It was Trap’s turn to laugh, and he did just that. “Honey, we don’t need a guide to take us fishing. You get a pole and you go to the river.”
“Last time we went to the river, we almost gotattackedby abadger.”
Trap couldn’t argue with her there. “I can look up some places online,” he said. “There’s a couple of state parks around here. I’m sure we could go fishing at one of them, and we could try Silver Lake, though I bet it’ll be really busy today.”
He heard his father call his name, and Trap looked back toward the church. He and Lila Mae had only wandered about thirty yards away, and he held up one hand, and then reached to pull out his phone.
“Can you drive me to my parents’ house?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Lila Mae said, and he quickly started to text his father that he would go with Lila Mae.
“You ready to eat dinner with my Momma and Daddy and Laurel?” He shoved his phone away and looked straight into Lila Mae’s eyes.
“Yeah, sure,” Lila Mae said, her voice pitching up, but her pretty pink lips straightened out of a smile. “Honestly, Trap, as long as I’m with you, it doesn’t matter what we do today.”
“Funny,” Trap said, grinning at her. “I was just going to say that to you.”
She giggled and shook her head, then stepped off the curb. “I’m over here, cowboy, because I was so late.”
Trap let her lead him to her car, not sure that lunch with Lila Maeandhis family could be considered restful, but praying that it would be.
21
Lila Mae liked driving with Trap in the passenger seat. He normally drove them everywhere they went together, and since she’d stayed at Seven Sons until her tiny house was finished, she knew the way without him having to give directions.
She’d met Micah and Simone Walker before, but as a client, not as their son’s girlfriend. She glanced over to Trap, who kept flipping his phone over and over on his thigh.
“Are you nervous?” she asked, her own anxiety spiking.
“Yes,” he said simply, the word almost a bark.
“Why?”
“I’ve never introduced my girlfriend to my parents.” He looked over to her, his dark eyes gleaming with energy.
Lila Mae smiled. “I’ve met a man’s parents before, so it will be fine.”
“You have?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “I dated my last boyfriend for a couple of years, and I met his parents several times.”
“Did you ever take him home to meet yours?” he asked.
“No,” Lila Mae admitted. “And my parents never came up to Maryland, so nope.” She took a deep breath and let it go,allowing the tension that always came with talking about her family go with it.
“Momma knew about Chris, and I’d sent her a lot of pictures.” Lila Mae cut a look over at Trap. “She wasextremelydisappointed when we broke up.”
“Really? Why?”
“In general, I’m quite the disappointment to my parents,” Lila Mae said. “But this break-up was because I’m not married, don’t have children, and now I’m thirty.”
“Are either of your brothers married?” he asked.
“One,” Lila Mae said. “Donovan and Stella, but they don’t have any kids either. Momma never hounds them, because Don’s the golden child.”
“I didn’t think you were talking much to your mom since you moved here.”
“I do and I don’t,” Lila Mae said.
