Rodeo Family. Mary Sullivan

have been unplanned but all had worked out in the end, with the new stranger in town, Sam Carmichael, falling like a log for Vy and deciding to stay and marry her. How could he not? Vy was a great person.

      Nadine returned the lemon pepper to the spice rack between the ground ginger and the mustard seed.

      Vy set the table and they sat down to eat, discussing the upcoming revival of the renovated rodeo and fair. It had run for over a hundred years in Rodeo every summer without fail, until the owner retired fifteen years ago. He’d inherited it from his father, who had inherited it from his father.

      His son had not been willing to carry on and the tradition had been broken.

      Too many of the town’s young were leaving. Nadine and her friends had decided it was time to do something about that, and they hoped the revival of the fair would be a viable solution for bringing in money and creating jobs.

      Since no one else had managed to come up with solutions to help out their town, they’d taken it on.

      This year, the fair would run for ten days spanning two weekends.

      If it was a success, they could consider making it permanent and maybe even run it for longer in the coming years. Vy carried their dishes to the sink. “Sam’s going to donate a couple of thousand dollars for you to use for more promotion.”