Mike was still watching her mother. A young man had come through the gate and Vera hugged him in a familiar way that could only be described as love.

He had on jeans and a khaki shirt. Her view was obscured by a couple of trees, but he seemed to be nice looking. Not double-take handsome like Hayes was, but good. His body was like those men on adventure-wildlife TV shows who climbed up rocks and slid through caves. Strong and sturdy. He certainly wasn’t beautiful and elegant like Hayes was, not that there was any reason to compare them.

“Is that him?”

“Yeah. I hope you’re going to be nice to him.”

She looked back at her father. “Why wouldn’t I be? I imagine he’s very interesting since he’s done so much in his short life.”

“I don’t think jealousy has a part in this. Your mother needs—”

“Jealousy? Why are you saying that? I’ve never—”

“Hello,” the man said as he sat down on the grass where Vera had been.

He had dark hair, dark blue eyes and was freshly shaved. Not bad, she thought, but his khaki shirt was pretentious, like he was going on a safari. Not quite right for Kansas. He was looking at her so intensely that she frowned.

“Griff!” Miguel said. “It’s so good to see you again. We didn’t expect you until next week.”

“I was deep in the bayou in Louisiana when Mom called and said Vera was here. I was afraid she’d leave before I saw her, so I jumped in my van and drove. Got here this morning.”

He hadn’t taken his eyes off Mike. There was something about his voice that was familiar. Since he’d done TV documentaries seemingly since he was an infant, maybe she’d seen one.

It was when he slipped his oh-so-familiar backpack off and put it on the ground that she realized who he was. He was the jerk who’d tried to make a fool of Hayes!

Absolute rage ran through her. This was the guy her parents were praising? Raving about his accomplishments? Her mother was planning to work with him?

Mike picked up her big lemonade cup. It was half-full. She didn’t think about what she was doing but just threw the contents into his face. With a sneer, she got up and walked away.

She was at the gate before either of the men had recovered enough to speak. They were still sitting there, watching her storm away.

“Just out of curiosity,” Miguel asked Griff, “did you deserve that?”

“Oh, yes. Totally. I’m just glad it wasn’t a hot latte. And I’m really glad she didn’t have a bow and arrow.” He turned to Miguel with a sheepish look. “For the record, I didn’t mean to upset anyone.”