"This is not the date I had in mind," Laney said Saturday afternoon as she bounced along a rutted gravel road in the crew cab of one of the Hawthorne Hills ranch pickups, crammed between Zach and Josie Riley in the front seat. They were headed toward a private airstrip on the ranch, where Quinn Shannon kept his plane.

"No, I can see that." Josie held tight to the handle above the door. "But the boys will have fun, and when the fires continue, we'll be able to prove it wasn't ...