Chapter 9 #2
“I’m sure you will,” Trap said, his adorable smile returning. “Kittens are cute.”
“What they really are,” Lila Mae said. “Is untrained. They don’t have bad habits, and that means you can train them into what you want.”
“That too,” Trap said.
He continued to eat, and Lila Mae simply enjoyed existing in the same space as him. As he finished, she asked, “You’re close with your family, right?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Pretty close. I mean, I work with a couple of my cousins. I’m taking over my mom and dad’s business. Yeah, you could say we’re close.” He smiled at her. “I mean, they drive me crazy, just like anyone’s family would, but yeah, I love them, and I like spending time with them.”
“I’m glad,” Lila Mae said, her voice quiet. “You’re the oldest?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and then sucked in a breath. “I mean—”
She shook her head and smiled. “It’s fine, Trap.”
He swallowed again. “Yeah, I’m the oldest in my family.
I’ve got two younger sisters and a younger brother.
The youngest just graduated from high school; her name is Laurel.
She still lives at home. Jenson is in Amarillo, working on his electrician certification.
He wants to be a journeyman, and he still has a couple years left.
And Daisy is working in finance, I think, at a bank or an accounting firm in Houston. ”
“So you’re the only one here?”
“Laurel is still here,” Trap said. “She’s going to do some online classes and see if college is for her. It’s not for everyone, you know.”
“I did not actually know that until recently,” Lila Mae said. “It was expected to go to college in my family.”
“Yeah? What did you do?” he asked.
“Advertising and marketing,” she said. “I’ve got a master’s degree.”
“Wow.” Trap grinned at her, and he didn’t seem to be making fun of her. “I bet that was a lot of work.”
“Yeah,” she said. “It was, and I didn’t hate it.
I’m hoping I can use some of my knowledge and skills to get some funding for the sanctuary.
And, you know, just general community awareness as well, so people know they don’t have to abandon their cats.
They can come surrender them to us, and we’ll take care of them. ”
Trap’s gaze warmed as he looked at her again. “I’m glad you get to do that, Lila Mae, if it makes you happy.”
“It’s been a lot of work,” she said. “But I’ve never minded working hard.
” She sighed and reached for her glass of sweet tea.
“What it has done, more than anything, has humbled me, as there are so many parts that I didn’t know I needed to do.
I feel pretty dumb pretty much all the time.
” She laughed, but when she looked up at Trap again, she found a gentle, encouraging smile on his face.
“Boy, do I know how that feels,” he said.
Lila Mae watched him and couldn’t find an ounce of insincerity in him. “Maybe I should hire you to do the social media marketing for MSW.”
Lila Mae grinned. “Oh, come on. You’re so good on those videos.”
Trap shook his head and laughed. “I am not. Stop saying that.”
“You really are,” she insisted. “You’re very personable on camera.”
“As opposed to in person?”
Lila Mae smiled. “I mean, you’re a little more serious in person than I anticipated.” She made a tiny distance with her thumb and forefinger. “Just a tad.”
“Only with people I don’t know very well,” he said. “Or that I’m trying to impress, or who are clients.” He held up his third finger as he checked the items off. “And right now, you’re all three.”
“You’re trying to impress me?” Lila Mae teased.
“Always,” Trap said seriously.
“Because I’m a client?”
“Yeah, sure,” Trap whispered. He reached across the tiny table between them and covered her hands with both of his. He dropped his chin, but Lila Mae had left his cowboy hat back in the stable, and he didn’t have it to hide behind. “And because you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
Lila Mae’s insides turned into straight goo with those simple words, and she sighed. “Thank you, Trap.”
He took a deep breath. “So what do you think? Dinner tomorrow?”
“Sure,” Lila Mae said. “I close up the sanctuary around five. That’s when my secretary goes home, and then I deal with all the cats, and that takes about another hour.”
Trap nodded. “So if I came out here to pick you up around seven, that would work?”
“Yes,” she said.
He nodded, got to his feet, and then sank right back down into his seat, as if he had fallen.
“Hey, are you okay?” Lila Mae asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said. “I was just thinking, I don’t really want to drive home.”
“We could watch a movie,” Lila Mae said. “You can see my in-wall TV in action.”
Trap grinned at her and nodded. He got to his feet without a problem this time, and Lila Mae joined him. She put away the bench while he put his bowl in her sink and washed the dishes.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said. “I only do dishes once a day, in the morning.”
“I’m not leaving my dirty dishes for you to do,” he said, a hint of the usual Trap grumpiness in his tone.
Lila Mae let him finish the dishes while she pressed the button that would open the door that hid the TV in the wall.
It revealed the forty-eight inch flat screen TV, much to her delight.
She sank onto the couch with the remote in her hand, asking, “What are we feeling like? Romantic comedy? Action-adventure? Family drama? Thriller?”
“Something easy,” he said. “Without a plot that I have to pay close attention to.”
Lila Mae flipped through the offerings on her streaming services, glad when Trap joined her and sat right next to her, not down on the other end of the couch. She told herself it made the most sense, as those were the two spots right in front of the TV.
Why can’t he like me? She’d been at odds with everyone in her family for the past couple of years, and honestly, Lila Mae had been unhappy with herself and her life prior to moving to Three Rivers.
Since she didn’t like herself, she wasn’t quite sure why anyone else would. It didn’t help that her previous boyfriend had told her she was “too uptight” and “no fun.” And when a woman got told that, she had a hard time believing that anyone could or would like her.
She named a few movies before Trap said, “Honestly, Lila Mae, I don’t care. Just pick something.”
So she picked a musical where she liked the music, with an easy plot that he wouldn’t have to follow. He didn’t protest as the movie started, and, in fact, it didn’t take him long before he yawned and asked, “Can I lay down right here?”
