Chapter 31 #2
Trap nodded too and reached up to run his hand up the back of his head. “I’m almost sure I told you that we’d park around back and come in back there.” He gestured to the long hallway behind him, where a door obviously led outside.
“Maybe we did,” she admitted, because Lila Mae had always been able to admit when she was wrong. “I just didn’t remember.”
“Well, come on,” he said. “They’ll want you to do an introduction.”
Her heart went into palpitations. “They will?”
“Of course,” he said. “You’ve met some of my friends before, right?” He led the way back into the conference room, and Lila Mae hated that he hadn’t touched her, called her sweetheart, or kissed her hello. Was this what they were now?
Lila Mae felt like crying and then throwing up, but she followed Trap into the conference room, where she came to another stop.
A sea of faces looked at her, and she only recognized a couple of them.
“We’re getting you a chair, Lila Mae,” Colt said. He’d already stood and was getting the cowboys on the side of the table closest to the door to move down a little bit to make room for it. He plunked it into place with a grin. “Now you can sit right there next to Trap.”
Trap put his hand on the back of the chair, but he still didn’t have a smile in sight.
“Thank you,” Lila Mae drawled, employing her most polite Southern voice. She sat down and put her bright green alligator bag on the table in front of her. “I’m sorry I was late. There’s nowhere to park out front.”
Finn Ackerman sat at the head of the table, and he laughed. “No, there’s loads of parking in the back though.”
Lila Mae didn’t dare look at Trap. “Yes, well, I have that memo for next time.”
She found Libby sitting down by Finn, and she waved to her. “I’m sure I met most of you at Finn’s birthday party,” she said. “But it’s been two months.”
She reached up and touched her collarbone, breathing in to try to draw courage into herself.
“I’m Lila Mae Dixon, and I’ve opened a new cat sanctuary here in town called Feline Friends.
Trap thought it would be a good idea for me to come to these meetings, as you all deal with a lot of business aspect things, as well as natural disaster prep, weather, climate, building permits, and all that kind of stuff. ”
“Yeah, sure,” Finn said.
Lila Mae swallowed and told herself to stop talking. Another of her daddy’s life lessons was to talk just enough. Then stop, and let other people fill the silence. So while it made her uncomfortable, Lila Mae did that, continuing to look around the table.
Her eyes landed on Jake Ahlstrom, and all she could think about was what Hailey had told her about him, and how grumpy he’d been that they’d been there touring Three Rivers. He’d calmed right down when she’d told him Libby had approved it, and she’d gotten his number, but she still hadn’t used it.
It’s only been a week, she told herself, and she certainly didn’t need to pester the man with every question she had. In fact, that was exactly why she was in trouble with Trap and Scarlett.
She did remember meeting most of the people there, and she nodded at Henry and Angel, Ty, Jake, and Colt, Alex Baxter, Dawson and Brandon Rhinehart, and as she came around the table, a whole slew of Glovers, including Smiles and Rock, and then Gunnison, Link, and Mitch.
He sat next to her on one side, with Trap on the other, who had sat by his Walker clan—Conrad and JJ—and that completed the circle back to Finn.
“We were just eating,” Finn said, and Lila Mae clued into the fact that they all had plates in front of them. She blinked, taking in the golden garlic bread and piles of pasta.
“I’ll get you something, sweetheart,” Trap murmured, and he got up and moved down to the corner of the room, where she saw two coffee urns and several aluminum foil trays laid out on a side table. Suddenly, the scent of spicy marinara and creamy Alfredo hit her, and her mouth watered.
Trap returned with a plate of fettuccine Alfredo, with two meatballs in marinara on the side, and a cup of coffee.
“Thank you,” she whispered as he put the paper plate in front of her, and because other conversations had picked up while Trap had gotten her food, she didn’t think anyone but him heard her.
He sat back down, grabbed onto the arm of her chair, and pulled her a half-foot closer to him.
He looked at her, and so much was said between them.
He put his arm around her, and she leaned into his strong chest. He pressed a kiss to her temple, and honestly, that simple gesture made Lila Mae tear up.
She knew in that moment that whatever she’d broken between her and Trap needed to be fixed, because she really, really liked him, and she couldn’t stand the thought of living any more days with this much tension and distance between them.
Heck, she wanted to leave this meeting she’d been so excited to attend and talk through everything with him right now.
But she’d just put her first bite of creamy, cheesy noodles in her mouth when Finn said, “All right, everyone, we’re going to go ahead and get started. Don’t worry if you’re still finishing up, but I texted out our topic and asked you to come with ideas and solutions.”
He got up and turned his back on them. He picked up a blue whiteboard marker and positioned himself at the board. The marker squeaked as he wrote, and then he said out loud, “Quick and easy organizational and cleanup ideas for barns, sheds, and other tight spaces.”
He looked at them, smiling as he surveyed them sitting at the long oval table. “Let’s hear it.”