Cate nodded, doing her best to seem supportive and non-judgmental. "That line of work would be enough to send anyone to drinking. Or harder forms of comfort. But there's no shame in recognizing when it becomes a problem and looking for help." If she let herself think about it, if it hadn't been for Kayla, the loss of Ryan combined with the perceived loss of Colin before he'd turned back up, might have been enough to turn her to that sort of comfort. In another life. Thankfully she'd had something bigger and more important to focus on. Without Kayla, though, she might have let herself linger on all the hurt too much.
"From what I've seen, I don't think you're bad with people." He was a little on the nervous side, sure, but Cate couldn't blame him. "The key is just to be yourself really and don't let them see you're afraid." Then she shook her head. "I'm mostly teasing about that last part, but it is sort of important in crowds." Big tall guy like him, cute enough and nice, Cate wasn't sure why he didn't have more friends. Unless he managed to fret himself out of them, which was possible.
When he mentioned his ex-wife, she frowned a bit and shook her head. "I'm sorry. I think that's one of those things that people sort of need to be compatible on. It's all well and good to want a career and not any kids. That's fine. Do what makes you happy, but if that means making another person unhappy, well, maybe it's just not gonna work out. Still. I'm sorry it didn't work out."
"Sure," Cate said and crossed the distance between them. Kayla gurgled happily, waving her chubby little arms a bit faster as they approached AJ. "Hopefully she'll be good for you. More than likely she wants to play with your hair."