“Great … great,” she said. “I’ll just message you when I have all the columns finalized. There’ll be a few for post-auction tracking. Winning bid. Who won. Thank you note sent. So just ignore those.”
God, this sounded soformalall of a sudden, like she was talking to an attorney or a teller at the bank instead of the only man in Autumn Ridge who knew what she tasted like under her skirt. Her body shuddered at the memory.
“So what did you think of the scavenger hunt?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Just as fun as expected,” he offered.
His smile was unreadable. She wasn’t sure if he was being polite or if he just looked tired after a long workday. It lookedlike he might be trying to gauge her reactions, too, and coming up short.
“That boring, huh?”
He chuckled, and it was like a spark igniting the air in the room. “Not at all. It was very …” He chose his word carefully. “Educational.”
“Well, that’s the point, I suppose,” she conceded. What on earth was going on here? Something was off. She felt that question gnawing at the back of her throat as Ethan shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
“I hope you don’t hate me for this, but …”Oh no. She tried to prepare herself for the next words he uttered.Carl’s got the crew packing up this weekend—earlier than expected.OrI’m seeing another woman.But instead he sheepishly lifted his gray eyes and asked “Can I show you some pictures of Max and Catsby?”
Cali’s jaw went slack.
“They’re just so cute together, and I can’t decide on which photos to send Minka for the gala social media posts. Or maybe you had an even better one of Max?”
Cali’s smile was bittersweet. “No, I forgot to take photos. He wasn’t with me for that long.” She felt a stab of grief in her chest but tried to push through. “Here. Show me.”
Ethan ended up showing her over two dozen photos he’d taken since Max showed up at his place, including the one he texted Cali the night Max was found. Together, sharing a sunbeam then tails entwined while they practiced synchronized loafing. Catsby alone, mid-stretch then making biscuits in her favorite blanket. Max, glaring in judgment at the camera then donning a ‘I heard the treat bag’ expression.
It was almost too much to bear, so she stopped him, uttering “Scroll back” and pointing randomly at one photo of each.
“These? You sure?”
She nodded. “But I guess all of them are great.”
“Okay.” He cleared his throat and shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll send them to Minka.”
The chime of a successfully sent message rang, and for a moment, Cali felt the eerie silence of the library creep between them like a fog, thick and heavy.
Then Bernadette appeared in the hallway, balancing a box of donated books in her hands. When she glanced in Cali’s office, she spotted Ethan and stopped. “Ethan! Hey! That cat tower you built is gorgeous. Thank you again.”
She smiled and was gone before Ethan could even form a reply.
“I guess Mrs. E—as you called her last week—was right,” Cali said. “Word’s getting around about your services.”
Ethan smiled faintly, like he knew it was time to leave but couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. “Guess I’ll take that as a good review.” He rubbed the paint fleck from his cheek. “You want to be the first one to post? Hashtag Crosstown Repairs—‘For When Things Fall Apart.’”
Cali giggled. “Crosstown. Clever. You’ll have to run that by The Nine, though,” she joked. “I’m sure they’ll have opinions.”
“Well, I was going to go with ‘Fixing What Needs Fixing—Especially If It’s Complicated.’ But that’s a mouthful and maybe a bigger promise than I can keep.”
His cheesy grin was infectious, but she found herself unable to return his smile.
Cali felt bad now, for having made him uncomfortable, for drawing this out to the point he was improvising fake slogans just to fill the gaps in their conversation. This wasn’t like him. His confidence waned in front of her, and she hated seeing him this way. Her throat ached with things she couldn’t say. That the tower he built Bernadette’s cat should’ve been a tower for Max atherplace, that she was jealous he was building new memories everywhere she wasn’t.
“Anyway,” she said, clearing her throat. “You probably need to get going. If Catsby’s dinner is late, there’s no telling what wrath will befall you.”
He hesitated a moment too long, then nodded. “Yeah. Long day. See you at book club later this week?”
“Sure. Take care, Ethan.”
When the door closed behind him, the scent of cedar lingered. She turned back to her monitor, but she couldn’t focus. She plunked a few more titles on the columns of the auction spreadsheet and queued up a shared note for Ethan. It took him over an hour to reply, and when he did, it was only a thumbs-up emoji.
