Once he’d said hello to a number of people, they looked around the grounds. Food was to the right, rides in the middle, game booths to the left. “Where do you think she is?”

“With the downtrodden. Wherever she can find a wrong to fight, that’s where she is. Look for a placard stapled to a fence post and a gang of angry people following her.”

He laughed. “How well you know her. Let’s get barbecue first, then go hunting.”

“I agree with that!” She led him to the firefighters’ booth.

“You’re going for half-naked men? Wait! Don’t answer that.” He handed her a fifty-dollar bill. “Get two pulled pork sandwiches and whatever you want. I’ll go get us a vat of lemonade.”

She kissed his cheek. “It’s for charity.” His look told her what he thought of that.

They met again by the rides, food in hand. “You didn’t see her?” he asked.

“All was quiet. Maybe she went to visit Kelly. Or—”

A man’s loud, angry voice reached them. “You can’t do that. Get away from those!”

Miguel and Mike looked at each other. “We found her.”

They walked down the lane of games Mike and Hayes had gone through just hours before. She couldn’t help looking to see if the scruffy man was hanging around. This time, if she saw him, she’d tell everyone: Security, her father and all the firefighters. She’d do whatever was necessary to get that man off the grounds.

The first person they saw was Jared Hatten. For years, he’d been Mason’s most eligible bachelor: good-looking, smart and took his responsibilities seriously. A true Kansas man.

When Mike was in the fifth grade, “Uncle Jared,” as she called him, went to Warrenton, Virginia, to look at a horse to buy. He was supposed to be gone for three days, but he stayed a month.

He returned with a wife. Not a girlfriend or a fiancée but a done deal. Immediately, the town prepared to be snubbed. If she was from Warrenton, Virginia, the most elite town in the US, they were sure they knew what she would be like.

But Keely Hunton surprised them. She was small and cute, with curly dark hair, and had an infectious smile. She soon knew everyone in Mason and she put together the most wonderful social events. If she hadn’t been out of town, she would have helped organize the carnival.

She and Jared had four children, the first two boys, then two girls who looked like her. Everyone was glad that at last the sadness had left Jared’s eyes.

He and his two sons, eleven and twelve, were standing in front of the booth where you throw darts at balloons taped to a wall. All three of them were blowing up balloons and the youngest looked a bit dizzy.