Maybe adopting them separately had been a mistake.
“Come on,” he said, leading them back into the kitchen, where he found Sarah perched on the chair, her cloud of luscious, thick waves hanging down her back.Yes, adopting the kittens with Sarah and Riley had been a mistake.
And though he knew everyone made mistakes, he wasn’t sure how to correct this one without breaking Sally’s heart.
The girls returned to the kitchen to wash their hands and set the table, and he turned his attention to serving supper.He needed to focus on getting through the meal.Then he was determined never to make the mistake of sharing a meal, or a drink, or even coffee with Sarah until he could put her back into the box in his mind labeledSally’s Friend’s Mom.A box never to be opened or examined too closely.
Because in his experience, once you let things out of boxes, putting them back in was a very difficult endeavor indeed.
ChapterThirteen
The rest of the week flew by for Sarah as she settled into the routine of picking up the girls, dropping off the cat, and then returning to pick up the cat and drop off the girls.The arrangement was working well.
They shared no more dinners.
By the time the weekend came, Dash was used to his new routine and, so far as she could tell, Dot was also adapting.All in all, their experiment of co-parenting a pair of cats was successful.
Except something was missing.
She could pretend she didn’t know what that something was, but she’d be lying to herself.And, in her experience, that was the very worst person to lie to.
What she missed was the friendship she and Simon had been developing.She’d looked forward to having a friend who was also juggling home and work, and now cats.But ever since dinner Monday evening, he had changed.Why?
She thought back to their conversations that evening and could only come up with one explanation.She’d confided in him about her ex-husband.Her ex-husband who had left her.
She didn’t remember blaming Graham—no one wants to listen to someone bashing their ex—but maybe she was misremembering.Maybe she had said something else to offend him?Or maybe it had nothing at all to do with her.
She would have asked him outright if she knew him well enough, but she didn’t, so she would continue to go along with their new rhythm of shared cat custody.She would just enjoy the new cat, the summer, and relax.
But she couldn’t help reflecting on the spark of attraction she was sure she had detected between them.
During that late afternoon time slot when people often snuck out of the office for a muffin, coffee, and a quick chat about their weekend plans, she would forget the merits of the cases she was working on and instead dwell on Simon’s merits.His smile.His laugh.His lips.
Visiting Simon in her mind was better than a chocolate chip muffin—which, from a chocoholic, was saying a lot.
She needed an excuse to talk to him, she decided.And so, on Friday, instead of letting Riley go in and grab Dash, she got out of the car and walked to his front door.
“We should come up with some kind of arrangement for the weekend,” she began.“I’m happy to take both cats and both girls for both days… or one day.Whatever you think.”
He looked startled to see her.As though she had just appeared from thin air.
“Yes,” he said.“I have some prep to do for next week’s pottery lessons at the rec centre, and it would help if Sally and Dot could spend time with you for at least one of those days.”
“Perfect,” said Sarah.
“And I told Sally I would take her to the indoor climbing place on Saturday.Do you think Riley would like to join us?”
“She would love that,” said Sarah.“It would give me some time to get caught up around the house.”
“What if I take the girls tomorrow and leave the cats and my playpen at your place for a few hours?On Sunday, I could leave Sally too.”
“Deal,” she said, feeling some of his coolness dissipate.She was glad Riley would get to try climbing, though she would have liked to try it too.
She stood for a few minutes and waited for Riley to come back with the cat.Simon glanced behind him as they waited, not once but three times.
“Nice weather this weekend,” she said, trying to fill the silence.
“Um, yes,” he said.
