“Let’s go.” Hayes took Mike’s arm and led her toward the long row of game booths.

When Mike looked back, she saw the three guards go to the scruffy man and start talking to him. When he stepped back, a guard grabbed his arm. The man jerked away, but two guards clamped down on his arms. In the next second, they’d pulled his backpack off and were searching it.

The man looked over the shoulder of one of the guards and gave Mike a look of such anger that the hair on her neck stood on end. She turned away and clutched Hayes’s arm hard.

“You okay?”

Mike couldn’t keep from glancing back. The man was still glaring at her in anger. She looked away.

“He won’t bother you anymore. Security will take care of him. He probably came in for free food, which I understand, but I did not like the way he was looking at you.”

“Me neither,” she said. “But I didn’t think you noticed.”

“Any man who comes after my girl and I’ll see it.” He kissed the top of her head. “Let’s forget about him. How about a ring toss? Or water guns?”

“All of it.” When she looked back over her shoulder, the man and the guards were gone, and she was glad. She wondered if they’d found anything illegal in his pack.

For the next hour, she and Hayes went from one booth to another, and he played each game.

Maybe it was cowardly of her, but she didn’t participate in any of them. Usually she tended to be competitive. Okay, so maybe she was a bit Win or Die, but not today. It could have been Forey’s warning, or maybe it was just that Mike didn’t want anything to ruin this weekend. She had a beautiful dress for the wedding and she planned to dance all night.

Hayes won every game he tried, but then, there weren’t many people to play against. Twice she’d motioned to a couple of guys she knew to come and play. One was Betty Lewis’s grandson. His father was Taran, and her dad always said he was the main rival for Cait’s hand in marriage. “I never dated him,” she said. “Wanted to, but didn’t.”

Mike had gone out with the grandson. She’d come back with the verdict: pretty to look at but dull. He played a few games with Hayes, then left to get barbecue.

“You ready for lunch?” she asked Hayes. “The Mason Fire Department has a rather nice booth.” She was clutching three stuffed animals in her arms and had a chocolate-coated ice cream on a stick in her hand. It was her dream come true.

Hayes shook his head. “How do you eat so much and stay slim?”

“Mom says it’s because I never sit down. You ready for barbecue?”