Chapter 33
Lila Mae woke to the sound of rain hitting her roof in the tiny house. A slow smile spread across her face, because she’d never heard this sound before, and the increasing pitter-patter-drumming sound reminded her of how wonderful the world was.
She’d wanted a tiny house because the mansion had always felt too big, too cold, beyond impersonal, and totally lifeless.
She wanted to know every single item in the house, and what every single cupboard held.
Since she’d planned to live alone on a wild piece of property in an unknown state, Lila Mae had wanted to be able to see every corner of her house with a mere sweep of her eyes.
At the estate in Maryland, her mother could have a massive dinner party, and Lila Mae wouldn’t hear it nor know about it.
She’d gotten better at listening to the wind here in Texas and knowing the sounds her house made, but the rain changed everything—in a good way. She snuggled deeper into her down comforter and simply let the goodness of God wash over her.
She couldn’t wait to tell Trap how the rain sounded against the metal roofing he’d suggested and she’d approved.
There had been several options, including just regular asphalt shingles, but Trap had said there could definitely be hail that would cause damage, and they’d just had a windstorm this spring that had left a lot of debris and homes in its wake.
Her roof sloped, of course, to shed the rain and any snow, and he’d told her that the metal would withstand both intense heat and cold, with the metal providing a better high energy efficiency. So Lila Mae had gone with that, because she’d trusted Trap from the first moment she’d spoken to him.
He just had a trustworthy voice, and she was once again reminded of how good he was.
Her euphoria at the sound of the rain on the roof faded as she realized that she and Trap still had quite a bit of distance between them. She couldn’t just text him anything anytime anymore—at least not personal things like this, and a sadness descended upon her in a way she had not felt before.
Lying there, Lila Mae missed him, and she missed him powerfully. He’d become her closest friend in the Panhandle, and tears pricked her eyes at the loss of such a good friend, a good man.
Yes, they still had their professional relationship, but everything else seemed to have been obliterated as she struggled to figure out how to communicate with her staff, and what she really wanted Feline Friends to be.
The morning continued to lighten, even through the rain, but Lila Mae determined to stay in bed until her alarm went off.
She dozed a little bit, and when it eventually did, she silenced it and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She could stand up here, because Trap had suggested they build the house tall enough for her to do so.
She could change her clothes up here, because Trap had designed the house to be wide enough so that she could do so. She got dressed and went down the steps, which Trap had suggested they put over her kitchen countertops, and he’d built her microwave into them after her approval.
He’d designed storage compartments in the steps, and stained them the most beautiful, dark oak color. She’d trusted him in everything he suggested, because she had no reason not to.
Working with him from across the country, before she had moved here, before she had taken the tours at Shiloh Ridge and Three Rivers, she’d had a clear vision for what she wanted on this parcel of land in this part of Texas.
Instead of stepping through the kitchen and into the bathroom, Lila Mae picked up the file folder she’d set on the ottoman. She sank onto it and flipped open the folder to look at her list of pros and cons.
She wanted medical supplies in every building, yes, but when she’d needed antiseptic wipes and ointment and Band-Aids, she hadn’t had them. So she had ideas she hadn’t put into motion yet, because she didn’t have time.
She flipped the page and looked at the list of things she needed to implement. She’d taken her notes from her visits to Shiloh Ridge and Three Rivers, and she’d left behind the things that were good, yes, but that she didn’t need here at Feline Friends.
Lila Mae took a moment to look up and out the window centered perfectly above the couch. It sat that way, because Trap had made it so.
Her heart clenched, almost desperate to see him and talk to him. “And not about Feline Friends,” she muttered to herself. She looked back at the folder and settled the first page back over the second.
She’d wanted octagonal buildings, so there could be a lot of windows at different heights, and she’d designed entrances and exits for the cats from each wall, again at different heights.
It added some geometry and a quirkiness to the facility that Lila Mae had originally thought exemplified her personality.
And it still does, she thought, which was why she didn’t need to convert her future cat houses into bigger, longer, or squatter buildings, which would be easier to cool and heat.
Yes, that made sense for the animals at Courage Reins and Three Rivers, but Lila Mae’s cat sanctuary wasn’t a cattle ranch.
She’d gone by Cat House Four, where the foundation had been poured on Tuesday, after a construction delay from the previous week. Apparently, a lot of people needed cement right now, and the company Trap contracted with had run out on Friday before they’d come to her ranch.
The job had been finished yesterday, and it was Sawyer Walker who had texted her to let her know about the delay and the details. He said Trap would likely make up the four-day delay in construction.
Lila Mae had no doubt that he could, because Trap seemed to be able to work miracles with those big cowboy hands of his. He had to have been born with a hammer in his hands and sawdust in his veins, and the thought made her smile.
She swapped her folder for her phone, her mind stuck on a Trap-train.
She moved to the MSW website, which she kept called up at all times, and started to scroll through their portfolio.
She’d given Trap permission to put her tiny house on it, and she smiled when she saw the aerial pictures of it, because it looked so—dang—good.
A wash of gratitude overcame her, and she reached out and swiped to get to the next picture. “I can’t believe I get to live in this beautiful home,” she said out loud. “Thank you, Lord.”
