He smiled softly down at her. “Like I said, badgers are nocturnal. They’re usually only out from dusk until dawn.” He looked over his shoulder. “That one must have been hungry and come out a few minutes early.” Lila Mae looked around as the sunlight had definitely started to disappear.
“It is dusky,” she said.
“Right, and we’re in her habitat.”
She nodded. “Let’s just go eat on the back deck of the Intake Center,” she said. “There are fans in the ceiling, and it has a good view of the sunset.”
“Sold,” Trap said, and he released her from his arms and kept his hand on the small of her back as she climbed onto the UTV.
He got in beside her, put his arm around her shoulders, and pressed a kiss to her hairline. “We’re okay, Lila Mae.”
“Ithissedat me,” she said, a fresh wave of emotion threatening to overwhelm her again.
“Yeah, it sure did.” He chuckled. “It was as scared of you as you were of it, though, baby. And like I said, she doesn’t want to fight us. She just wanted to protect her babies.”
Lila Mae nodded and sniffled. Trap started up the UTV again and swung them in a wide arc away from the river and pointed them back the way they’d come.
Thankfully, the engine noise made conversation more difficult. They hadn’t even tried on the way out, and Lila Mae spent the fifteen minutes it took to get back to the Intake Center focusing on breathing in and out, calming her racing pulse back to normal.
It felt like someone had wrung her out by the time she sat down at the round wicker table she’d put on the back porch.Trap put the pizza box in front of her and said, “You’ve got to eat, Lila Mae.”
She looked up at him, and slowly, the fog that had descended upon her during the drive lifted. “Thank you, Trap.” She gave him a weak smile.
“Of course, sweetheart.” He pulled his chair further around the table so it faced due west and sat beside her. “This is a great view.” He flipped open the tops of the two pasta dishes. “I can run inside and heat these up if you want.”
Lila Mae didn’t want to be alone, and she simply shook her head. “No, it’s fine,” she said. “Stay here with me.”
“You sure?” Trap said.
She nodded as some of her strength came back into her limbs and heart. “I want some of the Alfredo.”
“You got it, baby.” Trap rearranged the containers and then half-stood to lift open the lid on the picnic basket and get out a fork. He handed it to her, and Lila Mae murmured a thank you. She really liked how he alternated between calling herbaby, honey, andsweetheart, though they’d only been dating for a short time.
Lila Mae felt closer to him now than she had even a half-hour ago. Perhaps a near-attack from a badger would do that.
She twirled a forkful of fettuccine together and looked over to him. “Every year for my parents’ anniversary,” she said. “We would do what my momma called ‘The Anniversary Walk.’ They would lead us and every member on our staff on a slow, deliberate walk of the property—at sunset. It was like we had to examine every oak tree, admire the symmetry of every garden, and hear the bubbling of every water fountain. Momma always ran her fingers along the side of the gazebo.”
Lila Mae put her bite of fettuccine in her mouth, realizing that she often reached out a hand and ran her fingertips along a wall or a fence the way her mother did. “We’d always end upon the back veranda. And Edgar, our longtime butler, would go get chilled pink champagne, my mother’s favorite. Daddy had brandy at dinner, which was served immediately afterward, and we ate off a set of china and used silver that only came out on August twenty-third.”
“Wow,” Trap said. He’d opened a pizza box and held a piece in his hand, but he’d only taken a couple of bites.
“Daddy sat at the head of the table and Momma at the foot. My oldest brother, Donovan, commanded one side by himself, and Spence and I sat on the other—me closest to Momma. We always had to wear something in a deep green or cream, and Momma had a new gold dress commissioned every year. She was the only one who could wear gold, though she had a tie and vest made out of the same fabric for Daddy.”
“Why those colors?” Trap asked.
Lila Mae twirled up another fork full of noodles. “Because those are our family colors,” she said simply, wondering if the Walkers had family colors, or a family crest. For some reason, she didn’t think so.
“They’re used in our china borders. My daddy sealed everything with dark green wax. We have interior paint tones in those colors, and every piece of flooring in our house has some hint of gold in it, especially the library.”
She put the noodles in her mouth and watched Trap’s reaction. He didn’t give much away, but she could tell he had no understanding of this type of tradition.
“Burgundy came out for holidays,” Lila Mae said. “One year, Momma had all of us kids dressed in that color for The Anniversary Walk. Our Christmas celebrations are not red and green; they’re burgundy and forest.”
“I see,” Trap said, though Lila Mae was quite sure he did not.
“And every five years, on their anniversary, we have to sit for a formal family portrait.”
“Wow,” he said. “Is that like a photograph or a painting?”
