Copycat Love: Not a Romance Novel

Two people who induce Dan to change are his wife and his mother-in-law. When the latter is only a mother-in-law-to-be, she uses Dan's attraction to her daughter as a weapon to force change, not for Dan's benefit, but for her daughter's. Her methods are more coercive than nice, but they work. The daughter's methods, however, are nice (most of the time), and also effective.

Dan's transformation is also boosted by his associates at Jupiter Elevator, a grain elevator in central Iowa. I'm a long-time customer of grain elevators, sat on the board of directors for one, and know that people at work influence us all.