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 moretime. 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 evenattemptto 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 whoIam and whatwe’retrying 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.”
