Javier Mendez, 53, has restored 17 vintage travel trailers in the seven years since his wife left him for a city zoning inspector, and he’s avoided every small-town community event in that same stretch unless it involved swap meet parts or cheap brisket. His 22-year-old shop assistant practically dragged him to the annual Burnet County chili cookoff, saying the brisket alone was worth putting up with the crowds, and Javier had caved mostly because he’d spent three straight weeks sanding the aluminum shell of a 1962 Airstream and his shoulders ached too bad to argue. A cover band plays slow Willie Nelson deep cuts in the corner, the steel guitar warbling over the hum of conversation, crushed peanut shells crunching under the sole of his scuffed work boots as he navigates the crowded tent.
He spots Clara Hale almost immediately, the newly elected county judge who’d denied his zoning expansion request three weeks prior, and he tenses up, ready to turn the other way. She’s wearing a faded denim jacket instead of the tailored blazer she’d had on at the county meeting, her dark hair pulled back in a messy braid, laughing at something the guy manning the chili booth next to her said. Javier’s first instinct is to leave, but the line for beer is already 10 deep and he’s not driving 20 minutes back to his shop without a drink first.