He did so without waiting for her to answer, somehow folding his tall body onto two-thirds of the couch, with his head in her lap and his legs up over the side.
Lila Mae said nothing, and instead, stroked her fingers slowly through his hair, combing it back off of his face as the movie played on.
Trap indeed fell asleep only a few moments later, and Lila Mae sat there in the moment, basking in the comfort and happiness she’d assumed she’d never feel again.
Not in her life, and certainly not with a man.
When the movie ended, she carefully slid her thigh out from underneath Trap’s head. “Trap, honey,” she murmured, employing her Southern manners. “It’s getting late. What do you want to do?”
He groaned and opened his eyes. “I don’t think I can drive home.”
“You’re going to have to get up, then. I’ll make up the bed for you.”
He blinked at her. “I forgot this couch has a bed in it.”
She wondered where he’d thought he’d sleep, but she simply said, “If you give me ten minutes, I’ll have it ready for you. You can take a shower, or just sit at the table, or outside on the deck.”
He sat up with a groan and ran his hands through his hair. “I think I have a phone charger in my truck. Let me go get it and talk to my cousin, and I’ll be back.”
“Okay.” Lila Mae wasn’t sure why he needed to stay here if he could make it to his truck and have business conversations with his family members.
But she let him leave, and then she removed the cushions from the couch and pulled out the bed.
There was only a two-foot aisle around the end of it now, and she pressed the button to blow it up.
She kept the only sheet set for this bed in one of the stair cupboards, and she opened that and retrieved them, telling herself she wasn’t going to be sleeping in the same room with Trap.
She had a loft, and it had a door and pull-down screens, and while it wasn’t a permanent wall, she could definitely separate her private space from the rest of the tiny house.
It was positioned over the bathroom and small pantry area off the kitchen, and she could stand in front of the screens and check on Trap any time during the night.
She wasn’t sure why she would need to do that, or how she would tell if he’d gotten too hot just by looking at him.
She made up the bed and went up into the loft to get the two pillows she’d bought for this guest bed.
She wasn’t sure who she’d thought would come stay with her, but she’d wanted to be prepared either way.
Fine, perhaps she’d hoped her mother would eventually come see Feline Friends.
She’d just put the first pillow on the bed when the front door opened, and she jumped out of the way so she wouldn’t get hit.
“Sorry,” Trap said. “It’s still so hot out there.” He lifted his phone cord. “But I found a charger, so I should be good.”
“Do you need anything?” she asked, moving over to show him the outlet. “Some painkillers or anything?”
He shook his head. “I don’t have a headache anymore, and I’ve got one more Gatorade to go.”
Lila Mae nodded. “I have extra toothbrushes in the vanity in the bathroom.”
“You do?”
Lila Mae grinned at him, at the level of incredulity in his voice. “I’m Southern, honey. My momma taught us to always have extras in case we have unexpected guests. I never thought it would happen to me in my tiny house in Texas, but here we are.” She grinned at him, glad when Trap smiled back.
The moment turned awkward again between them, and Lila Mae told herself that just because she’d been conversing with Trap for several months, and working with him for the past several weeks, didn’t mean she knew him very well.
“Okay, well—” She cut off as he lunged at her and drew her into his warm arms and against that broad chest.
“Thank you again,” he said. “I really mean it, Lila Mae.”
“Of course,” she said. “I’ll come back down when you’re done in the bathroom.”
He nodded, and Lila Mae took the stairs that went up and over her kitchen counter and into the loft. She pulled the screens down and closed the door behind her, and the room suddenly felt terribly small now that she couldn’t look out over the rest of her house.
She couldn’t hear Trap in the bathroom below, but she waited a good thirty minutes before she went downstairs, now in her pajamas, and found him asleep in the couch bed. She did her nightly routine and returned upstairs, where she knelt at the side of her bed.
“Dear Lord,” she whispered. “Please bless that Trap will be all right and have no lasting issues from his heat stroke this afternoon. Bless us to….” She trailed off because she didn’t know quite what to ask for when it came to her and Trap.
She needed time to get to know him, of course, and she supposed she could pray that God would grant her and Trap the time they needed to find out if a real relationship was feasible for the two of them. So she did that, and trusted God wouldn’t lead her astray.
Lila Mae woke the following morning to the sound of Trap’s phone ringing and ringing and ringing. It finally cut off, and relief sagged through Lila Mae’s bones. But only ten seconds later, it started ringing again and again and yet again.
She had no idea how Trap slept through that, and she fumbled for her own phone, which she used as a clock, on her nightstand.
She lifted her phone and saw it was only six-forty-five.
Trap should have been up hours ago, and while they hadn’t discussed his departure this morning, she felt certain he wouldn’t be lounging around her tiny house all day.
She usually got up around seven, so it wasn’t too far away, but she was used to the more docile sounds of her own alarm. Trap’s phone stopped ringing again and then started up for a third—blasted—time.
Lila Mae got out of bed and had just reached to open the door when she heard Trap mutter under his breath. The ringing stopped, and he said in a louder voice, “Hey, Daddy. Yeah, I know I’m running a little bit late. I’ll be right there.”
His father.
She opened her door in the loft at the same time he opened the front door. She expected him to at least turn toward her, wave, say he would call her later, confirm their date at seven o’clock that night. Something.
Trap did none of those things. He walked out of her tiny house and slammed the door behind him as he left.
Lila Mae cringed and then took in the messy, unmade bed he’d left behind, and hoped that whatever his father had needed was a true emergency, or else Trap might be eating dinner alone, in the hospital, once Lila Mae got done with him.