Like Cats and Dogs by Kate McMurray (scary books to read TXT) 📗

brought Hank up to the railing and found himself gazing at the skyscrapers of the financial district, One World Trade Center surrounded by dozens of tall buildings Caleb didn’t know the names of. The Brooklyn Bridge spanned the river just ahead, and it was a remarkable sight, that old bridge connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan just as it had for nearly 140 years. To the left, a fair distance away, was the Statue of Liberty, holding her torch up in welcome.

This was the city in all its glory. Caleb had never seen it from an angle like this before. He’d flown into New York a couple of times since moving here, and he always spent the descent gazing out the window and trying to identify the landmarks. There was a lot about this city he still didn’t know yet or hadn’t explored. He’d done a lot of the obvious tourist stuff with Kara when they’d first moved here, but since she’d left, he’d mostly kept to himself, just traveling between his home and his work.

Caleb walked with Hank up the promenade a little. Attached to the railing was a framed photograph of this same view, but before 2001, the Twin Towers still standing. The picture was jarring, upsetting in its way. Caleb didn’t have roots here, had never even been to New York until a few years ago, but he’d met enough New Yorkers through his job to know people did have deep histories and memories. Brooklyn in particular was an odd mix of people who had lived here for years, whose families had been here for generations, and people who had moved here five minutes ago because it was trendy or it was what they could afford. Lauren had told him that she’d originally moved to Brooklyn because she couldn’t afford Manhattan, but parts of Brooklyn were even more expensive than Manhattan now.

Caleb brought Hank over to a bench and they sat so Caleb could people watch for a few minutes. There were joggers, probably passing by for the view. There were people out casually walking. A few office workers eating lunch. A woman he recognized as a barista from the coffee shop near his apartment leaned on the railing and looked at Manhattan.

Caleb couldn’t complain much about gentrification since it got him a nice apartment in an affluent neighborhood, but he’d been reading a lot about how Brooklyn was changing. Whitman Street ran through a part of Brooklyn that was quite gentrified, cute little mom-and-pop shops lining the long boulevard that ran from the East River all the way to Queens. The street changed after it intersected with Flatbush Avenue; the eastern part of it was old warehouses and self-storage places and train yards and housing projects. Of course, in order for this whole swath of Brooklyn to be cute and charming, a lot of people had either been priced out or pushed out of their homes.

He sighed. The promenade overlooked the highway, which added some noise to this otherwise peaceful place, and what Caleb thought must have been Brooklyn Bridge Park nearby. He didn’t much mind the noise; he was willing to overlook that for this view.

So maybe this neighborhood did have some magic to it.

Caleb had thought he’d take a job at a clinic and work there until he figured out what to do next, and part of his plan had been to probably start his own practice, likely in a less expensive city. But working for someone else had its perks. Being able to focus on his patients without fretting about finances was the major advantage. Being part of an established practice and not having to worry about finding new patients was another. He still felt a bit like an outsider in this community, but the longer he worked at the clinic, the more they tried to include him. There was a routine, a rhythm, and he enjoyed having that in his life.

And then there was Lauren. It… It wasn’t a real thing and probably never would be, but having her in his life challenged him in a way, and being with her at night reminded him that he was still capable of feeling. What would he do when they inevitably ended whatever was happening between them? How would he feel when she began dating someone else?

Best not to think of that right now.

Caleb leaned back on the bench and let the sun bathe him. He felt more like his old self than he had in a while, content instead of tense and angry. Was that this place? Was it because Kara was gone, because he was here, because the pieces of his life were falling into place? He didn’t know and he didn’t want to question it too much.

He looked down at Hank, who was lying on the paving stones, his tongue out, his eyes taking it all in. He looked happy, too. “What do you think, Hank? Should we stay awhile?”

Hank barked, probably at a bird that had landed on the railing, but Caleb took that as a yes.

Chapter 16

Spring felt like it lasted about a day and a half. When Caleb had lived in Boston, the joke was if you didn’t like the weather in Massachusetts, wait five minutes. And that applied here, because after several disgustingly warm days, New York was finally blessed with gorgeous weather.

Caleb left work in the early evening, looking forward to walking home in this weather, maybe grabbing takeout from the Tex-Mex place near his apartment, and just watching TV with Hank.

As he walked outside, so did Lauren.

“You guys closed for the day?” Caleb asked.

“No. Paige is closing today. Diane actually told me I work too much, so she’s forbidden me from staying until close on days when I come in to open.”

Caleb smiled. “Forbidden you, eh? Don’t you close at six? Which is in about ten minutes?”

“Yes, but we’re staying open tonight to host a writers’ group after hours. Paige can handle it. If this goes