Campaigning for Love novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Harvest Fair

The Adel Harvest Fair smelled like fried dough, hay and diesel, and I loved it so much I almost forgot why I was there.

I carried a tote bag with eight bottles of water, a pack of wet wipes and a tin of mints.

Nelson walked three steps ahead of me in a flannel shirt, shaking hands.

He had not looked at me once.

He was so careful about it that it was starting to look like a performance.

"Is he mad at you?" Hallie whispered at my elbow.

She had come along with her laminated county map and her thermos, and I had not asked her to.

"He's focused," I said.

"He's walked past the same funnel cake stand three times so he wouldn't have to turn left."

"Left is where I am."

"I know where you are, hon. I'm just saying the man is a terrible actor."

At the pie tent, a woman in a church apron put a slice of sour cream raisin in his hand.

She told him he was too thin.

"I'm a runner," Nelson said.

"You're a widower," she said kindly. "Eat."

The crowd laughed, and so did he, and I saw the exact moment he decided to love them.

Then I saw something else.

At the edge of the tent, a man in a grey polo shirt had raised a camera.

He had been at the dinner too, and at the HQ opening, always the same polo, always standing a little behind the reporters.

"Hey, Nelson!" he called.

His voice was cheerful, and it carried.

"How does your wife feel about the campaign?"

The tent went quiet.

Nelson's fork stopped halfway to his mouth.

"Oh, wait," the man said. "I forgot. She's dead."

Somebody gasped.

The camera did not move.

I watched Nelson's face go white and still.

I had the water bottle in my hand.

I don't remember deciding to walk.

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