When the movie ended, she carefully slid her thigh out from underneath Trap’s head. “Trap, honey,” she murmured, employing her Southern manners. “It’s getting late. What do you want to do?”
He groaned and opened his eyes. “I don’t think I can drive home.”
“You’re going to have to get up, then. I’ll make up the bed for you.”
He blinked at her. “I forgot this couch has a bed in it.”
She wondered where he’d thought he’d sleep, but she simply said, “If you give me ten minutes, I’ll have it ready for you. You can take a shower, or just sit at the table, or outside on the deck.”
He sat up with a groan and ran his hands through his hair. “I think I have a phone charger in my truck. Let me go get it and talk to my cousin, and I’ll be back.”
“Okay.” Lila Mae wasn’t sure why he needed to stay here if he could make it to his truck and have business conversations with his family members. But she let him leave, and then she removed the cushions from the couch and pulled out the bed. There was only a two-foot aisle around the end of it now, and she pressed the button to blow it up.
She kept the only sheet set for this bed in one of the stair cupboards, and she opened that and retrieved them, tellingherself she wasn’t going to be sleeping in the same room with Trap.
She had a loft, and it had a door and pull-down screens, and while it wasn’t a permanent wall, she could definitely separate her private space from the rest of the tiny house. It was positioned over the bathroom and small pantry area off the kitchen, and she could stand in front of the screens and check on Trap any time during the night.
She wasn’t sure why she would need to do that, or how she would tell if he’d gotten too hot just by looking at him. She made up the bed and went up into the loft to get the two pillows she’d bought for this guest bed. She wasn’t sure who she’d thought would come stay with her, but she’d wanted to be prepared either way.
Fine, perhaps she’d hoped her mother would eventually come see Feline Friends.
She’d just put the first pillow on the bed when the front door opened, and she jumped out of the way so she wouldn’t get hit.
“Sorry,” Trap said. “It’s stillsohot out there.” He lifted his phone cord. “But I found a charger, so I should be good.”
“Do you need anything?” she asked, moving over to show him the outlet. “Some painkillers or anything?”
He shook his head. “I don’t have a headache anymore, and I’ve got one more Gatorade to go.”
Lila Mae nodded. “I have extra toothbrushes in the vanity in the bathroom.”
“You do?”
Lila Mae grinned at him, at the level of incredulity in his voice. “I’mSouthern, honey. My momma taught us to always have extras in case we have unexpected guests. I never thought it would happen to me in my tiny house in Texas, but here we are.” She grinned at him, glad when Trap smiled back.
The moment turned awkward again between them, and Lila Mae told herself that just because she’d been conversing with Trap for several months, and working with him for the past several weeks, didn’t mean she knew him very well.
“Okay, well—” She cut off as he lunged at her and drew her into his warm arms and against that broad chest.
“Thank you again,” he said. “I really mean it, Lila Mae.”
“Of course,” she said. “I’ll come back down when you’re done in the bathroom.”
He nodded, and Lila Mae took the stairs that went up and over her kitchen counter and into the loft. She pulled the screens down and closed the door behind her, and the room suddenly felt terribly small now that she couldn’t look out over the rest of her house.
She couldn’t hear Trap in the bathroom below, but she waited a good thirty minutes before she went downstairs, now in her pajamas, and found him asleep in the couch bed. She did her nightly routine and returned upstairs, where she knelt at the side of her bed.
“Dear Lord,” she whispered. “Please bless that Trap will be all right and have no lasting issues from his heat stroke this afternoon. Bless us to….” She trailed off because she didn’t know quite what to ask for when it came to her and Trap.
She needed time to get to know him, of course, and she supposed she could pray that God would grant her and Trap the time they needed to find out if a real relationship was feasible for the two of them. So she did that, and trusted God wouldn’t lead her astray.
Lila Mae wokethe following morning to the sound of Trap’s phone ringing and ringing andringing. It finally cut off, and relief sagged through Lila Mae’s bones. But only ten seconds later, it started ringing again and again and yet again.
She had no idea how Trap slept through that, and she fumbled for her own phone, which she used as a clock, on her nightstand. She lifted her phone and saw it was only six-forty-five. Trap should have been up hours ago, and while they hadn’t discussed his departure this morning, she felt certain he wouldn’t be lounging around her tiny house all day.
She usually got up around seven, so it wasn’t too far away, but she was used to the more docile sounds of her own alarm. Trap’s phone stopped ringing again and then started up for a third—blasted—time.
Lila Mae got out of bed and had just reached to open the door when she heard Trap mutter under his breath. The ringing stopped, and he said in a louder voice, “Hey, Daddy. Yeah, I know I’m running a little bit late. I’ll be right there.”
