Adam stood in the doorway for a while, watching her car lights disappear into the dark. He went back to the living room, got their plates and glasses, then cleaned up the kitchen. Before he’d lived in Africa, he’d been one of those men who left all household matters to women. After his mother died, they’d had a cook/housekeeper. “A sexless wife,” Burke had called her.

But in Africa, Adam had learned how to take care of himself. Cooking and cleaning had been things he’d learned how to do. The women had teased him that he needed a wife to help him. Adam always said, “She’ll be here soon.”

As he stood in the kitchen and looked around, he thought how easy the appliances made everything. How convenient his life was here. The first time he’d walked away from it had been in anger. He’d had all he could take of Burke Hatten’s rules and demands and endless criticism. But all that anger was gone now and he was looking at things differently. That deep need to get out was fading.

“But Vera is worth it,” he said as he went up the stairs to his bedroom. He frowned as he passed Robbie’s empty room. Where was he?

Adam read for a while, then went to bed at midnight. Robbie still wasn’t home. Tomorrow he’d talk to his brother about his late nights.

And it will do as much good as when Dad talked to me, Adam thought.

Early Sunday morning, Adam got up, dressed and checked to see if Robbie had come home. His brother was fully clothed and sprawled crosswise on top of the bed just like Adam used to do. How Burke had yelled at him!

Adam was about to do the same to his brother, but instead he closed the door and went downstairs, then outside. The air was crisp and cool and very clean. He saddled Jagger, told Xander that Kelly was going to visit him, then rode to the big barn.

When he’d left Kansas, there had been four full-time employees on the farm. Robbie had gleefully written that their dad had to hire two men to do all the work Adam did.

This morning Jess and Tom were at the barn loading up one of the pickups with fence posts and posthole diggers.

They greeted each other and the men dutifully asked about Africa, but they were more interested in local news. And sports. Lots of sports. Jess and Adam had played football together in high school.

For Adam, it was great to talk of such familiar things with people he knew well. He knew Jess’s and Tom’s parents, their aunts and uncles. Tom had a pretty cousin who had caught Adam’s eye more than once. Tom was married with a baby on the way, and Jess was engaged.