Chapter 38

She stood up.

Fire flashed in her eyes. All traces of fear were gone, suddenly replaced by anger.

She looked down on him. "In California," she said, barely a whisper, but loud enough for him to hear his mistake.

"It's not what you think," he said, jumping to his feet.

She glared at his sorry face, so apologetic, and yet, so reminiscent of Sneller's after he'd been caught.

She tucked her chin into the air, turned 180 degrees toward Dallas, and walked away.

He called her name, but knew better than to follow her.

At least in broad daylight she might be all right.

But maybe he should...

Lucy took one look back over her shoulder and saw his hand reaching out for her and his steps beginning in her direction, his eyes.

She took off running, feeling faster and yet less free than seven hours ago on that Texas dirt road.

Lucy reached for her cell phone, rummaging through an invisible purse on her shoulder for a good thirty seconds before realizing she'd left her entire existence in the bottom of her sister's stroller.

It'd always been her nightmare that she would get left behind at the fair. She always pictured herself as the child crying at the Lost Children Stand with policemen up in their turrets scouting for the laissez-faire parents who'd been too consumed with corn dogs to keep up with their children.

Finally the dream came true, but she was an adult. An alone adult. An anomale. A singleton. A lost baby in a grown woman's body. Shoot.

Her sprint to the butter exhibit over in record time, Lucy paused beside the refrigerated glass window, leaning into it to catch her breath, feeling Marilyn laughing at her backside.

She spotted her mother across the hall, looking at an intricate beaded headdress.

"Mom!" Lucy called, relieved.

"Look at that!" Reba said, cooing over a beaded saddle blanket.

Great. They didn't even know she'd been gone.

"Where is everyone?" Lucy asked.

"Oh, Max stuck a piece of corn up his nose at the cooking demonstration," she replied. "So they went over to the dairy exhibit's nursing station. They have needle nose tweezers."

So matter of fact.

"Are you ready?" she asked, glancing at Lucy.

Lucy took one last glance at the wall with her portrait on it.

If she ever saw Carlos again she would...

Wait. If she ever saw Jay again she would...

Wait.

Her dad. IN CALIFORNIA.

"Yes, I'm ready," she said.

She'd never had a bone to pick with her father before.

Here it came.