As for Robbie, he was lean, flexible. In school he’d joined the swim team but he missed many practice sessions. Eventually, he quit. Burke said his youngest son’s problem was that he was too easygoing, too likable, too much loved by women.

Unlike the Exton sisters, the differences between Adam and Robbie Hatten made them incompatible. They didn’t understand each other at all.

Robbie plopped down in a big chair, facing his brother. “I thought that after yesterday with Vera, you’d be in a better mood today. Or are you mad because you think you have to stay here to keep me out of trouble?”

Adam continued to glare at his brother. “Where were you all night?”

“I don’t kiss and tell.” His eyes were sparkling.

Adam thought how he wished his brother was ugly. But Robbie looked like something off a poster of a rodeo star: dark brown hair, dark blue eyes, dressed in denim and leather. He’d been a cute kid and now he seemed to be endlessly surrounded by women, young and old. “Do you have everything ready for college?”

Robbie laughed. “That’s months away.” He put his empty plate on a side table. “We can’t all be like you, big brother. We’re not perfect in everything we do. You were great at sports and had top grades. And now you love a girl who is sane and sensible. She’s not even overly pretty. Nothing flashy for you. Now, that little Kelly...she’s enough to make a man sweat.”

Adam bared his teeth. “Man? You’re just a kid.”

Robbie stopped smiling. “I grew up fast after you ran off to save the world. Dad was depressed. His favorite son was in far-off Africa, and all his dreams were gone. I tried to put his attention on me but it didn’t work.”

“By ‘attention’ do you mean getting yourself arrested for drunk driving?”

“That was cleared.”

“Of course it was. Dad got you off.”

Robbie frowned. “Kids today aren’t like you and Vera. You’ve been more or less married since you were, what? Two years old? Dad and Mr. Exton were like medieval lords plotting to join the farms. After you ran off and left Vera behind, nobody was sure what was going on. Dad said it was too bad Kelly was older than me or I could marry her. One day she was here at the pool wearing a bikini. I said I was more than willing to help him join the farms.”

“And what did Dad say to that?”

“That he’d thought of asking for Kelly’s hand himself. He said, ‘Think she’d have me?’ I told him he should ask.”