Chapter 41
Trap waited at the bakery, checking his messages to see where everyone else was.
Colt had spearheaded this birthday celebration for Ty, and since he spent a lot of time with Trap and Tate, they’d eventually landed on the idea of hosting it at Wilde & Organic.
Tate had volunteered the upstairs conference-room space, which had plenty of seating, tables, and a wall where they could hang a dartboard.
Trap loved the idea of being able to come downstairs and get anything he wanted from the grocery store, which was open until ten p.m. on weeknights. He’d ordered the cake, JJ was bringing a few board games, and Conrad was already upstairs, hanging the dartboard.
Colt had put together some decorations that had barely met Clara Jean’s requirements for a party.
Her comments on what he’d brought for their friend had only served to remind Trap that men and women were not the same.
It had also spurred Colt to order a bouquet of balloons to add to the banner he’d purchased online.
They’d invited everyone in their small ranch owners’ meeting group, as well as a few of Ty’s friends from Signs for Success and Lone Star—but men only, as it was guy’s night out, whether married or single.
Trap looked up and back into the bakery, but the girl he’d given his name to still had not appeared with the cake he’d ordered. He glanced at his phone again, not even sure if he wanted to check Two Cents or the Panhandle Singles app.
Colt had put it out to the group a few weeks ago that he was ready to start dating again, and he’d been on a few dates.
As far as Trap knew, they hadn’t gone anywhere.
Moving into the summer building season, Trap wasn’t sure he was ready to take on a girlfriend.
It didn’t help that his last few attempts at dating had failed spectacularly.
“Here you go, Trap,” the girl said, and he shoved his phone away, his indecision saving him once more.
“Thanks, Miley.” He reached for the wide, two-foot-long cake, surprised at how heavy it landed in his hands.
As he made his way toward the front of the store—all he had to do was walk through an employees-only door at the customer service desk and go up a flight of stairs—Trap wondered if anyone had thought about plates and utensils.
You probably should have, he thought. You’re in charge of the cake.
His boots made thunking noises on the gray-painted concrete steps as he went up, and he entered a hallway that only had doors leading off the right-hand side of it.
A wide wall of windows expanded to his left, and a few desks sat out in the open space where the security team here at Wilde & Organic worked day and night.
He entered the last door on the right to the biggest conference room, where the long eight-foot tables had been pushed together to make one big rectangle with about twenty-five chairs around it and more pushed up against the wall.
Conrad fiddled with the dartboard near the back corner, and Colt looked his way as he entered. “Oh, you got the cake.” He indicated the corner of the table. “It goes right there on the end.”
“Do we need paper plates and forks?” Trap asked.
Colt had decided to order pizza, because what man in his right mind didn’t like pizza? It was one of Trap’s favorite foods, that was for sure. He found a stack of plates on the corner as he slid the cake onto the table, his question answered.
“I got plates,” Colt said. “But no forks.”
“We need forks?” Tate asked. He had just entered the room after Trap. “We’ve got some in the cupboards back here.”
He continued to where some tall cabinets stood against the back wall. He opened one of them and pulled out a box of plastic forks. “It’s just forks. No spoons.”
“I didn’t get ice cream,” Trap said. “I figure if anyone wants some, they can go down and get themselves a pint size, and then they can have the flavor they want.”
Besides that, Trap rarely wanted to eat dessert after dinner.
He didn’t understand big meals like Thanksgiving, where so much energy was poured into the pies that couldn’t even be enjoyed because of how much food he’d stuffed himself with.
Trap almost always would prefer real food over dessert anyway, and he hadn’t wanted to let the ice cream sit out and melt and have no one eat it.
It would take all of five minutes for the cowboys to go downstairs, pick out their favorite flavor, buy it, and bring it back up.
JJ and Finn stood down at the end of the table, pulling out board games from a bin JJ had brought in.
“Hey-ho, hey!”
Trap turned toward the door at the sound of Henry’s voice.
“The party is here!”
He moved out of the way as his brother-in-law, Trevor, entered. They both wore big black cowboy hats and smiles as wide as the Texas sky, and Trap felt a sense of brotherhood with them that could not be explained.
“Howdy,” Trap said, and he moved to shake Henry’s hand and then Trevor’s. “Do you guys leave in the morning for that cutting competition?”
“It’s next weekend,” Trevor said. “And we’ll leave on Thursday.”
