No, if she wanted to see Trap outside of a professional setting, Lila Mae would need to go to dinner with him.
“And dinner means a date,” she said to herself. She could admit she’d like to go on a date with Trap Walker, but only within the confines of her small house, and only silently inside her own head.
Lila Mae finished her sweet tea and set the glass in the sink before grabbing a granola bar and preparing to step out into the heat of the afternoon. Her tiny house sat nestled back among some trees along the edge of a meadow. She’d chosen the spot, so she would have distance between home and work, something she’d learned was very important for her.
She could’ve lived in the house on the second floor, but Lila Mae knew herself, and knew she would work sixteen hours a day and be caged inside that house forever if she didn’t have somewhere separate to carve out an existence beyond Feline Friends.
She’d burned herself out in such a way before, and she was determined not to do it again.
Still, a half-mile was a long way in one-hundred-degree heat, and Lila Mae hesitated on the doorstep of her house, unable to open the door and let the dragon’s breath wash across her face.
As she stood there, she contemplated buying a little golf cart or an ATV to make the trip, as she’d read dozens of articles about the Texas Panhandle and what the weather was like. It certainly didn’t get the snow of New York City or the Rocky Mountains, but it got cold, and it could certainly storm. Of course, summers weren’t usually this hot, either, and combined with the humidity, Lila Mae felt like she was suffocating even inside the air conditioning.
Three Rivers had a big motor sports dealership, and to prolong having to step back out into the heat, Lila Mae pulled out her phone to check her schedule and to see when they would be open tomorrow.
She had a video interview with a veterinarian at ten-thirty, and the dealership opened at ten, so she should be able to go after the interview. “And then you can get lunch in town too,” she told herself.
With that decided and nothing else keeping her in the house, Lila Mae bit the bullet and stepped outside. Sure enough, the air assaulted her, practically searing in her lungs. A breeze blew across the meadow, and that gave Lila Mae the courage to take the steps she needed out of the shade and along the journey toward the farmhouse.
She arrived at the Intake Center sweating, but at least she’d gotten there before her interviewees. She settled at the dining room table until the receptionist she’d hired, a woman named Scarlett, came to get her. “Hailey is here, ma’am.”
Lila Mae was only twenty-eight years old and certainly didn’t need to be called ma’am. But she looked up from her phone and said, “Thank you, Scarlett,” before following the woman out into the reception area.
A blonde woman stood examining the art Lila Mae had hung on the wall, and she turned when Scarlett said, “Here she is, Hailey.” She had bright blue, unassuming eyes and a hopeful look on her face as she smiled.
“Hi, Lila Mae,” she said. “I’m Hailey Winters.”
“Yes, it’s great to meet you,” Lila Mae said. “Let’s go upstairs to my office.” She led the way, glad she’d upgraded the air conditioning in this old house.
“This is a really nice place,” Hailey said from behind her. “But it’s the original house, right?”
“Yes,” Lila Mae said, glad this woman seemed to be able to start casual conversation. “We’re just renovating as many of the buildings here as we can. This is the original farmhouse, but we’ve upgraded the air conditioner and redone the interior. The electrical and plumbing were all good, thankfully.”
She entered her office and held the door for Hailey. Once she’d passed, Lila Mae closed the door and took a seat in the recliner opposite of her. “So, you’re going to go to school to be a vet tech?”
“Yes,” Hailey said. “I got into a program in Amarillo that I can do from here, but I’ll have to go to Amarillo for a week every month. I hope that won’t be a problem with the job.”
“As long as there’s notice,” Lila Mae said. “It should be fine.” She didn’t want to admit that she needed someone with better organizational and structural skills than she had. She didn’t want to be a pushover boss either. But she also wanted Feline Friends to be a flexible place for people to work.
“I need veterinarians and vet techs,” she said. “But you don’t have that certification, so I see you’ve applied for our General Manager position.”
“That’s right,” Hailey said. “I used to manage a restaurant, so I’m used to a lot of different pieces and personalities. I can make schedules, and I’m really good at organizational details—calendaring, making sure shifts are covered, and I’ve even run payroll and handled tax paperwork.”
Lila Mae blinked, sure God had sent this woman to her as a pure blessing. In fact, tears filled her eyes, and she ducked her head and quickly reached up to wipe one of them casually. “This job would be a lot like that,” she said. “But with cats instead of steaks.” She smiled, hopeful that her eyes weren’t too shiny.
Hailey laughed, but it didn’t stick for long. She sobered, shifted, and cleared her throat. “You should know that I was fired from my last job,” she said. “For suspected theft. I was even arrested.”
Lila Mae’s heart fell into her stomach.
“But none of the allegations were true, and it was proven that it was the owner’s nephew who stole the money. I still lost my job, and there’s still all of…that stuff that happened, and I just feel better about disclosing it up front, instead of having you find out later and think it was something major when I was innocent and nothing was my fault.”
Lila Mae nodded. “Thank you for telling me.” She took a breath, ready to make some confessions of her own. “The General Manager position here might sound a lot like a secretary. I’ve got Scarlett, who’s doing the intakes right now, and she’ll answer phones, and she can handle questions about adoptions and surrenders. She and I do all of that right now, but I need someone who can do all of that, but also who can help me build schedules, who can help with payroll, who can schedule deliveries, who can oversee the construction of the individual cat houses, who can take notes for veterinarians, and who will generally manage this place the way I do. Basically, you would be my number two.”
“I can do it,” Hailey said. “I was the daytime manager at Rockefellers for five years, and frankly, it’ll be nice to not have to deal with the scent of onions and garlic.” She grinned, and Lila Mae returned it.
“There might be some worse smells out here.”
“I welcome it,” Hailey said. “Especially since I’m going to be doing all the vet tech classes as well. I think it would be great experience, and I have to do an internship, and I might be able to do that here.” She looked so hopeful, and Lila Mae wanted to make all of her dreams come true.
