“But—” Mike began, then picked up her phone and sent a text to her aunt Kelly. The answer came right away. To Kelly’s knowledge, Vera had never been to the Falklands. Mike showed the text to Griff.

“Miguel was going to meet me here but you showed up instead. Is it possible your father wanted us to meet? So maybe you’d forgive me?”

“Maybe he wanted to give you a chance to apologize.”

“But your boyfriend called the guards and—” At her look, he calmed himself. “Do I get to present my case?”

She shut down the computer and turned to him.

“The minute I saw you,” he said, “I knew you were Vera’s daughter. You look like her. You even carry yourself like her. There’s an air about you that—” He stopped and cleared his throat. “I should have cleaned up first. At least shaved, but I was afraid Vera would leave and I wouldn’t see her again. I really am sorry I lost my temper. I hope I didn’t do any permanent damage to you and your boyfriend.”

Mike hoped so, too, but she knew the truth was that Hayes was angry because she had beaten him. If she had walked away after Griff shot, there wouldn’t be a problem.

But she’d die before she admitted that.

She and Griff looked at each other for a moment. Mike was the first to turn way. “I guess we could call it even. I shouldn’t have been so judgmental and you shouldn’t have humiliated Hayes in archery.”

Griff bit his tongue to keep from saying that it was her beating Hayes that made him so angry. “Yeah,” he murmured. “Fifty-fifty. I hope everything between you two is good now.”

“Yes, of course it is. Hayes will be at the wedding tomorrow. Kelly put us at a table right by the dance floor.”

“That’s great. Maybe before or after the wedding I can offer my apology to him. I shouldn’t have shown up so dirty. But I’d been filming in a swamp and...” He shrugged.

Mike had always believed that people had a right to dress as they wanted. Because Griff wasn’t prep-school clean didn’t give anyone the right to... She made herself stop that line of thought. It was almost as though she was on Griff’s side.

He stood up. “You know what? I’d really like to see this carnival. It’s been years since I attended something like that. Maybe you could show me around.”

She glanced at the blank computer screen. So far, the carnival she’d worked so hard on had been a bust. The argument with Hayes, then seeing this man and... She thought of the drink she’d thrown on him.