“Maybe I should take those kittens off your hands.”
Olivia plastered a smile on her face and said, “Five kittens is a lot of work. And we’ve already got some interest from the adoption event.”
Diane nodded. “Oh, well. It just seems a shame to break up siblings. But consider this me expressing interest in at least one of the kittens. I’m all set up for cats upstairs. Thompson would like a younger sibling.”
“Of course,” said Olivia. “I’ll make sure we set at least one aside for you.”
“Lovely. A couple more weeks, you said?”
“Yeah, we like to make sure they are big enough to eat on their own before we let anyone adopt them. We’re still bottle-feeding them some, but they should be weaned pretty soon. They’re eating some regular cat food, too. They’re a pretty scrappy bunch.”
“I think Thompson would enjoy that.”
Caleb was saved from having to engage further when his afternoon dachshund patient showed up. He was pretty grateful for that dog, even though he’d have to now draw enough blood to do a full panel of tests. Drawing blood from a dog was among his least favorite things to do as a vet, and he still preferred it to continuing to let Diane subtly mock him.
“I’ll, uh, just go check on those kittens while I’m back there,” he said as a way to bow out of the conversation.
“Be nice to Lauren next time you see her. She works hard.”
Right. “I’ll try.”
Chapter 15
Lauren realized, as she lay with her limbs tangled with Caleb’s in her own bed, that though she was in one of those relationships—or not—in which she never went to her lover’s place, it was more because of expedience and convenience than anything nefarious on his part.
When she’d first moved to the city, she’d had a roommate who dated a guy who never allowed her at his place. Turned out it was because he had a live-in girlfriend, and Lauren’s roommate was his side piece. Thus Lauren had long been skeptical of guys who didn’t want to take their potential sex partners home. She didn’t even know what block Caleb lived on, but given that they both worked in the same building as Lauren’s apartment, that was likely due to laziness more than malevolence.
He was apparently equally contemplative, because he said, “Have you told your friends about me?”
“I may have said something the first time we slept together, but as far as they know, I hate you again now.”
Caleb murmured something Lauren couldn’t hear, then said, “Do you hate me?”
“Not right now.”
“Is it because of all the orgasms?”
She sighed dramatically. “They certainly help. Anytime you want to win me over, just go down on me like that again.”
“So if I said, ‘Dogs are better than cats’ and ‘One should have red wine with red meat’ and then went down on you, you’d be on board with my platform?”
“I’ll consider the wine thing, but you’re wrong, cats are clearly the superior animal.”
He put his hand on her hip. “Shall I try to persuade you?”
“I won’t stop you fromtrying.”
He laughed. Then he rested his head on her chest. “I’m not quite recovered from the last bout, but I’ll put it on my to-do list.”
Lauren ran her hand through Caleb’s hair. It was hard to deny this was…nice. More than nice. Being with Caleb made her feel powerful in a way, like she was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen, maybe the sexiest woman in Brooklyn. And now, tangled up with him in bed, she felt content. One could get used to such things.
And under normal circumstances, maybe she’d tell her friends about this, but her friends had few boundaries, and she wasn’t ready to let them in on this yet. Plus, she’d never be able to explain it. How she was sleeping with a man whom, in public, she despised. But the truth was she didn’t despise him so much anymore. Whether that was the endorphins from all the good sex talking or how she genuinely felt, she couldn’t say right then.
And then Molly hopped up on the bed. She gave Caleb a wide berth as she walked around the edge of the mattress and then curled up in a ball near Lauren’s shoulder.
“So youdohave a cat. She’s not imaginary.”
“Nope. She doesn’t really like people, especially men, but I guess she’s either decided you are okay or her need to sleep near me has overwhelmed her desire to avoid you. Hard to say.”
