“Are you boys ready?” Ilsa asked.
Colt picked up his menu. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Talk to me about this chile relleno. Is it like super spicy, or if I get it with the green salsa, it’ll be more mild?”
“It’s going to be more mild.” She pointed to the top of the menu. “We’ve got little peppers up here that tell you, and the chili verde sauce is just one pepper.”
“Oh, got it,” he said. “Well, I want the chile relleno then, with the chili verde sauce. Oh, and I need two cheese quesadillas to go, and a pint of beans and a pint of rice.”
“Those to go, too?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and he handed her back the menu.
Trap assumed those were for Jonas and maybe Birdie, who was probably watching him that day. But suddenly, the idea of not having to cook that night and simply taking leftovers from the Mexican restaurant sounded good, and Trap put in his order for huevos rancheros.
Then he added, “I want the taco salad with grilled chicken, and uh…a shredded beef burrito with the medium sauce.” He handed Ilsa the menu. “I want those to go too.”
“What is going on here?” Ty asked.
Trap smiled at him from across the table. “We don’t all have fiancé’s who make vats of soup.”
Ty rolled his eyes. “I guess I’m just going to be boring and get one meal,” he said. “And I want to eat it here, so I’ll have the pork nachos and the guacamole sampler with loads of chips.”
“You got it, cowboy,” Ilsa said, and she took his menu and left.
“My extra food is for my kid,” Colt said.
“And mine’s for dinner tonight,” Trap said. “Then Lila Mae and I can just lay in the hammock and talk.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s what you’re doing in the hammock,” Ty said.
Trap laughed, because maybe there was a little kissing and maybe a little napping that also went on in the hammock. But he and his friends weren’t ones to sit and talk much about their love lives, so he didn’t say any more.
He enjoyed lunch with his friends, but even after Colt arrived fifteen minutes late, he pressured Ilsa to get him his to-go orders, and he left after only sitting there for thirty-five minutes. Barely long enough to chat, order, and eat.
Ty frowned as their friend walked away, and when he met Trap’s eyes, Trap sighed.
“Yeah, there’s definitely something going on there,” he said.
“I don’t think that food was for his kid,” Ty grumbled.
“You think he’s taking a cheese quesadilla to his girl?” Trap chuckled and shook his head. “No, sir, that food was definitely for Birdie or Jonas.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Ty raised his hand to get Ilsa’s attention. “Can we get some coffee?”
“Sure thing,” she said, and she looked at Trap. “You too?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, because while he had plenty of work to do, Trap had hired new people, and they already knew he’d be at lunch. Therefore, he felt no need to rush out of there and get back on the job.
Perhaps his focused effort on resting more was finally paying off.
Later that afternoon,Trap’s phone pinged with a bloopy, bubbly sound, indicating that Lila Mae had just messaged him.
He currently worked about three hundred yards away from the Intake Center, putting up the walls of Cat House Three, now that he’d finally finished Cat House Two. He’d started his afternoon here wearing a T-shirt and a long pair of lightweight cargo pants, because while September had arrived, that was still a summer month in Texas.
He always wore steel-toed boots and long pants on a build site, and today he’d removed his shirt and used it to mop up his face as he was framing out the building, as it had no roof or walls yet—and thus, no air conditioning.
The foundation had been poured and cured, and Trap liked this octagonal shape of Cat House Three. He wasn’t in a great place to stop, so he kept working, forgetting that Lila Mae had texted him until his phone rang with her ringtone about a half-hour later.
He cursed under his breath and moved over to where he’d set his phone on a wooden crate, along with his gallon-sized jug of water. He picked that up and then tapped his phone to answer her call.
