One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas #3)(62)

“Oh, Rhett. They’re beautiful.”

He kissed her on the forehead when the ride started again. “Now we’re going down again, so keep looking at the clouds and not at the ground.”

“Look!” Her eyes widened as the wheel started descending. “I can see the quilts on the school yard.”

“Is that something to do with the festival?”

“Not really, but kind of. Everyone brings a quilt for their family, spreads it out in the school yard, and has a picnic. I looked forward to that all year when I was a little girl,” Leah answered. “We could go visit Finn and Callie before the race starts. I always thought it was so much fun to go visit other people on their quilts.”

“Did you ever visit a Gallagher, like Betsy?” Rhett asked, thrilled that she was loosening up and starting to enjoy the ride.

She shook her head. “If I had, I wouldn’t be here today. Granny would have sent me away to a convent.”

“You’re not Catholic.”

“She would have converted if she’d caught me with a Gallagher.”

The ride stopped, and the attendant blew a kiss to Leah as he unfastened the bar holding them inside the bucket.

“So how was your first time?” Rhett asked.

“Amazing but I don’t want to do it again for a while,” she said.

“You don’t have to ever do anything you don’t want to do, Leah. What now?”

“It’s time for the parade,” she answered.

Rhett walked with her down to the school, where dozens of bicycles, decorated in all kinds of ways, were lined up with numbers fixed to the back of their seats. Orville stood beside the sheriff’s car, waiting to lead the parade down the street. He glanced at Rhett and Leah but didn’t wave.

“He still thinks we burned down the Gallaghers’ schoolhouse, doesn’t he?” Rhett asked.

She nodded. “And he probably thinks that they blew our school up, but he can’t prove anything on either side.”

Tyrell Gallagher held up a hand and waved when they got close to the congested area, where parents and kids both were milling around like ants around a honey jar.

Leah waved back and explained, “He’s in charge, getting everything in order this year. The Brennans and the Gallaghers alternate everything. I hate this feud. I know I’ve said it before, but I do.”

Tyrell jogged over to her and Rhett and handed her a pen and clipboard. “Your chairs are in front of the store. Tanner is up there setting them up. Judge only by number, even if you know the kids. And you have to agree on the three winners without bloodshed.”

Rhett kept hold of her hand as they headed back toward the store.

“What do the winners get?” he asked. “I don’t think Finn’s kids even knew they would win anything other than a ribbon.”

“They’ll be giving away a coupon to each kid that enters for five free rides or visits to a food vendor, so they get to call the shots on the when, where, and how. And then there are three big prizes,” Leah said.

“More tickets?” he asked.

“First prize is a hundred dollars, second is fifty, and third is twenty,” she answered. “It’s been that way ever since I was a kid, but I understand that years ago, the two feuding families tried to outdo each other every year with prizes, giving away bicycles and even prize steers for the livestock show. It got to be a mess, so Verdie, Polly, and Gladys made it a rule that the prize would be monetary and could only go up in value if the committee agreed on it. I think the first year it was fifty, twenty, and ten, but it’s climbed up through the years.”

“What if the vote goes to all Brennan kids?”

“Then the Gallaghers will be pissed off even more than Granny is right now.”

*

“Dammit!” Leah swore when she saw the three lawn chairs waiting for the judges. Tanner had put her in the middle, so she’d have to sit beside him.

Rhett let go of her hand and quickly changed the name cards on the back of the chairs, so that Jill sat between Tanner and Leah. “There, darlin’. Things like that can be fixed. Now sit down before Tanner comes back, and I’ll see you at the bar when this is over. Unless you want me to stay here with you.”

“I conquered the Ferris wheel with your help, but it made me stronger. I can take on Tanner if he says a word about the change. You can come and bail me out of jail if I have to hurt him though.” She smiled up at him.

He dropped another sweet kiss on her forehead and waved as he joined Finn, who was a few steps ahead of him. Yes, sir, she’d gotten a jewel when Rhett O’Donnell had roared into town. She picked up her clipboard and noted that there were fifty-six entries in the parade. There was a place for her to choose three for first place and the same for second and third. After it was over and while the kids had cookies and juice, the judges would confer.

Jill plopped down in the chair beside her. “I wish they’d have this thing in the spring rather than at the end of August. My legs are going to stick to this webbing.”

“Plastic does that. Where’s Sawyer?” Leah asked.

“Catching up to Rhett and Finn so they can go to the bar together. I saw y’all on the Ferris wheel. The way Mavis was lookin’ up there, I figured it would put a chill on the whole town. To tell the truth, I was hoping it would.” Jill fanned herself with the clipboard.