"You don't shut your door," she commented, but wouldn't meet Riley's eyes.

"I'm… we don't… we…" Riley Campbell-Hayes, twenty-eight and lost for words in front of an itty-bitty girl.

"Look," she said, "Ebony's mom would shout at her dad and he would shout back and then there would be cuddles. And sometimes they would shut their door."

Jeez. Riley felt a blush rise from his toes to his face. Out of the mouths of babes or some such nonsense.

"Uh huh?" It was the safest response he could give that didn't involve him tripping over his words. He wondered briefly if Eden was still around. Maybe this was something that should be classified as girl talk.

"You don't do that. Momma said you 'n Jack were real happy. Like married happy, and that means you should cuddle and sometimes you need to shut the door."

"We do—"

"I haven't seen you cuddle once."

"Okay… we'll, um… cuddle," he finished helplessly.

"And shut the door?"

"Yes, we'll shut our door."

"'Cause I'm okay, you know."

"What?" Riley didn't mean for that to come out as blunt as it had. What did she mean she was okay?

"Momma said I would be sad, and that would be okay. I will be sad. I know. And sometimes I am sad. Sometimes I am more than sad, and then I read her letters. But I'm okay in my room on my own."

Riley was stunned. He had been walking on eggshells, trying not to push his relationship with Jack in her face, trying to make it all okay, and here she sat, telling him he was doing it wrong. Realization smacked into him with the force of a truck. She was right. He opened his arms, and she clambered onto his lap and cuddled into him. He held on for dear life, choking back the emotions that threatened to burst from him, and buried his face into her neck. She smelled of apple shampoo and horses and all manner of things that reminded him of Eden. God, the times he had held Eden when she was little as they listened to their dad rail at their mom or when Jeff was being a particular kind of a bastard to them both. He had the same love for Hayley he'd had for Eden, and it was a love that started in his heart and spread like wildfire through him.

"I love you, Hayley," he said simply. He had only known her two weeks, but he knew she was the most precious thing to him. He, Hayley and Jack were a family, and he needed to let Jack in.

"I love you too, Daddy."

"Jack?" he called. If he knew Jack, then his husband would be loitering in the hall waiting for a sign everything was okay. Jack peered around the door and then stepped in when Riley crooked a finger to indicate he should. He sat next to Riley and allowed himself to be pulled into a kind of odd three-way hug. Hayley just nestled in closer, and Jack inclined his head. Riley didn't have to be told he'd done okay.

He could feel Hayley's tears against his throat.

C

HAPTER

13

Eden, Beth and Donna had taken Hayley shopping, citing they had better fill her wardrobe before the article hit the press and shopping became a chore rather than an enjoyable day out. Riley was under no illusions that once the news hit the stands the gossip rags would pull out every single excruciating detail of what had gone on with the Hayes family last year. Hayley needed clothes, an iPod and more books apparently. The clothes were Eden's idea; the iPod, Beth's. Donna was the one thinking along the lines of education. Hayley's uniform was hanging on the back of her door, waiting for Monday and her first day of school, and Donna was taking the list of what she needed to buy. Hayley was visibly hopping from one foot to the other in excitement and hadn't even given her dad a backward glance as they drove off to God knew where.

Riley left Jack pacing outside Taylors' stall and took the hours to go into the office. Something wasn't going according to plan with the horse, and Jack was nearly incapable of leaving Taylors. There was nothing Riley could do, and in fact, it was Jack that said he should get his giant ass back to the office. The last few weeks he'd spent at home working had pushed him just marginally away from having his eye on the ball, and it was good to be sitting at his desk. Working on Sunday always felt so quiet and relaxed, and there were no other staff members in the office apart from the usual front desk security guard. He was the front face of the whole building and had control of the alarms as well as who came in and out of the small complex containing different companies. It was a far cry from the tower where HayesOil had been, but the views were no less spectacular. Instead of the cityscape, he saw rolling hills and green grass. It suited him more. A text came through from Eden.

Hayley is having fun.

He quickly texted a few words back and then tried to settle in to work. His latest research had led to HayesOil drilling speculatively in the seabed off the Texas coast, and he smiled as he read first reports from the site. The drilling was looking good for all the right mineral markers, and they had hopes oil wasn't far below. Eighty percent of people involved in the drilling were from local towns along the coast, and HayesOil was being sensitive to environment considerations, both ticks in Riley's boxes. It might not have started as such, but Riley was working hard to work with ethical guidelines. Big donations, not to bribe but to thank, were being made, and Jim and he were doing well. It wasn't going to make one hell of a lot of money, but Riley was doing what was right and, in doing so, was attempting to balance some of his father's and brother's wrongs.

His main phone rang, giving him a shock. It sounded so damn loud in the otherwise quiet working space.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mr Campbell-Hayes, this is the front desk.

There are some people here to see you."

"People?" Riley pulled his head out of his work and

blinked back to the here and now.

"A Sarah and Elliot Anderson, and their lawyer,

Abbot Essene."

Sarah Anderson? Quickly, he pushed the papers to

one side on his desk, revealing the scribbled notes he had

made earlier. Anderson was the surname of Sarah's

husband, the guy Lexie wanted to keep Hayley away from. "I'll come collect them," Riley said cautiously.

"Could you please make them coffee and tell them I'm on a

conference call?"

"Thank you, sir. I will."

The man at the front desk ended the call, and Riley

immediately dialed an outside line. When Jim answered,