She looked through the rest of the portfolio, which included barndominiums, stables, custom kitchen cabinets, and built-in bookcases in a craft room. No job was too big or too small for Trap Walker, and he made every joint fit exactly right
As Lila Mae sat there, she realized what a perfect fit he’d been for her too, as dark and grumpy as he was. They’d been raised wildly different, and yet somehow got along great.
As she sat there thinking about him, Lila Mae realized she’d lost a week with him when all she wanted was more time.
More time to get to know him, more time to have serious conversations about marriage, family, religion, and money.
More time to lay in his arms in the hammock.
More time to listen to him laugh. More time to figure out what his hopes and dreams were and what made him truly tick.
“So why are you sitting here wasting time?” she asked herself.
Irritated by her indecisiveness and her dismissal of him, both of which Lila Mae could admit to, she stuffed her feet into her regular work boots and reached into the fridge for a protein shake.
She reminded herself that she had never had a problem with being indecisive before doing the ranch tours.
She didn’t need another tour or another class or another piece of advice.
She’d been designing Feline Friends on paper and in her head for the past five years, and she needed to go back to what had never let her down: her gut and God.
She left her tiny house and fired up her UTV. A few minutes later, she arrived at the Intake Center where Scarlett and Hailey and another full-time secretary Lila Mae had just hired—a woman named Taralynn—had all beaten her into the building.
They looked over to her as she strode toward them, and Hailey was the first to smile. “We’re just going over our assignments for the rest of the week,” Hailey said, her voice just a little too perky for this early in the morning.
Lila Mae came to a stop on the customer side of the counter, while the other three women clustered behind it.
“You’ve got two appointments today.” Scarlett handed her the pink paper that kept Lila Mae’s schedule on a day-to-day basis.
She took it from her but didn’t even look at it. “Thank you, Scarlett.” She smiled at the woman, then looked at Hailey, and then Taralynn. “I just want to say two things.”
Taralynn settled onto her back leg, and Scarlett sat down. Hailey folded her arms and almost lifted her eyebrows. Maybe her eyes had just gotten wider. Either way, it felt like a challenge to Lila Mae, and her heartbeat quaked through her veins.
“First, I want to say thank you so much for what each of you does here at Feline Friends. I couldn’t even attempt to pull off this crazy endeavor without you.”
Hailey softened, and that gave Lila Mae the courage to continue. “Second, I’m really sorry for how I’ve been in the last few weeks. I let all these things from Shiloh Ridge and Three Rivers get into my head and infect what I had going on here. And I’m not the only one who’s affected by that.”
Scarlett’s jaw jumped, and she nodded.
“So I’m really sorry,” Lila Mae said, feeling bolder and braver when she apologized and meant it. “And I’m trying to figure out how to get back to where I was before I visited those ranches.”
“I mean, you learned some good things,” Hailey said.
“I did,” Lila Mae said, as she had truly felt like God had directed her to learn as much as she could. “But I got on a train that wasn’t mine, instead of trying to take their ideas and adapt them to who I am and what we’re trying to do here.”
Scarlett smiled, stood, and strode around the counter.
She engulfed Lila Mae in a hug and said, “You’ve always had such great ideas of your own, Lila Mae.
” She stepped back and nodded. “I knew I’d love working for you the moment I met you, and the only time it hasn’t been fun is when you stopped being yourself. ”
Lila Mae’s emotions ran through her, and she managed to contain them while nodding. “Thank you, Scarlett.”
She turned to Hailey. “I hate it when you’re gone for your vet tech week.”
“I know,” Hailey said. “I’m really sorry.”
“I know that’s where you need to be,” Lila Mae said. “But you’re so good here, and it leaves such a big void.”
Hailey glanced over to Taralynn. “We have Taralynn now, and she’s going to be up to speed before I have to go in October.”
Taralynn nodded, her eyes wide, as she’d only been at Feline Friends for about a week and a half now.
Lila Mae looked down at the pink paper in her hand, now slightly crumpled on the edge. It consisted of two columns: the one on the left listing the time of day, ranging from eight a.m. to five p.m., and the second column wide and open for anything that Lila Mae needed to do that day.
She had a meeting with Thad at ten-thirty out in the Veterinary Center, and a reminder to follow up with the Wildlife Division on her permit to shore up the fencing on the southern and western borders of her property.
Scarlett had put that in the afternoon, because she knew Lila Mae liked to work inside during the hottest part of the day, though that task could really be done anytime.
“All right.” She took a deep breath, feeling better and…cleaner than she had in the last couple of weeks. “Who’s starting in the cat room this morning?”
“I am,” Taralynn said.
Lila Mae grinned at her. “Can I join you? Then I’ll have my meeting with Thad, and I’ll do my office work after that.”
Taralynn smiled back at her, and though she was olive skinned and dark haired, she seemed to shine with a light that Lila Mae could only describe as goodness. Trap had it too, and another powerful wave of longing rolled over her.
“Absolutely,” Taralynn said. “I was going to get them out and clean up in there, and then do the staff room.”
“Perfect,” Lila Mae said, and she followed Taralynn out of the lobby and down the hall to the cat room.
That was where Lila Mae had gotten scratched last week, but a little injury didn’t keep her away, and a small argument and misunderstanding between her and Trap shouldn’t keep her away from him either.
She’d just shown gratitude and apologized to her staff, and surely she could do the same thing for Trap. As Taralynn typed in the code to unlock the door, Lila Mae pulled out her phone and started tapping out a message of her own.