Dumb Luck and Bad Decisions (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798233823787)

Five years ago, Tucker "Tuck" Pike handed Jessa Rucker a loose strap, said "Hold this," and helped turn the Hicksville County Fair into a headline nobody forgot. Jessa left with her pride bruised and her name tied to one spectacularly public disaster. Tuck stayed, laughing first so nobody else could get to the joke clean.

Now the fair is falling apart again. A loose bull, bad repairs, weak leadership, missing cash, messy receipts, sponsor pressure, and a polished outside management company named Prairie Crown threaten to take the fair out of local hands. Jessa comes back determined to fix the damage without becoming the town's unpaid conscience. Tuck is still blunt, dusty, funny, and dangerous around bad ideas, but this time he is trying to stand beside her instead of dragging her into trouble.

As the fair limps through livestock shows, a bull bash, a youth sale, and a financial records scandal, Hicksville's biggest enemy turns out not to be one grand villain. It is "somewhere safe" thinking: vague responsibility, helpful cowards, unlocked keys, old receipt books, gossip, pride, and people hiding embarrassment before telling the truth.

To save the fair, Jessa, Tuck, Boone, Wanda, Darlene, Marcy Nell, Piper, and stubborn volunteers must trade charm for procedure, rumor for records, and dumb luck for work. Funny, clean, chaotic, heartfelt, this family-friendly rural comedy is about public humiliation, second chances, and the dangerous hope that broken things can be rebuilt.