He told them thanks, put a twenty in the donation box and walked away with Mike. “I am stuffed! You Kansans sure know how to eat.”

“Healthy begins in Kansas, then spreads across the nation like a sunflower.”

He laughed. “I’m beginning to believe it. I saw you playing the games with your boyfriend. Did you beat him?”

“I didn’t play any of them with Hayes.”

He stopped walking and looked at her. “Why not?”

Her lips tightened. “I didn’t want to.”

He shrugged. “You aren’t any good at them, are you? You only play games where you’re sure you can win. I understand that.” He looked around. “Think I can find anybody here who’d offer me any competition?”

As she walked past Griff, she said, “I’ll beat you at everything.”

Grinning widely, he followed her.

For the next hour, she and Griff battled it out. There wasn’t a game they didn’t try. He was going to pay for them, but the look Mike gave him made them take turns at paying.

Mike told Griff about Vera on the ladder and Jared and his sons blowing up the balloons. Griff listened eagerly. “That’s the kind of story I want to hear. They make her human.”

She thrust a stuffed monkey into his arms, along with the four he was already holding. “She is very human. The cellar proves that.” She gasped at her slip.

Griff’s eyes widened. “What is that?”

“Nothing. Let’s get rid of these.”

They went to the fire department booth and dropped off the prizes in their donation box. The firefighters teased Mike. “Stay and help us. We’ll lend you an apron.”

“And I’m to be shirtless, too?” she teased back.

“Of course. It’s all for charity.”

“Maybe,” she said. “I could—”

Griff spoke up. “I can beat you at the ring toss. Let’s go.”

“Looks like someone’s jealous,” one of the men said.

“So, Mike, you got two boyfriends now? Wanna make it three?”

“I’ll tell Charlotte on you. Save me some burnt ends,” she said. Laughing, she turned away to leave with Griff. “You aren’t really, you know, are you?”

“Jealous?” He snorted in derision. “That would imply ownership.”

“I guess it does.” With guilt, she remembered her jealousy at the way Vera and Papi had talked about him. “So you’re good at ring toss, are you?”

“In Namibia, I was the best.”

She smiled in memory. “Oh, those sand dunes in Sossusvlei.”

“And that one little tree in front of Big Daddy. Did you climb to the top?”

“Of course, and Papi shot it all. Used his 400 lens. I said he wouldn’t need that long, but he was right.”

Griff was smiling smugly.

“What does that look mean?”

“Your dad said you knew about photography.”

“Dad is Dr. Coop. Miguel is Papi.”