“It’s only a three-hour drive,” Henry said. “But Trev doesn’t like to have the horses in the trailer for that long.” He grinned at his brother-in-law and moved further into the room.
Trap sometimes felt on the outside of these men, because he didn’t technically own a farm or a ranch. He lived in a cowboy cabin at Seven Sons, and he helped JJ whenever he needed it. If Conrad needed help on his farm, he’d go there too.
But Trap had taken over his father’s construction business full time now, and he didn’t have to deal with spring planting, livestock issues, water rights, or anything else the bulk of his friends did.
Voices came down the hall, and it sounded very much like the Glover clan.
Sure enough, Link, Rock, and Gun walked in only a moment later, with Wilder laughing about something with Mitch and Jacob a few steps behind them.
Trap shook hands and put his smile on his face as the room started to bubble and vibrate with chatter and friendship.
Ty had not arrived yet, and Colt had been in charge of making sure Winnie knew where to have him and when, though it wasn’t exactly a surprise party. Jake walked in with Jason Walker—JJ’s younger brother—and then the birthday boy himself made an appearance.
“Okay,” Colt yelled. “Ty’s here, everyone!”
The man had turned thirty-two years old yesterday, and now the former bull-riding champion in him came out as he raised both hands above his head and waved, the way Trap’s uncle often had when he’d won national titles.
“There’s no food on this table,” Ty said, his smile fading as his arms dropped back to his sides.
Colt stepped past Trap and drew Ty right into a tight hug. “Howdy, brother. Pizza will be here in ten minutes.”
He turned toward everyone, his arm still around Ty’s shoulder. “Hey, guys, can I get your attention for a second?”
Trap stepped out of the way, taking his place next to his cousin Jason and Jake Ahlstrom, who he’d grown up with. After all, Trap had never needed to be in the spotlight, though he enjoyed praise as much as the next cowboy.
“We’re so glad everyone could come for Ty’s birthday, and we know it’s a busy time of year, and lots of y’all have wives and kids, so feel free to leave anytime you need to.
Pizza will be here in about ten minutes, and I got ten of them.
I don’t want to hear any complaining about fruit on pizza or too many olives.
If there’s something you don’t like, you just pick it off. All right?”
He wore a stern look, but chuckles moved throughout the crowd, as they’d talked about food preferences in their ranch owners’ meetings in the past.
“JJ has a bunch of games down on the end, and Conrad brought darts, and I thought it would be fun just to hang out.” He indicated the tables. “Some of us play cards every couple of weeks, and I brought those too, but don’t feel like you have to have something to do.”
He clapped his big hands together. “Let’s sing Happy Birthday to Ty right now. And if you brought a gift, you can give him that, because when the pizza gets here, I think it’s going to be a free-for-all.”
He laughed, and then he led them in a rousing version of Happy Birthday. Ty stood there, his face turning a deeper shade of red with every moment. After the last purposefully off-key note ended, he said, “Thank you guys so much,” and then he stepped out of the doorway and further into the room.
Trap recognized another person wanting to blend in when he saw one, and he welcomed Ty to his little huddle with Jake and Jason.
“Who got the cake?” Ty asked.
“I did,” Trap said. It had a couple horses on it and the words Happy Birthday, Ty, and Trap didn’t think it looked too bad.
“Thanks, brother,” Ty said, and he grabbed onto Trap’s forearm for a moment, gripped it tightly, and then pulled his hand back. “How are things going with you?”
Trap blew out his breath, letting his lips flap a little bit the way horses did. “Good enough, I guess. I’ve got your big project and four or five others on the docket, so I can’t complain.”
“He complains plenty, though,” Jason said. “You should hear him talk about the Hensen place.”
Trap’s gaze shot to his cousin, who had asked to help him on several projects in the last few weeks. “That place needs to be condemned,” he said. “And she wants to move here in a month.”
“Is there a house she can live in?” Ty asked.
“No,” Trap said. “And she seems to think I can build her one just by snapping my fingers.” He wasn’t salty about the Hensen place, he was salty about the owner’s expectations of him regarding the Hensen place.
“We are going to build her one,” Jason said.
Trap rolled his eyes. “I just don’t see how someone like her is going to survive in a tiny house.”
“She requested it,” Jason said. “And you’ve wanted to build a tiny house for at least the last five years.”
