“In line for what?” Liz asked. Was there a ritual that she didn’t know about?

“Daddy says we have to get married in the order of our birth. Me and Colleen have been tryin’ to find wives for these guys for years because we don’t want to be eighty and pushin’ a walker with our wedding bouquets roped to the front of it down the aisle. Now it’s Dewar’s turn and—”

“Things don’t have to happen that way. Daddy was teasing,” Raylen said quickly.

Gemma peeled back aluminum foil from the disposable trays and began to heap food onto her paper plate. “We’ll see. Come on and fill up a plate. I brought paper ones from the beauty shop and even had enough plastic forks.”

The tack room soon filled with the aroma of good food intermingled with the normal smells of leather, hay, and dust. Raylen and Gemma lit into the supper like two hungry coyote pups. Liz was still combating the effects of the make-out session. She drained the tall plastic takeout cup of sweet tea and could have drunk another one, but she barely nibbled around the edges of the small piece of roast she put on her plate.

Gemma talked between bites. “I hated to miss all the fun, but I can’t ever turn down Nellie and Ellen. They are a hoot. They get to arguing about some wild thing Ellen did in the past and bickering, and it’s a lot better than Comedy Central. I tried to get them to come to the Halloween party next week, but they’d have none of it. Said they were babysitting the kids so Slade and Jane could come over to it,” Gemma said.

“What kind of stories?” Liz asked. Outsiders sure discussed their lives with anyone who would listen more than carnies did.

“Real life,” Gemma answered. “When Ellen was young, she liked to go too fast, flirt, date, and drive men wild. And she just loves to relive the stories. I like to listen, so we make a pair. She was tellin’ today about the last time she got behind the wheel of a vehicle. I’d heard the story before, but she always puts in a few more details and it’s a hoot to listen to her tell it.”

Liz looked over at Raylen and wanted to lick that fleck of potato from the corner of his mouth. When his tongue flicked out and caught it, she gasped and hurriedly covered it with a fake cough in her napkin.

“I’d love to hear the story. Entertain me while we eat,” Liz said to take her mind off Raylen.

“Nobody can tell that story like Ellen,” Raylen said.

“But now my curiosity is aroused, so tell me what it’s about anyway,” Liz said.

“Okay,” Gemma said. “We’ve all heard the story a hundred times, but every time they tell it, Ellen embellishes it even more. Ellen said she was fifty, but Nellie raised an eyebrow and mouthed behind her back that she was past sixty. Anyway, she was in a vintage Corvette with this guy. She couldn’t remember if it was a ’55 or ’56 model, but it was one of those cute little red things according to her. He’d been smartin’ off about how no woman was ever drivin’ his Vette. When he got out at a service station to go to the men’s room, Ellen noticed that he’d left the keys dangling in the ignition.”