.
But he wanted to. Was he really denying himself happiness because of some principle? Wouldn’t it be better to see how things with Lauren went? Maybe it would implode, but wasn’t it better to try than to become some hermit who cut himself off from everything? Because that wasn’t working. He was lonely.
He went to sleep that night feeling resolved. Lauren was unlikely to just forgive him after everything he’d said and done, but he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t try to win her back. To give her a real chance this time. To trust her in a way Kara hadn’t trusted him.
When Caleb rounded the corner to go to work the following Monday, Evan was leaning against the café window talking to a guy with dark hair. Evan appeared to be flirting heavily. It occurred to Caleb that, of Lauren’s friends, Evan was the one she talked about the most and was probably closest to, so if anyone knew how to win her back, it was this man.
Caleb stalled in front of the yarn store and pretended to look at the display in the window, which, now that he looked at it, was pretty interesting. Someone had knit little dolls in sweaters who were settled on an orange sofa. It seemed to be a diorama showing a scene fromFriends. And, okay, that was pretty darn cute.
When Caleb turned back, the dark-haired guy was walking away and Evan was watching him go. When the guy went into the bookstore, Evan sighed and looked around. His gaze settled on Caleb approaching.
“Hi,” Caleb said.
“Hello. You should know, I’m contractually obligated to hate you. It’s part of the best friend agreement.”
Caleb’s heart sank. This would be a challenge. “So she told you what happened.”
“She did.”
“That does put me at a disadvantage.”
“You broke her heart, you know.”
That was something Caleb had been afraid of. Even though she’d been surprisingly glib about it, her anger every time they ran into each other indicated that he’d hurt her more than he’d initially realized. This might mean she wasn’t reachable anymore, that she was too angry to forgive him. “I do know. I regret that.”
Evan narrowed his eyes at Caleb. “Why are you talking to me?”
His tone wasn’t accusatory so much as curious. Caleb decided to interpret that as a door opening.
“Well, you were standing here, for one thing,” said Caleb. “But I do want to talk to you.”
“All right. About?”
