“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?”
Kelly laughed. “If she took my classes I’m sure she would be. She’d know the history of every animal back to the Ice Age.”
“But you just know when an animal is feeling bad. Remember the baby foxes you sneaked into your house? I thought your mother was going to take an ax to them.”
“She was scared.”
“Uh-oh.” The sky had opened up to rain. Kelly started to turn back. “Fredericks,” he called over his shoulder and she knew where he meant.
She had on a little sun hat but it wasn’t much protection. She put her head down and went east toward the old homestead. Xander, not liking getting drenched, took off at a racer’s pace. Despite her warning to Adam about running him, it was exhilarating as they sped down the trail.
The old Fredericks house was in bad shape but it still had a fairly good roof, and there was a big shed in the back.
With his head down against the rain, Adam slid off in front of the shed. When the double doors stuck, he kicked them in and his horse hurried inside. He put his arms up for Kelly and lifted her down. Big Xander barely fit through the doors.
It took them a while to get the horses settled. Then Adam said, “Let’s go.”
They ran through the rain and into the house, then through the old kitchen and into the living room. There was a fireplace but it looked to be full of nests. With a clogged chimney, they both knew that a fire would fill the house with smoke.
Against the far wall was a stained mattress and there was spray-painted graffiti on the wall. Henry loves Diane.
“Another Sex Shack,” Kelly said.
“Another one? Where’s the—?” Adam stopped and his face turned red. He realized she meant the place he and Vera used.
Kelly sat down on the mattress.
“You’re soaked,” he said. “I’d offer you dry clothes and a warm drink but...” He shrugged. “It’s Kansas. Any rain that isn’t from a tornado makes me happy.” He was looking around for a place to sit. She nodded toward the other side of the mattress and he sat down a couple of feet from her.
The rain was loud on the roof and Kelly was beginning to feel cold in her wet clothes. The room was dark, with the only light coming from a window that showed the grayness outside. Something about the place made for a kind of intimacy and Kelly desperately wanted to talk to someone, a person who wouldn’t go into a panic, about the disrupted future of everyone in her life.
She looked out the window at the rain and blinked hard at the tears that were coming.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” Adam said.
“I think Pauly is breaking up with me,” she said softly.
“What makes you think that?” He sounded surprised.
She told him about the ring Mrs. Carl had bought and given to Pauly to use for their engagement. “I went to him expecting a marriage proposal. It wasn’t as though I didn’t know it was coming. It wasn’t ‘if’ but ‘when.’ But he said nothing about the ring, so I asked.” She paused. “Pauly said he’d returned it to the store.”
“You’re kidding!” Adam almost shouted.
Kelly started to get up, but he clasped her forearm and she sat back down. “Sorry. It’s just that you’re so much...so much more than he is! I’m not denigrating him but everyone thinks that.”
“Pauly has been safe, and I—”
“You what?” When she hesitated, he said, “You can talk to me.”
“Only if you swear on your life that you won’t tell Vera. I have to protect her.”
“Protect Vera? What does that mean?”
“She has to be free to leave. No obligations. No chains holding her here. She stayed here for me. She gave up going to Africa for me.”
“And for your mother,” he said.
“Yes. For us. I can’t allow things to fall apart now. Vera will only leave if I’m settled.”
“I understand,” he said. “Robbie told me about this. Actually, he shouted it at me. I gather that Mrs. Carl is a problem.”
“She’s an absolute witch to most people, but she often tells me she loves me.”
“But if you don’t marry Paul she’ll take you away from Dr. Carl. Then where will you work?”
“Exactly!”
He leaned back against the wall. “Have you ever been on a date with anyone other than Paul?”