this didn’t trouble me in the slightest meant that I’d gone all in on this town, probably around the time I’d fallen in love with my husband.
Diesel had already gotten Biscuit in the truck by the time we got down there, so after popping Mari in her car seat, it was only five minutes until we’d parked over at the fairgrounds, gotten her decorated stroller out of the bed of Diesel’s truck, put Biscuit on his leash, and entered the madness.
On one side of the entrance, a really talented band played some peppy country-pop tunes in a gazebo, while Amos Nutter and Emmaline Proud did a line dance I’d never seen before, possibly because they were making it up as they went along. Along the other side of the entrance was a seven-foot-tall wall of hay bales, and a sign draped over a gap between the bales proclaimed, “Licking Thicket Hay Maze! Enter Here. Lose yourself and find yourself again!” which was about as good a slogan for this town as any I’d ever heard. The air smelled like pumpkin and crisp fall leaves, and I felt as weightless as I’d ever felt in my life.
“You’re here!” Ava rushed up in a blue-and-white-checked gingham dress. “Oh my God, those costumes get better every time I see them, I swear.” She pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Farmer Parrish.” She motioned for Diesel to bend down so she could kiss him too. “Diesel the cow.” She knelt by Mari’s carriage, and her smile widened as she ruffled the yellow feathers of Mari’s chicken costume. “And my favorite Pullet Princess. Have you been keeping your daddies out of trouble?”
Paul, dressed as the Cowardly Lion to her Dorothy, came strolling up behind her, with baby Beau dressed as a scarecrow propped on his hip. “I’m so glad I’m not the only one who got conned—I mean, convinced,” he corrected when Ava shot him a look, “to wear a costume.” He smiled at me, in my overalls and plaid shirt. “You got off relatively easy, Parrish.” He gave Diesel an up-and-down and shook his head. “Where the heck did you find a cow-print onesie in your size?”
“Special order,” Diesel mumbled.
Paul nodded solemnly. “Nice udders.”
Mal and Brooks strolled over to say hello, and Ava straightened.
“I tried to get this guy to join our costume group, but he wouldn’t,” she pouted, locking arms with Mal. “Mal being the Tin Man would have made the whole thing perfect. He could’ve even soldered his own costume!”
“Uh-huh, and I totally would have, Ava, honey, you know that,” Mal said. “But I couldn’t leave my fiancé out.” He fluttered his eyelashes at Brooks adoringly, and Brooks snorted.
“You’re lucky to have such a loyal future husband,” Mal informed him.
Brooks grinned and draped an arm over Mal’s shoulders. “I really am.”
“Hey, guys.” Dunn hip-checked his brother in greeting. “How’s it going? Have any of you seen Tucker?”
Diesel and I exchanged a glance and shook our heads. “The three of us literally just got here.”
“The five of us have been going through the maze,” Ava said with a shrug. “He wasn’t there.”
Dunn shook his head and sighed. “Honestly. He promised me he’d come today, but I haven’t seen him and he didn’t answer my text. I don’t know what’s up with him lately.”
“I saw him in his office the other day when Mari had the sniffles,” I volunteered. “He seemed fine.”
“Oh, sure, at work,” Dunn said darkly. “But outside of work, he’s all… weird. Do you know, he hasn’t gone fishing but once in the last month?”
I looked at Diesel, who shrugged. Once sounded like more than enough for a lifetime, but I had no idea what a respectable amount of fishing was for a man like Tucker Wright.
“I think he’s all doom and gloom because he’s been unlucky in love. Last guy who caught his eye was you, Parrish, and look how that turned out.”
I frowned. “Well, I—”
“No, no, don’t apologize.” Dunn waved a hand absently. “You weren’t right for him anyway.”
Mal shook his head and fought a smile.
“Anyway, I think he needs a date—”
“Who needs a date, handsome?” Jenn asked, wrapping her arms around Dunn’s waist from behind. “You?”
He stiffened slightly. “No. And no one. What’s going on?”
“I came to see if you wanted to come walk through the carving tent with me before the judging starts.” The woman somehow made this sound like a sexual invitation. “My brother Josh did a butternut squash that looks exactly like Munch’s The Scream.”