Adam kindly let her ride Xander, and from the way the horse twitched its tail, he was pleased. “He certainly does like you.”

“Most people do,” she said.

Adam mounted Jagger. He wasn’t magnificent like Xander, but dependable and unimpressed by anything. “Are you defending yourself or aiming at me?”

She ignored his question as they rode side by side on an old trail between crop fields of soybeans and sunflowers. “So tell me about Africa.”

He got a faraway look in his eyes. “You’d love the country. The animals are majestic. They roam wild. Giraffes and zebras run together. There are herds of water buffalo. And the lions! They’re lazy most of the time, but they’ll take off in a leap. They’re ruthless killers.”

Kelly was nodding. Since she was a child, she’d watched documentaries about animals.

“What about human hunters?”

Adam took a while to answer. “People pay so they can kill the animals. I saw a rhino dying because his horn had been cut off.”

“I can see why you’d want to be there and not here.”

“There are a lot of problems here, too.”

“I take it you mean Robbie.”

“Can you keep a secret? One I haven’t even told Vera?”

“Of course.”

“Robbie doesn’t know this, but Dad left me two-thirds of the farm. He didn’t divide it equally.”

“He was probably trying to give you a reason to stay here.”

“That’s what I think, too, but Robbie won’t believe that,” Adam said. “He’ll think Dad liked me better.”

“That’s ridiculous! Robbie is much easier to love than you. Don’t look at me like that. I’m just telling the truth. Robbie will stay because he wants to, but you have to be coaxed.”

“Or bought.” Adam grimaced. “You sure know how to crush a man’s ego.”

“Sorry. Robbie is friendlier than you. Is that better?”

“Not much. He’s certainly friendly to women. And he acts like he can’t stand me.”

“He’s trying to make you angry.”

“Why?”

“He’s trying to make you stay, of course. Robbie loves you. You should have seen him and your dad after you ran away.”

“I didn’t ‘run away.’ You make me sound like a kid running off to the circus.”

“You went off to lions, elephants and rhinos. Seems to fit.”

Adam shook his head. “I guess so.” He took a deep breath of clean air. “I needed to go. The pressure on me to be ‘Burke Hatten’s son’ was too much for me.”

“Being Adam Hatten’s baby brother is almost too much for Robbie.”

He looked at her. “You’re smart, aren’t you?”

“Top of my class in vet school. Of course, I’m no match for Vera.”

He looked puzzled. “She’s ahead of you in Elephant Class?”