Chapter 12
Trap had never been more grateful for his father’s advice. He hadn’t come out to Lila Mae’s ranch to kiss her, but he sure wasn’t sorry about it either.
Trap had kissed other women, but never this soon into a relationship, and he’d never felt this level of connection with a non-family member before.
Just like most things in his life, once he got started on something, he couldn’t stop until he saw it through to the end, and kissing Lila Mae felt exactly like that.
He’d started, and he never wanted to stop.
Thankfully, she kissed him back with the same needful energy he felt pouring from himself.
It ran its course, and Trap’s wits returned. He pulled away, his lips feeling swollen and bruised, and finally dropping his hand from where he’d kept Lila Mae right where he wanted her.
He opened his eyes, and she seemed to do the same along with him. As he looked at her, he tried to find something to say. He’d apologized and didn’t need to keep doing that. Besides, he wasn’t sorry about that kiss.
He sat back in his chair and reached up and touched his mouth. “I hope I’m not keeping you from anything,” he finally said.
“You’re ten times busier than me.” Lila Mae looked down at the container of leftovers Trap had brought her. He’d never felt so out of his element before, but by the time his mother had let him leave the house, he’d practically promised her every ounce of his freedom—and his firstborn.
In fact, he expected her to call any time now, especially because she’d made him turn his location back on and share it with her the way he’d done as a sixteen-year-old, driving off the property for the first time.
He supposed he shouldn’t be upset about having parents who cared about him, and worried over him, and prayed for him, as he knew not everyone did. In fact, the woman sitting in front of him didn’t, and he wanted to be the first person she called for everything.
“I have to go to town today,” Lila Mae said. “And turn in my final permit paperwork for the nonprofit.”
“That’s great,” Trap said. “I could probably drop that off for you.”
“No, I’m going to go.” She scooped up a bite of roast and a chunk of potato. “I need to stop by Mack’s Motorsports and see about getting a golf cart.”
He raised his eyebrows. “A golf cart, huh?”
“Yeah, it’s a half-mile from my tiny house to the Intake Center, and Feline Friends is only going to get bigger. I don’t mind walking, but if it’s snowing, or with all the heat, it sure would be nice to have something easier to drive around.”
“That’s a great idea,” he said. “I know they’ve got golf carts, and you might look at something like a utility vehicle that will have a little bed in the back, but not be a full ATV. Tate would know the name of them. He’s got them at the produce farm.”
“Remind me who Tate is again?”
“A brother-in-law. Well, cousin-in-law,” he said. “He’s married to my cousin Clara Jean.”
“That’s right,” she said. “And they run the grocery store, right?”
“Right,” he said. “And the produce farm that supplies it. They have some ATVs, and then they have some that are lighter utility vehicles. They kind of drive like a golf cart, and have seats like a golf cart, but then they’ve got a truck bed that you can put things in.”
“I’m definitely going to look for one of those,” Lila Mae said.
Trap nodded. “I’d offer to go with you, but they’re probably outside, and I promised my momma I’d work indoors today, close to my phone, with air conditioning.”
Lila Mae watched him with those soulful eyes. “She’s probably not wrong. My brother called and asked about you.”
“Yeah? What did you tell him?”
“I said you recovered quite well and that we didn’t think there were any other problems.”
“From your mouth to God’s ears,” Trap said with a smile. “I told my daddy I’d go to the hospital if he wanted me to, but I really don’t think I need to.”
Lila Mae finally took her first bite of lunch, which gave Trap permission to do the same. He dug in, though he’d like to heat his up again, as it had been a solid half-hour since he’d microwaved the meals at home, chucked them in a plastic bag, and driven the twenty-three minutes to Lila Mae’s.
“Wow, this is really good,” Lila Mae said.
“My mom is a good cook,” Trap said.
“Did she teach you how to do things?”
“A few,” he said. “My daddy did too.”
Lila Mae simply looked at him, and that encouraged him to keep talking.
“They’ve run MSW since before I was born, so they were always around, working from home.
My mom has a she-shed in the backyard and a restoration barn just down the lane, and Daddy has a construction office in our house.
They were both busy doing different things at different times, and they shared the household chores. ”
Lila Mae nodded. “It’s nice to know how to do things on your own. I learned most of that in college, and even after that.”
