***

Raylen carefully removed the fake cobwebs from the walls and ceiling and packed them between layers of tissue in the cardboard boxes where they belonged. He’d almost finished that part of the job when Dewar showed up close to noon.

His voice echoed in the enormous barn where they held annual horse sales when he hollered, “Are you hungry?”

Raylen stopped what he was doing and wiped his hands on his jeans. “Starving. Want to go up to Chicken Fried?”

“No, Mama sent me to get you,” Dewar answered. “She made dumplin’s and pumpkin pies.”

Raylen nodded and headed for the barn door. Part of him was glad that his mama had chosen that day to make his favorite dinner. The other part, the section that controlled his heart, longed to see Liz again, to make sure that an awkwardness had not sprung up between them that would send her scooting back to her carnival.

“Good party last night. Lots of people. That Liz was a hit with her fortunes,” Dewar said as they walked a quarter of a mile back to the house.

“Yep,” Raylen answered.

“She looked like that woman in that old show that Grandma still watches. I can’t remember the name of it,” Dewar said.

“Yep, it’s I Dream of Jeannie,” Raylen reminded him.

“If she’d had blond hair instead of black, she’d have looked like her,” Dewar said.

“Yep,” Raylen said again.

“You stuck on that word, or do you know another one?” Dewar asked.

“Liz ain’t as tall as that actress was and she’s prettier,” Raylen answered. “Is that enough words for you?”

“You got a thing for her?” Dewar asked.

“Why are you askin’?”

“Remember when we all went out to Wil’s and took him huntin’ with us?” Dewar asked.

Raylen remembered the night very well. True, they’d gone hunting that night, but it was more than that. They went to railroad Wil into admitting that he had feelings for Pearl, and it had worked.

“Yep.”

“Well?” Dewar stopped at the back porch.

“Deep subject.” Raylen grinned and hurried inside the house.

Dinner was on the table, with Maddie, Cash, Colleen, and the grandparents already seated and waiting. Grandpa said the blessing as soon as Dewar and Raylen sat down, and Cash began to pass the dishes.

“Got to go wash up,” Raylen said. “Didn’t want to hold up dinner since you were all already sittin’ down. Colleen, you leave me some chicken.”

Colleen grinned at her brother. “Yeah, right.”

He washed his hands and face and took time to comb his dark hair straight back. The man looking at him in the mirror didn’t look any different from the one who’d looked at him the morning before, but he sure felt different. How could having sex one time with a woman change a man so much, and yet no one else could even see it?

When he returned to the table everyone was talking, mostly about the party the night before. Grandpa looked up and winked as if he knew something, and Raylen felt a slow heat crawling up his neck. Then Grandpa pointed to Colleen’s plate and Raylen saw all the extra chicken beside her dumplings.