Chapter 4
“Excuse me,” Lila Mae managed to say as she stumbled away from the table.
She wasn’t particularly sorry that Trap had pulled her away from the conversation, because as usual, Lila Mae had dug herself in too deep.
Curses ran through her head at what she’d done—cuddling into his side like that and telling his ex that they had a date in the morning.
Trap’s confusion had actually been pretty cute in the beginning, but frustration frothed through Lila Mae’s veins as she found her feet and managed to keep up with him and Colt.
She had been flirting with him since she moved to town, though her cousin had once told her that her flirting didn’t come off that way.
Fiona had had no idea about Lila Mae’s crush on the first-chair cellist in high school, and Lila Mae had thought she was really putting herself out there.
So maybe Trap hasn’t noticed, she thought. His skin burned against hers, going up and down between every finger and all along her palm, and she found it impossible that he couldn’t feel that.
Finally, Colt reached the back of the church and ducked to his left and onto the patio there. “All right,” he said, halfway under his breath. “I’m gonna look and see what’s going on.”
Lila Mae’s chest pinched as she tried to catch her breath, realizing she’d practically run away from the picnic. Thankfully, a huge oak tree shaded the patio, but her eyes swept the tables that had been set there, and she found them full of people a generation older than her.
“She’s not looking this way,” Colt said.
Trap chanced a glance over his shoulder, and then his shoulders relaxed as he sighed. They still carried plenty of power, and he dropped his gaze to where he still held her hand. That adorable frown rode her eyebrows, and then he sucked in a breath as he pulled his hand away.
“Sorry,” he muttered, and he actually wiped his hand on his slacks and stuck it in his pocket.
A brand new sting moved through Lila Mae, and she felt like she was covered in slime—or something worse. She still stood near enough to hear Trap furiously whisper to Colt what had gone on, and then she found both of their eyes on hers.
“I’m not open for brunch on Mondays,” Colt said.
More heat filled Lila Mae’s face, and she really didn’t need that right now. “I was just trying to help him out,” she said.
Colt sank onto a bench as if he’d suddenly become boneless. “Yeah, sorry, brother,” he said. “I couldn’t see past your body. And then I saw Lila Mae get all in close, and I thought that was weird.”
Lila Mae wanted to disappear, even as Colt continued to explain how he’d then stood up, seen Chelle, and come to save Trap.
Before she could find an appropriately Southern way to politely excuse herself from these cowboys who clearly had too many women after them—and Lila Mae didn’t need to add herself to the mix—the sound of a crying child filled the air.
A woman said, “Look, there’s Uncle Trap. He’ll know where your daddy is.”
That got all of their attention, and Colt rose to his feet and froze as a pretty brunette joined their huddle.
“What’s the matter, Jonas?” Trap asked, his voice as sweet as honey and as kind as an elderly grandmother delivering pie. Lila Mae watched the smile spread across his face, taking that strong mouth and making it shine with happiness.
“Oh, I didn’t see you, Colt,” the woman said.
Lila Mae looked at him, along with everyone else. He stared at the woman, something swirling in his dark eyes that Lila Mae couldn’t quite decipher.
The dark-haired woman looked at Trap, her smile falling from her face before she looked back to Colt.
“I told your mother I’d take him and some other kids to look at the frogs in the pond,” she said, her voice a touch nervous now.
“He’s not hurt or anything. He just got scared when one of the frogs jumped out and splashed water on a few of the kids. ”
That seemed to thaw Colt, and he jerked immediately, stepping toward Trap and taking the little boy from him. “Heya, buddy,” he said, his voice also kind, and not too placating, but definitely fatherly. “Did the frogs scare you? We got frogs all over the orchard.”
“Is a big one,” the little boy said, still sniffling, with big fat alligator tears clinging to his dark lashes. “And him hop out and go splash! all over us.”
Colt grinned and Trap chuckled, and Lila Mae couldn’t help but notice how adorable the little boy was.
“I’m sorry,” the woman said, lighting touching Lila Mae’s arm. “I don’t know you. I’m Elaine Walker.”
“Oh, right,” Trap said. “This is my cousin, Elaine. Laney, this is Lila Mae. Remember she bought the Hensen place, and I’m fixing it up?”
“Yes, of course. I knew I’d gossiped about you.” Elaine gave a light laugh that somehow Lila Mae joined in on.
She reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear, her gaze moving back to Colt. Lila Mae’s followed when she found him once again staring at Elaine—and only Elaine.
There was definitely something there. Lila Mae wasn’t sure if it had already started or if it had been an attempt that had failed.
“Anyway,” Elaine said, as if she didn’t realize how quiet and still Colt had become. “You’re back with your daddy now.” She reached out and tickled Jonas. “I can tell your mother, if you want. She’s sitting with mine.”
“I’m sure it’s about time to go,” Colt said.
“Thank you, Elaine.” He turned away abruptly, as if he would leave by crossing the patio, took one step, and froze again.
“This is not the way out.” He turned around and practically bowled over Lila Mae and Elaine to get back on the sidewalk just outside the church’s back entrance.
They all watched him go, and Trap said, “I’ve got to figure that out. Thanks, Laney.” He took an extra moment to duck his head in Lila Mae’s direction and say, “Ma’am,” before he scurried after his best friend.
Lila Mae stood there with Elaine, a woman she didn’t know at all, and watched the cowboys return to their table.
Elaine folded her arms. “Well, that was a little weird.”
Lila Mae couldn’t help smiling at her. “I’ll give you that.”
Elaine shook her head. “The cowboys in this town, I swear.” Then she turned and started to leave the patio as well. “Have you got yourself a boyfriend, Lila Mae?”
Lila Mae hurried after her and fell into step beside Elaine. “No,” she said. “I just moved here from Atlanta. Well, not really—from Atlanta via Baltimore.”
She’d been back and forth between both places often, as her family had homes in both cities, but Lila Mae liked to say Atlanta and bring out her Southern upbringing when necessary.
Elaine looked over to her, her eyebrows raised. “You’re the one opening the cat sanctuary, right?”
“That’s right,” Lila Mae said. “We’re open, but we’re only taking the most extreme cases right now, because we still have a lot of work to do on our facilities.”
“Yes, Trap is the best,” Elaine said. “I’m over here with my brothers.” She started to the left and then turned back. “Did you want to sit with us?”
Lila Mae stopped and surveyed the picnic. It had indeed broken up, and a few people had started to clean up the buffet tables. Lila Mae shook her head. “No, I have to get home. Thank you so much, though.”
“It was great to meet you,” Elaine said, and she seemed genuinely nice.
“Great to meet you too,” Lila Mae called after her, and she took one last look at the back lawn of the church and turned to leave.
She didn’t need to make a bigger fool of herself than she already had, and she’d fulfilled her assignment by helping to put the food out. Someone else could clean it up.
Her confusing feelings left with her, and she wondered if she could call Fiona, who was now married with a little baby, and ask her how to up her flirting game.
The next morning, Lila Mae pulled into the dirt parking lot at the apple orchards. She was nothing if not a creature of habit, and she had been coming every Monday to get cider for the cats, as well as apple butter and apple cider syrup for herself.
The trip gave her a chance to get outside the walls of her tiny home, which she absolutely loved but which still sometimes caged her.
Funny how she’d once lived in a Southern plantation mansion and felt smothered and now lived in a four-hundred-and-eight square-foot tiny home and sometimes still felt the walls closing in on her.
The apple orchards sat due east of Lila Mae’s ranch, but she had to take the small-town roads that wove through different neighborhoods to get to it. All told, it probably took thirty-five minutes from her front door to the entrance of the farm store at the orchard.
The scent of apples greeted her the moment she stepped out of her car, and Lila Mae took a deep breath of it lilting through the already-hot Monday morning.
The store opened at eight, and Lila Mae liked to come in the first hour. Otherwise, they sometimes sold out of their homemade favorites, and if she couldn’t have apple butter on her toaster waffles this week, Lila Mae might lose her mind.
Or maybe that was because she couldn’t stop thinking about Trap Walker.
She jogged up the wide steps of the big red barn which housed the farm store just as the door opened. The twinkling of bells filled the air, along with laughter, from inside. Lila Mae dodged out of the way as an older couple came out.
“Good morning,” the woman said.
“Morning,” Lila Mae chimed back.
The man held the door for her, and Lila Mae ducked inside with a quick, “Thank you.”
She grabbed a basket from near the door and faced the farm store. They sold several varieties of apples as the harvest came on, and then apple cider, apple cider vinegar, apple butter, apple cider syrup, caramel apples, apple chips, and anything else an apple could be turned into.