“They do,” Lila Mae said. “When you’re stuffy and Southern and think you’re better than everyone else.”
Trap watched her with those serious eyes again. “You don’t like your family much, do you?”
“I love my family,” Lila Mae said. “But no, I wouldn’t choose to spend a lot of my time with them.”
“Is that why you came here?”
“It was an incentive,” Lila Mae said carefully.
“So why did you come?”
Lila Mae sighed, not sure why his question was so hard to answer. “There are a lot of reasons that combine together,” she finally said. “But the biggest one was that I was almost thirty years old and living a life that had no meaning. My family has a lot of money, and I wanted to do more than sit in an office and talk a big game about how we helped animals. I wanted toreallyhelp them.”
Trap nodded. “And now you’ll be able to do that.”
“Yeah,” she said, her smile growing. “I got two new kittens today, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get them adopted out in the next couple of days.”
“I’m sure you will,” Trap said, his adorable smile returning. “Kittens are cute.”
“What they really are,” Lila Mae said. “Is untrained. They don’t have bad habits, and that means you can train them into what you want.”
“That too,” Trap said.
He continued to eat, and Lila Mae simply enjoyed existing in the same space as him. As he finished, she asked, “You’re close with your family, right?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Pretty close. I mean, I work with a couple of my cousins. I’m taking over my mom and dad’s business. Yeah, you could say we’re close.” He smiled at her. “I mean, they drive me crazy, just like anyone’s family would, but yeah, I love them, and I like spending time with them.”
“I’m glad,” Lila Mae said, her voice quiet. “You’re the oldest?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and then sucked in a breath. “I mean?—”
She shook her head and smiled. “It’s fine, Trap.”
He swallowed again. “Yeah, I’m the oldest in my family. I’ve got two younger sisters and a younger brother. The youngest just graduated from high school; her name is Laurel. She still lives at home. Jenson is in Amarillo, working on his electrician certification. He wants to be a journeyman, and he still has a couple years left. And Daisy is working in finance, I think, at a bank or an accounting firm in Houston.”
“So you’re the only one here?”
“Laurel is still here,” Trap said. “She’s going to do some online classes and see if college is for her. It’s not for everyone, you know.”
“I did not actually know that until recently,” Lila Mae said. “It was expected to go to college in my family.”
“Yeah? What did you do?” he asked.
“Advertising and marketing,” she said. “I’ve got a master’s degree.”
“Wow.” Trap grinned at her, and he didn’t seem to be making fun of her. “I bet that was a lot of work.”
“Yeah,” she said. “It was, and I didn’t hate it. I’m hoping I can use some of my knowledge and skills to get some funding for the sanctuary. And, you know, just general community awareness as well, so people know they don’t have to abandon their cats. They can come surrender them to us, and we’ll take care of them.”
Trap’s gaze warmed as he looked at her again. “I’m glad you get to do that, Lila Mae, if it makes you happy.”
“It’s been a lot of work,” she said. “But I’ve never minded working hard.” She sighed and reached for her glass of sweet tea. “What it has done, more than anything, has humbled me, as there are so many parts that I didn’t know I needed to do. I feel pretty dumb pretty much all the time.” She laughed, but when she looked up at Trap again, she found a gentle, encouraging smile on his face.
“Boy, do I know how that feels,” he said.
Lila Mae watched him and couldn’t find an ounce of insincerity in him. “Maybe I should hire you to do the social media marketing for MSW.”
Lila Mae grinned. “Oh, come on. You’re so good on those videos.”
