Like Cats and Dogs, Kate McMurray [miss read books .TXT] 📗

this could be part of his new lease on life. He could make friends with the café staff and the other vets. He’d accepted an invitation to a cookout at Dr. Gardner’s place that weekend, where there’d be spouses and friends of the other vets at the clinic, so that would be good. He didn’t generally love parties, but this was a low-key thing with some people he already knew, and he did like the other vets at the clinic. It was kind of nice to work with people he wasn’t romantically attached to.

The Cat Café was closed, so he hit the buzzer. Lauren’s voice rang through the intercom, “Who is it?”

“It’s Caleb. I’ve got some cat carriers from the clinic.”

The door buzzed and Caleb pushed inside. The café area was empty, so he walked back through the second door.

When Caleb walked into the cat area, Lauren’s back was to him. It sounded like she was singing the Sia song, “Chandelier,” but there was something in there about cats and she name checked several of the café’s feline residents. “I want to meow with Sadie the cat…”

“I don’t think those are the lyrics,” he said.

She started and turned around. “Uh… I sometimes change the lyrics to pop songs to be about the cats.”

Caleb couldn’t decide if that was cute or crazy. Some of both, he decided.

Lauren took the cat carriers from him. “Thanks for these. We wanted to have some on-hand for the adoption event we’re hosting next week and realized we were a few short.”

“You’re welcome. Is it just you here right now?”

“Yeah, Monique and Paige just left about ten minutes ago. We closed at six.”

Caleb looked at his watch. It was almost seven, much later than he thought it was. Olivia had been quite late. “Do you just let the cats hang out here all night?”

“For the most part. There are a couple that need to be separated, so we put them in kennels in the back overnight. I’ve got a scrappy little street tabby we named Tyler Durden who likes to pick fights with the other cats when no one is around. It took me a whole month to figure out why there were little tufts of fur all over when I came in some mornings. But he’s good with people. I think he’ll be fine in a home with no other cats.”

“Okay.” Caleb was still a bit baffled by all this, but he liked that at least the secret mission of the café was to find more permanent homes for these cats. It was like a shelter with a coffee shop. Still a little strange, but at least the cats were well taken care of, from what he could tell. And now he felt awkward, so he said, “Well, I’m just gonna…”

“No, stay a minute. Can I get you a cup of coffee?”

“Okay, but nothing fancy. Plain old regular coffee is fine.”

“And your usual is coffee with cream, no sugar.”

“How did you remember that?”

Lauren grinned and tapped her temple. “I’m very good at my job.”

That grin was incredibly sexy, like Lauren knew all the secrets in the world and was willing to share, for a price. A sexy price, hopefully. Caleb couldn’t help but smile back.

“Have a seat near the counter and I’ll be right with you. I’m just gonna make sure these guys are all tucked in.”

Caleb walked back to the café area toward the counter and sat at a table nearby. He reasoned he could probably figure out how to work the giant coffee maker—add water and coffee grounds, how hard could it be?—but he didn’t want to muck up any existing system. He pulled out his phone to check his email, and Sadie walked up. She chirped and rubbed against his leg. He relented and pet her.

“Do I meet with your approval?” he asked the cat.

She started to purr loudly, so Caleb took that as a yes.

Lauren appeared at the door. “Hey, Sadie, get in here. You don’t belong out here at night.”

Sadie sat defiantly at Caleb’s feet.

Lauren rolled her eyes and slapped her thigh. “Come on, cat. You can’t stay out here all night. Go hang out with the other cats.”

Sadie stared at her for a long moment but stood and sauntered over to the door. Lauren grabbed her and carried her the rest of the way, then locked the door.

“Sorry,” Lauren said. “Sadie’s special. She’s a permanent cat here because I haven’t been willing to part with her. We call her the office manager because she bosses everyone around. She gets free rein during the day, but she would for sure get into stuff around the counter without supervision, and the last thing I need are complaints about cat hair in people’s morning coffee.”

“Doesn’t that happen anyway?”

“Sure, in the back room.” Lauren hooked her thumb back toward the cat room, then walked over to the counter. She got the coffee maker going. “When people are here, she mostly stays away from the counter, but I don’t need dusty footprints on the counter or anything like that. Plus she has lots of places to play and nap in the other room. I think she just generally prefers people to cats.”

“How very like a cat.”

Lauren laughed. She reached into a little refrigerator behind the counter, and Caleb took a moment to appreciate her ass. When she stood back up, she had a couple of croissants in her hand. “Aha. Monique sometimes leaves the day-old stuff in the fridge for me. These croissants are really good. I get them from this little hole-in-the-wall French bakery in Prospect Heights. They are…” She made a chef kiss.

“Lovely.”

“I mean, they were delivered fourteen hours ago and have been in the fridge for a bit, so they aren’t at peak freshness, but they can’t be sold now and are still pretty dang good.” She sighed. “When we first opened, we were giving the leftover pastries to a homeless shelter close to the river, but ever since the Star