“Yeah,” Trap said. “I have.”
“We’re starting on it on Monday.”
He’d actually poured the foundation already, and he’d gotten final approval from Lila Mae on the blueprints just yesterday.
“It’s fifteen-by-fifteen-feet,” he said.
“Kitchen, bathroom, and living on one floor and a loft bedroom. It is going to be twenty feet tall, so she should be able to stand up upstairs.” He shot a look over to Jason.
“I just don’t think people understand that simply because a house is tiny doesn’t mean there aren’t the fifteen thousand checks that need to be gone through—plumbing, electricity, inspections, all of it.
It’s the same as building a regular house. It’s just smaller.”
“We’ll get it done,” Jason said, his perpetual positivity something Trap actually liked about him most of the time.
“Ty, come cut your cake,” JJ called. “Some of us are starving, and the pizza isn’t here yet.”
Ty went to do that, and Trap moved over to the table with him, Colt, and JJ.
“How’s dating going?” Ty asked, and Colt slid him a look out of the corner of his eye.
“It could be better,” he said. “I went out with that Lisa woman a few times.”
“Oh, that tells me everything I need to know,” Ty chuckled. “That Lisa woman.”
Colt smiled too. “You know who I mean. Lisa Frampton.”
“Yeah, I know who she is,” Ty said. “I’m the one who suggested her.”
“She was nice enough,” Colt said, and he took the piece of cake Ty handed him. “I don’t know. There just wasn’t any spark.”
“You know who you should go out with?” JJ asked, and he took the next piece of cake that Ty put on a plate.
“Who?” Colt said. “You’ve been holding out on me?”
“Yeah, the man asked for suggestions,” Trap said. “And maybe I need some too.”
JJ grinned at him. “You can’t go out with her, brother.”
“I can’t? Why not?”
JJ looked over his shoulder to where Conrad still stood by the dartboard, now with Finn and Henry surrounding him. “Because it’s Elaine. She’s looking for a boyfriend.”
“Oh, yeah, I can’t go out with her,” Trap grinned and looked at Colt. “But you should.”
Colt cleared his throat, and a ruddy redness entered his face. “You want me to go out with your cousin?”
“Yeah, sure,” JJ said. “Why not?”
“How old is she?” Colt asked, his eyes on his cake and refusing to be anywhere else.
JJ looked at Trap, who racked his brain quickly. “Uh….”
“I know the triplets are younger than you,” JJ said. “By like a year—so, like, twenty-six, twenty-seven.”
“That’s not too young,” Trap said.
“Not too young?” Colt asked. “Dude, I’m thirty-six years old. It’s almost a decade of difference.”
“She’s really mature,” JJ said. “She just started that foundation and everything.” He put half his piece of cake in his mouth at once, and all eyes focused on Colt.
“I don’t know,” he mumbled. “Do you think it would be weird with Conrad?”
“Why would it be weird with Conrad?” JJ asked.
“I don’t know,” Colt said again. “I’ll think about it.”
Trap had played cards with Colt plenty of times in the past year or so, and the only time the man ever acted evasively like this was if he’d already spent time thinking about whatever they were talking about—which meant he’d thought of Elaine as a potential date all on his own.
He watched as Colt turned away from the group, his face still a healthy, blushing pink. Yes, that man liked Elaine—or at least had thought about asking her out. He simply hadn’t done it yet.
“I’ve got a lot of pizza here for Colt Franklin,” a man appeared in the doorway, and he had someone with him, both of them carrying a healthy stack of pizza boxes.
“Yeah, yeah,” Tate said. “Pizza’s here, boys.”
Trap got out of the way as several others came forward to relieve the delivery men of their boxes.
“The darts are ready,” Conrad said as he joined the line.
“And I’ve got Texas trivia,” JJ said. “I think we should start with that.”
“Oh, boy,” Trap laughed. “No one should play trivia with JJ. He’s too good at it.”
“Hey, that’s not true,” JJ said.
But it so was, and Finn started in on a story where he’d played trivia with JJ at one of their family nights and lost spectacularly.
The group had a good laugh. The sense of camaraderie and brotherhood permeated the party.
And while Trap might live alone in a small, six-hundred-foot cabin, with his fears and worries over growing and maintaining his daddy’s business and honoring the Walker family name, he sure did love his friends, and he knew they loved him.