“I am very serious. My grandparents owned the carnival. When Nanna died, Poppa, that’s my grandfather, gave the business to his daughters since Uncle Haskell didn’t want any part of that kind of life. Poppa still has his trailer, but it’s parked out on the land where we winter. That would be out in west Texas, not far from Amarillo, but he refuses to take the wheels off or skirt the thing. We live there from the end of November until the first of March. We do maintenance, paint, grease, and whatever else is needed to put the show back on the road in the spring. Each year there’s evidence that Grandpa is growing roots, but he’ll never admit it. The carnival was doing a gig in Jefferson, Texas, when Mother had me, so I’ve truly been a carnie all my life. If you came to the carnival in Bowie when you were a little boy, our paths have probably crossed in the past.”

***

Raylen had thought his brother Rye was crazy when he fell hard and fast for Austin, a big-city girl with a big-city job. There was no way Austin would ever leave everything she’d worked toward her entire life and move to tiny little Terral, Oklahoma, to run a watermelon farm, but Austin at least had had a conventional life with a house and a job. Liz had never had any at all, so chances of her falling for a deeply rooted rancher were slim and none.

“Did Haskell ever show interest in the carnival?” Raylen asked.

Liz shook her head and said between bites, “It was a sore spot between him and his sisters. One is my mother and the other is my aunt.”

“Why?” Raylen asked.

“Uncle Haskell wanted to settle down when he met Aunt Sara. He left the carnival and bought that piece of property next to your ranch. He worked for a company in Nocona until they could make the ranch pay its way. They wanted a house full of kids, but Aunt Sara couldn’t have any. I barely remember her. She died when I was about five, but she always came to the carnival in Bowie and brought me homemade cookies.”

Raylen finished his dinner and sipped sweet tea. “I was eight when Miss Sara died. It was one of the first funerals I went to. I don’t remember seeing you there.”

“Aunt Tressa and Poppa came. Mother kept the carnival going,” Liz told him.

“How did you go to school?” Raylen asked.

“I didn’t. Aunt Tressa and Mama homeschooled me just like their mama did them. I got my associate’s degree in business online before my sixteenth birthday. Mama said I could stay off the carnival rounds a couple of years and get my bachelor’s degree, but I didn’t want to.”

“So you ran the business end of the carnival?”

Liz shook her head. “I’m not strong enough to wrestle that from Aunt Tressa. She’s the financial head. I’m Madam Lizelle, The Great Drabami.”