“We get a new game for Christmas every year,” Laurel said, switching her gaze to Trap. “Well, I mean, we used to before Daisy moved to Houston and Jenson got so busy with his stuff.”
“Yes, my kids love games.” Simone joined them at the table. “It comes from their father.”
“But Daddy’s no fun to play with,” Trap said.
“Why is that?” Lila Mae asked.
“He’ssocompetitive,” Laurel said. “And he kind of throws a fit if he doesn’t win.”
Simone smiled at her children. “Be nice about Daddy. He can’t help how competitive he is. It’s the Walker genes inside of him.”
Lila Mae looked over to Trap, because he certainly had Walker genes too, and she would never describe him as competitive. Driven, sure, but not competitive.
The front door opened from behind her, and Micah called, “Whit and Jeremiah are going to join us.”
Trap groaned. “Momma, really?”
“It’s fine,” she said in a near whisper, and she got to her feet as not only Micah came into the back of the house, but someone who looked very much like him and a dark-haired woman with bright red lipstick.
Lila Mae had met them too—Whitney and Jeremiah Walker—and she knew they were JJ’s parents, and that Jeremiah had largely run Seven Suns as Trap had grown up. His Uncle Skyler also had a property here on the ranch—right across the street, in fact.
Lila Mae painted on her best smile, and she turned her hand over to squeeze Trap’s, hoping to let him know that extra people at lunch really was fine. In fact, more people meant less pressure on her to do any talking.
“Howdy, Walkers,” Jeremiah said, and Lila Mae definitely got a glimpse inside Trap’s childhood, because Simone, Trap,and Laurel all chorused back, “Howdy, Walkers,” and every single one of them laughed or smiled.
Lila Mae sat there completely out of her element, yet feeling a warmth, an acceptance, she wasn’t sure she’d ever felt before. She had a distinct feeling this was what it felt like tobea family and have real relationships with the people in said family.
She wanted this feeling in her life all the time, and she simply looked around at everyone in the room, a keen sense of missing out on a childhood like Trap’s while also basking in the warmth of the Walker family.
It was an odd juxtaposition of emotions, but Lila Mae let them flow through her, so she could riddle through them later. While Trap had told her plenty about his family, it was different experiencing it in person than being told a second-hand story through his perspective.
“You guys were playing games without me?” Micah asked, and Laurel quickly swiped the Taco-Cat deck off the table.
“We can play again.”
“Oh, my word,” Trap said, but he didn’t get up from the table as his aunt and uncle and father joined them, and they started another round of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, this time with all seven of them trying not to be the last to slap the pile.
As they played, Lila Mae had never laughed so hard. And yes, she’d hit the table too hard, and her chest too hard too on the special cards, as one was a gorilla, and she was supposed to beat her chest like a gorilla when that card was played.
Trap laughed with his aunt and uncle and his parents, and he called out his sister when, according to him, she tried to stab him with her fingernails.
Micah won the round, and then Simone and Whitney got up to go work on dinner. Lila Mae pushed away from the table too and joined them. “Can I help?”
“Sure,” Whitney said, and she pushed a stack of what looked like flat baskets across the table. “You can go set these outside on the picnic table and turn on the fans and misters. There’s a huge bank of light switches at the bottom of the steps.”
“I’ll help too,” Trap said, and he picked up the stack of paper plates while Lila Mae collected the baskets.
Outside, he said, “My Momma and Daddy got married right here.”
“Did they?” she asked, taking in the backyard. It was beautiful, but small—nowhere near a facility Lila Mae imagined would hold all the Walkers.
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s a pretty funny story, actually.”
“How did they meet?” she asked.
“Over where my Uncle Liam lives—remember where the beehives are?”
“Yeah,” she said, as they had wandered along the ranch where the beehives existed a couple of weeks ago.
