"I love you." Riley interrupted whatever Jack had been saying, and for a second, Jack just stared at him.

"Yeah?" he finally said, and took those few steps until he pressed close to Riley's side. "What did I do to deserve you saying that, het-boy?"

It was Jack's usual way to lighten any intense situation with humor. But this wasn't that time. Riley had things to say, and saying them out here on D land with the house behind them and acres of land beyond them, seemed just the right thing to do.

"For Hayley," Riley began. He reached out and curved his hand around Jack's face. The feel of Jack's skin was prickly and rough with stubble, and Riley noticed a few lines around his eyes. Tough Texan-sun-toned skin and eyes that were a deep clear sky blue made one sexy package. Jack pressed against Riley's palm, and he didn't drop his gaze. "I love you for Hayley. You are doing this for her and taking it so seriously. I love that you are going to teach her to ride properly so she is safe, and I love that you give her and me time to be us."

"Riley—"

"No. Wait. I love that you trusted me about those contracts and you didn't immediately think I had anything to do with it. Despite our past, you trusted me." He stopped briefly. He had so much more to say. "I love the coffee you make me, the way you don't fight me sprawling and taking up more than half the bed. I love the noises you make when you lose it inside me. I love the way you close your eyes when we kiss and the wonder I see there when you open them."

"Oh," Jack said, and raised his eyebrows. "That's kind of an intense thing to lay on a guy at six in the morning."

Riley had a second of worry this was Jack's way of escaping the intensity of what he had said. That thought only lasted a second as Jack leaned in and gripped handfuls of Riley's shirt.

"I love that, even before you knew Hayley was yours, you were her daddy," Jack said simply. "And I love you want to make things right at HayesOil, but I hate that you were worried I wouldn't think either was good—"

"Jack—"

"But I know why you thought these things. I understand. Okay?" Jack was asking far more than just a response to his words. He wanted Riley to know he would always acknowledge Riley's fears and hopes as being real. Riley dropped his hand and, instead, put both arms around his husband and held him close. He smelled of the shower gel they used and the early morning air. Riley inhaled deeply. Jack smelled like home.

"Daddy!" Hayley's voice was coming nearer, and Riley released his hold on Jack, and they exchanged goofy grins. "Daddy! Is Red awake?" It had been difficult to keep the pony a secret, and Jack had been way too excited not to tell her the minute Red had arrived a few days before.

Getting Hayley to sleep had been near impossible last night, and Riley was amused she had slept this long this morning on her actual birthday. She reached them, and in a smooth move, Jack caught her and swung her up on the top rung. She scrambled to sit, and suddenly it was the three of them looking at the new pony. Hayley was visibly vibrating with excitement.

"Pappa, he really is so beautiful." Riley looked at her. That was a new one, calling him Pappa when he was normally Daddy.

"I know he is. Jack chose well, didn't he?" Riley smiled at her as she turned to face him.

"Yeah, he did, but I'm talking to Jack, Daddy, not you; he's Pappa."

Riley's heart nearly exploded in his chest. This moment here, looking at Red, standing with the man he loved and listening to his daughter call his husband Pappa… This was way past incredible.

* * * *

Hayley's birthday passed without a hitch. Riley wanted to buy every single toy and game he could find. He wanted her to have everything. Common sense slapped him in the face, and with Red saddled and waiting, they really had given her the best birthday ever. He worried she would be sad as it was her first birthday without her mom. There was an apprehension building inside him as to how the hell he was going to deal with it. In the end he just held her when she cried.

She had disappeared from the huge birthday spread Donna had prepared and the chaos of two families fighting for food and space in the small kitchen. It was loud and chaotic, filled with laughter and teasing and love. When he'd found her, she was with Red, a coloring book and some pens that Eden had given her lying out on the grass. It was a book full of horse outlines, and she had just stared at it for a long while. No one else but Riley seemed to notice.

She was on her tummy in the grass, the book open in front of her and the pens in disarray around her, but she wasn't coloring now. Instead she was staring ahead with her chin resting on her crossed arms. Her little legs were bent at the knee, and she was swinging them idly. Riley crouched next to her.

"Hi ya, Hayley," he said gently, and she glanced sideways at him. He could see she had been crying, her intense brown eyes red-rimmed. He sat the rest of the way down and hesitated. Maybe she needed alone time? Who was he to think he could understand her or make things better for her? He wasn't arrogant enough to imagine for one minute she needed him at this time.

"'M just a bit sad," she half whispered. "I'm sorry." "Why are you sorry?"

"I know I shouldn't be sad."

"You have every reason to be sad, sweetheart." "But I got a pony. Ebony doesn't have a pony. So I

gotta be happy."

Riley waited before he answered. Ebony was

Hayley's friend with the parents who locked their doors

sometimes. Maybe he should think of bringing Ebony here

for a visit. Hayley had been ripped from everything she

knew to be placed with him. Damn. Why hadn't he thought

of that for her birthday? He never even considered inviting

Ebony or Sarah or Aunt Sophie. And he called himself a

dad?

"Nope. You don't have to be happy, baby. You can be as sad as you want to be about your momma." Wait, should he be saying that? Hell, maybe he should be telling her about how her momma was in a better place, looking down from heaven, that she was a star or something. Jeez. He really had to hit the Internet when he got his next time

alone. Hayley sat up and scrubbed her eyes.

"Your daddy is dead. Aunty Eden told me. And

your brother—he's dead too."

"Yes, they are."

"Do you cry?"