Cali felt a lump in her throat. “He … he wanted to keep the cat.”
“Oh.” Minka’s expression softened, and she reached across the table to place one hand lightly over Cali’s.
This meant she understood. She understood perfectly that Cali’s dreams of having another cat “find” her were not only dashed moments ago but dashed in an epic way. Minka was like that sometimes—full of wit and pop culture references until it was the heart’s turn to speak. Then she’d get all quiet and just let things, well, be. It was one of the many qualities Cali appreciated about her. That and Minka remembered her neurotic coffee order after the first visit to the café:Can I get a triple-shot oat milk latte, half-decaf, extra hot but not scalding, with one pumpvanilla and one and a half pumps hazelnut. But could you do half-sweet on the hazelnut?
Now Minka just called it the Oat Couture.
“Well, you just point me in the direction of this jerk. Next time I see him, it’s hot coffee in the eyeball for him.” She was teasing, but it made Cali smile. Then Cali remembered the construction worker’s pressing gaze and felt her cheeks flood with warmth. “There’s my girl.” Minka rose from the table and continued cleaning. “Seriously, though, was it that grumpy foreman? Always shouting demeaning curses at the crew unless he’s got something in his mouth? Potbelly in front, more cracks than a crème brûlée in back?”
“No, it was one of the younger guys. Um. Tall, tattoos, umm … " Cali licked her lips as she remembered the perspiration trickling down his chiseled abs and into the band of his jeans. What was the phrase she was looking for? Rugged? Sharp-featured? Unnervingly attractive? “Athletic.”
Minka blinked twice and scurried back over to the table with a squeal. The sound almost startled Cali out of her chair. “Ethan Cross?” Minka said with heavy, breathless emphasis on each word. “Ethan wanted your rescue cat? You are the luckiest woman in all of Autumn Ridge, Cali!”
“How do you know his name?” Cali asked skeptically.
“Because I’m certifiable. No, he comes in here to get his thermos filled every morning before work. We’ve met. We talk. Did you know he’s already got a cat? I’m surprised you two haven’t run into each other already, all things considered.”
“What do you mean by that?” Cali narrowed her eyes.
“Well, he’s always got a book in his hands. Each morning, he takes the outside table and chair—you know, the one that faces the library?—and he reads his book until half the thermos is gone. Then he comes back in for a top-off, pays, and leaves.”
Cali’s head was spinning. “No, that can’t be. I – I enter through the front door every day and I’ve never seen a guy sitting at that table outside.”
Minka shook her head slowly, her expression filled with disappointment. “My dear friend, that is because you are blind.”
“Come on.”
“No, I mean it. Have youseenthat crew working on the new courthouse for the past six months?”
Cali softened her voice. “Not really. I was focused on work … and the banned books effort and feeding the strays.”
“All wonderful distractions. Commendable, really.” Minka exhaled a low, deep breath. “Cali, there may be a few crew with tattoos, but there’s only one guy who someone could objectively call ‘athletic’. I’ve seen him with my own two eyes.”
“So you know how rude he is then.”
“He’s been nothing but nice to me.” Minka smirked.
Salt in the wound, and Cali felt a little stung. She tried not to show it, but she was a little jealous.
“That’s because you hold the nectar of life—a.k.a. coffee—in your hands, Minka. We’re all at your mercy. I, on the other hand, was trying to go after a cat that he apparently also wanted.”Badly.
Minka grabbed a napkin and fanned herself. “That means you haven’t even seen him without his construction hat then, have you? Hair for days. The kind you could run your fingers through. A young Cillian Murphy circaRed Eye, girl.”
“A little compassion here? This man is my cat nemesis. He’s testing the whole premise of the Cat Distribution System. Finders keepers. I spotted it first.”
Minka shrugged. “Well, Cillian’s the villain in most of his movies, too.”
“Minka!”
“What? You’ve never fallen for the villain?”
Cali considered for a fleeting second then shook her head. “That’s not the point. When he left, he pulled out his —”
“Ohh!” squealed Minka.
Cali rolled her eyes. “Tape measure and acted like he was sizing me up. Can you believe that?”
Minka gestured toward the clock on the wall then at the dessert display. “Please. Pick your dessert and get going already. You promised booze at book club tonight, and I need this after the week I’ve had.”
