She’d adopted out the kittens without a problem, both of them going to the same home, where a pair of teenage girls had been thrilled to get them. Lila Mae had started working on her community classes to help pet owners understand the responsibilities of cat adoption and feline ownership, and she hoped to have a community center done by the end of the year.
It would take place in the shed between the Intake Center and the hospital, and Trap had already started working on it. He and Jason had finished the construction on the veterinary office, and Ruby had come to start going over equipment that Lila Mae needed. She and Dr. Clopton would then go through all the medical supplies, and she would rely on him to order them and simply sign off on the payment of such things.
As she walked down the now sealed cement walkway between stalls, Lila Mae ran her fingers along the smooth, newly painted walls. Trap had done them in hardwood and then painted that white and sealed everything for sterility. Lila Mae loved that it looked a little bit like a barn but had all of the functionality of a hospital.
The floor had been painted white with epoxy and had purple, blue, and gray glitter dots sprinkled throughout. Trap had said it would seal the cement and was one of the most long-term solutions if she didn’t want carpet. The individual patient rooms had the flooring he had been putting down when he’d passed out almost three weeks ago now, and Lila Mae smiled at the mere thought of seeing him in only another hour. They’d been out five or six times now, and Lila Mae sure had enjoyed getting to see more of Three Rivers and getting to know more about Trap and what made him tick.
Since they would only have cats here, Lila Mae didn’t need to worry about separate facilities for different animals, and they only had the one operating room. It was the biggest of the stalls down on the end, and Lila Mae paused in the doorway, because a stack of boxes had been brought in.
Surprise moved through her, because she hadn’t been expecting to see anything in the rooms. She entered and moved over to the stack and peered at the label on the top box.
“Stainless steel shelving,” she read, and she immediately pulled out her phone to text Ruby.Did some of our equipment come in? I’m seeing shelves out in the hospital.
Yes!Ruby said.I had them delivered earlier today. I’m glad they made it. Everything else is on track and should be here by next week, and then you and Dr. Clopton will be able to arrange it however you’d like in the facility.
Great, Lila Mae said.
Of course, if you want me to come help, I can do that too, she said.But I’m not sure a cat hospital needs to be interior designed. She sent a smiley face emoji, and Lila Mae sure did like her.
She’d also enjoyed working with Hailey Winters in the past few weeks, and she had set up a visit out to Three Rivers Ranch so Lila Mae could see how their operation ran. Dr. Clopton was going to do the same thing with Shiloh Ridge. While they were not the same type of facility, they both employed full-time veterinarians and had a lot of animals to take care of, and Lila Mae just wanted to see their facilities and understand how they operated.
Hailey could’ve gotten her in at Shiloh Ridge as well, but Thad Clopton knew Smiles Glover and had volunteered to arrange it.
Lila Mae was willing to take help from anywhere she could get it, but she didn’t want to seem like she was taking advantage of people’s kindness and generosity, so she allowed Thad to handle Shiloh Ridge and asked Hailey if she could get them in at Three Rivers. Hailey apparently knew the woman who ran that ranch, Libby Jackson, and had said it would be no problem.
I’ll let you know if Thad and I need help with the design of the rooms, she said, though Lila Mae didn’t think they would. She’d seen plenty of veterinary facilities, and when the cabinetsarrived, Trap or Jason would install those. They apparently had their tables, and then they needed medical supplies.
Lila Mae had filed all the proper paperwork to be a non-profit organization, as well as a facility that worked with animals. She expected her paperwork to come through at any time, and then she could start applying for state and federal grants to fund the animal care here at Feline Friends. She had plenty of money to do so in the interim, especially because they only had nine cats right now.
Hailey had been fielding a few calls about kitty daycare, something Lila Mae had never even thought of. She knew some people took theirdogssomewhere during the day, but cats used a litter box, and most of them generally liked being by themselves. She had started looking into it but hadn’t done much more than that.
Her phone chimed again, this time with the crackling, pinging sound that she’d assigned to Trap. A smile formed on her face before she even looked at the message, and that told Lila Mae how deep she’d fallen for him already.
She didn’t get to see him every day, as they both had a wide array of responsibilities and plenty going on in their lives. She’d like to, as she often spent her evenings alone with Cleopatra in the tiny house, but both she and Trap were trying to get a business off the ground, and he definitely had more moving pieces than she did.
She saw a lot of him on the weekends, and as tonight was their Friday night date, she assumed she’d be able to see him tomorrow as well. Last Sunday, he’d asked her to Seven Sons Ranch to show her their beehives, and they’d taken a walk through the shady parts of the ranch. They’d ended up at his house for lemonade and a simple dinner of sandwiches, and it had been the perfect small-town date that Lila Mae hadn’t even realized she’d like.
He usually took her to dinner and then some sort of tour around Three Rivers, and Lila Mae had started to fall in love with the small Texas town that felt like it had all the services of a big city, while maintaining the quaintness of a tight-knit community.
I’m headed your way a little bit early,Trap texted.It’s fine if you’re not ready. I’ll just sit with Cleo on your deck.He’d sent a tiger emoji, which normally made Lila Mae smile. Tonight, her pulse quaked, and she quickly looked at the top of her phone to see what time it was.
“Oh, my goodness,” she said right out loud, turning to immediately leave the future operating room. Her date with him was only forty-five minutes away, and Lila Mae needed to get home and get ready.
She hurried outside to the utility vehicle she’d purchased. It drove like a golf cart and had a bench seat in the front and one in the back, and room in a truck bed for anything else she needed to carry. She could put two cat carriers side-by-side back there, or any number of supplies that needed to be transported around the ranch.
She’d already closed down the Intake Center for the day, and she quickly texted Trap that he’d have to stop by there to get Cleo if he wanted her, but that she’d try to be ready in about twenty minutes. Then she set her sights on the tiny house and drove along the dirt roads that led her there, arriving only three minutes later.
She pulled up to the side of her house where the clothesline was and went up the steps on that side, leaving the front area open for Trap. Inside, she quickly washed her face and swiped on a new coat of mascara, brushed her teeth, and painted her lips a dark red.
Lila Mae hated feeling rushed, and because her steps were already pretty steep in the tiny house, she couldn’t take themtwo at a time. She told herself to calm down. Trap could wait. They were just going to dinner, and while sometimes he had a reservation for them, he was the one coming early, and it’d be fine if she wasn’t dolled up and dressed exactly right when he arrived.
She had a single wardrobe in her bedroom upstairs, with most of her clothing stored in handmade boxes underneath the bed. She rotated through them based on seasons, and today she picked out one of her favorite sundresses in coral, teal, and sunshine yellow. It had wide straps that went across her shoulders and a square neck, with a tight bodice that hugged her until her waist and then flared into a full skirt.
Lila Mae usually wore sandals with it, something she didn’t do around the ranch very often. She had to get down on her hands and knees to pull out her shoeboxes, and she rifled through one and then another before she heard Trap say, “It’s just me, Lila Mae. I’m walking in.”
“I’m looking for a pair of shoes,” she called.
“No rush.” She heard him groan, and she assumed he’d sunk onto her couch. The man worked hard every day, usually six days a week, though he said he saved paperwork and phone calls, caught up on emails, and went over his schedule on Saturday, and that could hardly be considered work.
