With that, he exited, leaving Lila Mae with a cold kernel in her chest that expanded and expanded and expanded with every breath she took.
Lila Mae pulledup to the IFA the following morning, only to find the parking lot out front packed full. “Wow, this place is popular,” she muttered to herself as she eased between the rows of parked vehicles.
She came to the end and could only turn left. She did so, but a chain link fence stood there, and she didn’t think she could go behind the IFA, as two signs had been mounted to one of the posts, and she didn’t know what they meant. It took her several points to turn around, and she eased back the way she’d come, catching someone as they finished loading up their bags of fertilizer and got in their truck to leave.
She took that spot and reached for her bag and her phone, noting that she was now a few minutes late. She wasn’t sure what to expect inside an Intermountain Farm Supply Store, but she bustled in through the front doors, expecting a sign that saidConference Room This Way!
She found nothing but checkout stands, the delicious scent of buttery popcorn, and a cement floor that expanded into aisle upon aisle upon aisle.
A sense of overwhelm washed over her, and Lila Mae couldn’t quite get a full breath.
“Hi, um, excuse me,” she said to the woman checking out a customer buying cat toys, a watering can, and a wrench set. What was this place?
“I think there’s a meeting here today.”
The woman frowned at her. “A meeting?”
“Never mind.” Lila Mae flashed her a smile and moved away from the cash register, taking hesitant steps further into the store. She pulled her phone out of her bag and quickly called Trap.
When he’d first told her about this meeting on the third Thursday of every month, he’d said they could go together. She hadn’t texted or spoken to him since he’d left her house last night, and Lila Mae had coached herself that she’d moved across the country to open Feline Friends, and she could certainly make the drive to the IFA by herself.
Trap didn’t pick up, and Lila Mae headed down the main thoroughfare of the store, scanning left and right, hoping to see a hallway or portal or sign, indicating some sort of administrative area of the building.
She dialed him again when she saw a sign for restrooms, and she detoured that way, thinking perhaps there would be a set of stairs that led to the second floor and a conference room.
“Hey,” Trap said, his voice low. “Where are you at? We’ve already started.”
“I don’t know where the conference room is,” she said.
“Did you park around back?” he asked.
“Why would I have parked around back?” Lila Mae shot back at him. “No one told me to park around back.”
“I’m coming out now,” he said with a sigh, and sure enough, a moment later, he stepped into the hallway Lila Mae had just entered. He looked in her direction, and she lowered the phone, tapped to end the call, and crisply put it back in her purse.
“Sorry,” he said as he came toward her. “I thought we’d talked about where the conference room was.”
Lila Mae hated this distance between them, but she nodded. “That does sound a little familiar.”
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’snowhereto park out front.”