Trap nodded. “Where did you go to college?”
“I went down to Atlanta for that,” she said. “Georgia State.”
“It must have taken you a long time to get a master’s degree.”
“A little over five years,” she said. “I went a couple of summers to make up for that extra year.”
Trap looked at her, so many more questions burning through him. “In all those years in college and working in Baltimore, did you ever go out with anyone?”
“Sure,” Lila Mae said easily.
“Anything serious?” Trap asked.
She looked at him, something sparking in her eyes. “Are you asking if I’ve been married before?”
“Just trying to find out how….” Trap honestly wasn’t sure what he was trying to find out. He knew he was self-conscious about his own relationships. “Look, I’ve never really had a serious relationship with anyone.”
“You don’t say.” Lila Mae grinned at him. “Seems like Chelle would like to be serious.”
He rolled his eyes. “Well, it takes two people who like each other to be in a relationship.”
“Why don’t you like Chelle?”
Trap really didn’t like how the conversation had turned back to him when he’d been trying to get to know more about her. “She just—look, I’m allowed to have my own opinions on people, right?”
“Of course,” Lila Mae said.
“So with Chelle, it just really felt like she wasn’t interested in me, but she needed someone to complain to about her life. What she really needed was a therapist, and I wasn’t interested in being that person.”
“Explain a little bit more,” Lila Mae said.
“Well, what I mean,” Trap said. “Is we went out once, and she cried for the last half of the date, after telling me something about one of her roommates. It wasn’t an enjoyable date.
I was trying to be nice and sympathetic, but I don’t really want to go out with someone who just cries the whole time, so I didn’t ask her out again.
“But she’d call, and I’d answer, and we’d talk, and it only took me a couple of days to realize she didn’t want to talk to me, and get to know me, and be my friend.
She just wanted to complain to me and have me tell her that she was right and that how she felt was justified.
That she didn’t need to feel bad for going into her roommate’s room and taking back her clothes. ”
He shook his head and shrugged one shoulder.
“It didn’t feel like a relationship where each of us was trying to get to know the other and that we had a mutual friendship that we were building on.
I really felt like a sounding board and a therapist. And as my daddy pointed out to me this morning, I don’t have a medical degree in anything. ”
He grinned at Lila Mae. “In fact, I’ve never been to college.”
“No?” Lila Mae asked. “You didn’t want to go?”
Trap shook his head and took another bite of his pot roast. “I saw no point in going,” he said. “I love renovation and remodeling, and I love building things, and I’ve been leafing through books of floor plans since I was six years old, and there’s nothing I like more than a new build.
“And my parents had this business, and they didn’t have kids until my momma was like, forty, so when they wanted to retire, I was ready.”
Trap felt like he’d been ready for a lot longer than just lately, but his father had finally retired at the beginning of the year. He also realized he’d been rambling, throwing all kinds of thoughts into a single sentence.
And apparently, he wasn’t done yet.
“Anyway, my daddy’s still helping me along,” he said.
“But he’s fully retired and doesn’t do anything inside the business anymore, except act as my advisor.
Jason and Sawyer and I work together. But when my daddy transferred ownership of the company, it all came to me.
So we’ve put them on salary as officers, and we have a single secretary, Tammy, who keeps us in line and where we need to be. ”
He picked up his phone from where he’d laid it on her desk.
“In fact, I have to do a video consultation at two o’clock, and I promised my momma I’d do it from home.
I guarantee you she’s going to meet me there, probably with cookies or something, just to make it seem like she’s not irritating me.
” He smiled at Lila Mae, happy when she grinned back.
“That’s fine,” she said. “I want to get to town and get my stuff done and then come back here and get the kittens listed for adoption. I didn’t have time this morning because of the interview—which I am so bad at doing, by the way.”
“Oh, I’m sure that’s not true,” Trap said. “I felt like you were interviewing me when you called and asked about hiring me.”
She blinked at him. “Really?”
He chuckled. “Lila Mae, you have a very…commanding demeanor.”
“I do?” She seemed totally shocked by this.
“Don’t you remember when you texted me from the airport and said Meet me at the property in one hour?”
She ducked her head, but Trap still caught the way her cheeks reddened as her gorgeous hair fell over her shoulder. She was strong and soft at the same time, and Trap liked both sides of her.