By the time she passed the jelly bean to him, she was exhausted from laughing. And then he had the audacity to race back to the finish line without dropping the jelly bean—not even once. The nerve of him. When he deposited it into the plastic egg shell, he turned to her with a triumphant look. Her frustration immediately melted away. She smiled back at him. He’d done good, really good. But because of her blunders, it wasn’t good enough to win. Not even close. They were something like seventh place out of seven entries.

“And now it is time to announce today’s winners,” Mayor Banks said, “but I think every entry was a winner, which is why I’m not on the judging panel.” Laughter filled the air. Mayor Banks lifted a sheet of white paper and unfolded it. “And here we go…”

He started with the Bloomin’ Tulip contest. You could have heard a pin drop as the many entrants shushed the crowd. One by one the names were called. And then the mayor called out Betty Simon’s name. Birdie’s best friend had won the blue ribbon and the bragging rights for the next year as the woman with the green thumb.

And then Mayor Banks moved on to the decorated egg contest. Nikki took first place. Hannah glanced over to where Nikki was standing with Hannah’s mother. It was then that she noticed the man standing on the other side of her mother, Chief Campbell. He and her mother were talking and laughing. As her mother smiled, she looked years younger.

Hannah had to admit that seeing her mother enjoy another man’s attention was strange for her, but after the initial shock of seeing her mother flirting with Chief Campbell subsided, Hannah realized she was happy for her mother.

Hannah turned her attention back to the mayor. He was now announcing the adult category of the decorated egg. “Third place goes to Agnes Dewey.”

Above the applause there was an excited squeal from Agnes. Then the woman rushed to the gazebo to accept the white ribbon. The woman tore the mic from the mayor’s hand.

She turned to the crowd with a huge grin. “I want to thank you all for this honor…”

“What is that woman doing?” Josie frowned as she crossed her arms. “She always has to make everything about her.”

Ethan sent Hannah a puzzled look. She shrugged her shoulders, not sure why Agnes was rambling on about one of her cats.

The mayor wrestled the mic back from Agnes. Mayor Banks covered his fluster with a forced smile. “That’s wonderful. Congratulations Agnes.”

The woman was all smiles as she descended the steps and rejoined her group of friends.

“And now”—the mayor referenced the paper once more—“first and second place were very close. The second-place honor goes to Greg Hoover.”

“Go, Greg!” Hannah didn’t know he was so talented.

Without the need to make a speech, Greg took the red ribbon and prize money before returning to his position at the back of the crowd.