Instead, she was spending lots of time with Miguel. One afternoon they went to see Pauly’s orchard. She was surprised at how much Miguel liked the place.

“I’ve tried to get Uncle Rafe to branch out from just cows, but he won’t listen. He lectures me about Kansas beef, then tells me the plot of every episode of Rawhide. I think he cried when that series was canceled.”

“I loved that show!” Kelly said. “Cattle drives to get to Kansas City. I had such a crush on Rowdy. I wonder if that actor, Clint Eastwood, will do anything else. Sometimes actors just disappear. They—” She broke off at his look. “Sorry. What were you saying?” She thought, He’s not Adam, so there’s no TV talk.

To hide her embarrassment, Kelly pulled weeds while she listened. Miguel asked questions about Pauly’s plans for the future, but she didn’t know the answers. She moved the dirt around the trees to stir up bugs, and Pauly’s chickens followed her everywhere, pecking and pecking.

She and Miguel went out to dinner twice, always to big, loud places no farther away than Ottawa.

Each time, people she knew stopped and asked her questions about their animals. Ticks and worms were favorite topics.

Kelly suggested to Miguel that they go to a movie, but he said no. She suggested a small, quiet restaurant in Lawrence where they wouldn’t know anyone. Miguel said no. She said they could go swimming at the lake, just the two of them. He said he’d rather go to a public pool.

“Where kids are screaming?” she’d asked.

“Where there will be a lifeguard and safety,” he said.

They’d spent most of a week together, but for all their privacy, they could have been in an airport.

Neither was there any intimacy. At the double dinner, Miguel had made several hands-on moves toward her, so she’d thought he’d...well, try things. But he’d never so much as kissed her.

It wasn’t easy to return from a date and have her mother waiting for her. Nella warned Kelly about men getting too “fresh.”

“Save yourself,” Nella said. “Hold back. As tempting as going the, uh, full way is, it’s better to wait.”

“I will wait,” Kelly said. And wait and wait and wait, she thought.

Today, as she drove home, she dreaded seeing Miguel again. He was very nice, lovely to look at, but there just wasn’t any passion in him. Not for her, anyway.

She slowed down to a crawl. The odd thing was, Miguel hadn’t asked her out for the weekend.

Wasn’t Saturday night supposed to be date night? Dinner, dancing, kisses in the moonlight?

But there’d been no invitation from Miguel.