They put down the pistols and Griff gave Kyle a serious look. “I just found out that a lot of the dangerous places Vera and Miguel went, Mike was there with them.”

“Don’t let my mother know that or she’ll have a fit. But it doesn’t surprise me.” Kyle nodded to the lemonade booth. They ordered and Griff paid. “You should know that Mike is as good at keeping secrets as her mother.”

Griff took his time responding. “I need an assistant for my bio. Miguel said Mike is good with a camera, so I thought—”

“Forget it,” Kyle said. “Mike won’t leave here.”

“Because of the boyfriend?”

“Hell, no! He’s just a means to an end. The problem is that the Exton girls always put family first.”

“That’s hard to believe. Vera’s rarely been here since the seventies.”

“But she didn’t leave Mason until my mother had finished veterinarian school and was able to support herself.”

Griff’s face showed he wasn’t understanding.

“Both sets of Mike’s parents will be here in Kansas, and she has a strong connection to us Hattens. Has she told you what she does for a living?”

“No.”

“Think of a pinwheel. Every blade of it is a different business of her family. There’s Heritage Harvests, Coop’s vet clinic, the book Vera and Miguel want to write, my mom’s volunteer programs, plus half a dozen more. Mike is the pin in the middle. She’s needed by all of them.”

“And the boyfriend?”

“I understand Mike’s why, that she wants to anchor herself here, but no one can understand the who. Mike is half Kansas and half places we’ve never heard of. Maybe Brookside Boy is an in-between creature. Who knows? But I do know that he thinks Mason is full of uneducated yokels.”

“I didn’t like him but I thought it was just me.”

“Must be confusing since you’re already half in love with Mike.”

“I’m not!” Griff sputtered. “I mean, that’s ridiculous. I haven’t known her even twenty-four hours. And she can’t stand me.”

“When I first met Becks, the woman I’m going to marry tomorrow, she told me she’d rather date an escaped convict than me.”

Griff grimaced. “So you stalked her? Wore her down?”

“Hell, no! That would have been easy. I cleaned up my act. I got rid of my Harley, bought a sedan, stopped chasing women, cut the drinking. As for the gambling, I am the highest stakes I’d ever played. I bet it all to win.”

Griff was looking at him. “I think you want me to win.”

“Maybe so. I love that kid like she’s my little sister. Ask her how many times I saved her neck when she was growing up. She’s as fearless as Vera.”

“Any advice?”