They climbed the steps to Uncle Jeremiah’s back deck, and Trap heard the laughter and chatter from inside the house as the back sliding door already stood open.
He thought about the diamond ring across the street at his parents’ house. He could probably sneak out among all the hubbub here and get it, and maybe he could ask Lila Mae to marry him that night.
He quickly dismissed the idea, because he had a plan for his proposal, and it wasn’t going to happen on the same day he told her he’d loved her for the first time, and then they stuffed themselves with turkey and mashed potatoes.
“I’ll check,” Jason said, and then he stepped out onto the deck. “Oh, he’s right here.” His face transformed into a smile. “My daddy was just asking about you guys.”
His eyes dropped down to where Cleo walked on a leash and then quickly rebounded to Trap’s, widening as they did.
“Sorry, we’re late,” Lila Mae said.
Trap simply laughed at the look on his cousin’s face, and he let Lila Mae go into the house ahead of him as he stopped in front of Jason and drew him into a hug.
“She has acaton aleash,” Jason said.
“I told you,” Trap pulled away and grinned at him. “And your sisters are gonna love it.”
Sure enough, squealing came from inside the house, and Trap was pretty sure his own sisters’ voices were part of that. Trap chuckled at the still stunned look on Jason’s face, and then he stepped into his uncle’s house as well.
Trap had grown up in this large, loud family, and while Lila Mae had met a lot of them, they’d never all been in one room like this before. He looked over to her, standing among Laurel, Daisy, Camila, Clara Jean, and his aunt Whitney.
She smiled widely and then gestured with one arm, as if to say,Look at all these people.
“And this is less than half of us,” he said right out loud.
The twins were celebrating Thanksgiving with Uncle Rhett, and Uncle Wyatt and Aunt Marcy had gone up to Wyoming to celebrate with their kids.
“Hey, my boy,” Daddy said, and Trap stepped into the arms of his father. “Happy Thanksgiving.”
“Happy Thanksgiving, Daddy,” Trap said back, a new idea blossoming in his mind. “Are Momma and the girls going shopping tomorrow?”
“I don’t know,” Daddy said. “Maybe not at five a.m., but yeah, they’ll probably go over to the mall.”
“Maybe we could go to breakfast or lunch,” he said.
Daddy swung his full attention to him, pure curiosity burning in his eyes. “Why? What’s on your mind?”
Trap grinned over to Lila Mae, where Momma had just joined the circle and held her in a hug.
“I need ideas for how to propose to Lila Mae,” he said.
Daddy pulled in a breath, wearing one of the grimmest expressions Trap had ever seen on his face. “Breakfast, then. Seven a.m.”
“Oh, come on, Daddy, we’re not working tomorrow. Eight.”
“All right, eight,” Daddy said.
Trap grinned at him and then stepped around him. “Great, don’t tell Momma.”
“Don’t tell Momma?”
Trap didn’t reply as he moved over to where Jason stood with Gun, Sawyer, and Tate, ready to save the proposal chatter for another day and focus on everything he had to be grateful for instead.
40
“Ijust don’t know if he’severgoing to ask me,” Lila Mae said as she put a pair of salt and pepper shakers on the table at Elaine’s house. She was hosting the December Walker Lady Luncheon, and she’d invited Lila Mae for the first time.
She’d been told that they usually catered, but Elaine had clearly made the cream of cauliflower soup, which sat in a steaming pot in the middle of the table. She’d pulled bread out of the oven mere moments after Lila Mae had arrived, so she hadn’t even run to the bakery for that.
