“She won’t admit it but our joints are wearing out,” Miguel told Kelly on one of their frequent calls.

They knew he was referring to the fact that they’d again been shot at. They’d been lucky that a bullet only grazed the side of Vera’s head. “I wasn’t close enough to her,” Miguel had cried over the phone the night it happened. He was at the hospital. “She didn’t react right away. She didn’t fall to the ground fast enough. And I couldn’t—” He was crying too hard to say more.

“Bring her home,” Kelly said. “I’ll get her to quit. And I’ll give her a place to stay here.”

“Yes” was all Miguel could manage to say.

It had taken him two years, but Miguel had at last persuaded her. Kyle’s wedding had been what he’d needed to get her to set a date. That and the fact that their daughter was now a grown woman.

“Someday we’ll have grandchildren,” Miguel said to Vera. “I didn’t think I’d live long enough to hold them.” He slunk down in a chair. “I want to go home,” he whispered.

Vera looked at him. She’d loved him since they were kids. It was time for her to make sacrifices. “Yes,” she said. “I have some things to do, but we’ll be there in time for Kyle’s wedding.”

Miguel had just nodded.

Kelly repeated her concern to Adam. “Celeste is going to ruin everything.”

“So fix it,” he said.

“How do I do that? People love a parade, and when they show up and Vera doesn’t, they’ll be furious. At her! They’ll say she’s a snob. That she thinks she’s too big for little Mason, Kansas. It isn’t fair. She won’t stay if everyone is angry at her. She’ll leave again.”

“Then give the people something else!” Adam snapped. “Make Kyle’s wedding so big that they’d rather see that. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You are brilliant!”

Adam didn’t smile. “What did I just get myself into?”

“A fair.”

“Affair? Whose?”

“No. A fair. Two words. A homecoming celebration. Everyone will be returning to Mason. Vera will be just one of them. I’ll overshadow Celeste’s little parade with a big one, and I’ll take the spotlight off Vera. The stars will be veterans and school principals. We’ll have a whole float full of past mayors. We’ll get all your sports kids who went on to be pros. We’ll—”

Adam’s head came up. “Mayors? But I was the mayor. I will not ride on a float.”