“Hayley!” He fell to his knees, calling her, checking her pulse, “Riley!” He pried the phone from her fingers and connected to emergency services.

Somehow, by the time Riley was back with Connor, taking in the situation, Jack had called for paramedics and explained what had occurred. Although, fuck if he knew what the hell was wrong with Hayley.

Riley crouched beside her, his question desperate. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did she fit? Or faint?”

“She… fell…. I called 911.”

“We should take her to the road.”

“What if she hit her head?”

Riley touched her arm. “Did you see her hit her head?”

“No.”

Riley stared at Jack, telegraphing his shock and fear. “Jack,” he pleaded, as if Jack could make any sense of this.

“Riley, I don’t know….”

Jack wanted to say “Pick her up, and we’ll take her to the hospital.” He wanted to shout that Riley should hold her close and lift her into his arms, but he couldn’t. What if she shouldn’t be moved? Something sparked in Riley’s eyes, a desperation that Jack wanted to scare away.

Carol came outside, stood in horror, said nothing, then took Connor and Lexie inside, followed by a happily chatting Max.

Riley picked Hayley up. She was limp in his arms. “She’s so small,” he murmured.

Jack jumped the porch steps. “I’ll drive.”

Jack started the Land Rover, reversed it to the house, and jumped out to help Riley. Once Riley and Hayley were belted in, Jack went back to the front of the vehicle, belted himself in, and put his foot down.

They met the paramedics at the beginning of the long mile of the road from the ranch, and the next few minutes passed in a blur.

The EMTs hooked her up to oxygen, and Jack had never seen anything as terrifying as Hayley hooked up to heart monitors, with a BP cuff on her arm. She looked so small, so horrifyingly tiny on the gurney.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Paramedic One asked as he worked.

“She fainted.” Jack answered when Riley looked to him for help. “She stood up, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed.”

“Okay, vitals are stable. We have a high reading on sugar, seven-twenty.” The paramedic looked at Jack, then Riley. “Is your daughter diabetic at all?”

“No,” Riley said immediately.

“Was she complaining of dizziness, lack of breath, sickness? Anything?”

Jack shook his head. “She was telling me she was tired, she had her phone, and then she fell.”

Jack saw the paramedic’s expression, the slight nod of his head to the other paramedic.

“Let’s get to Mercy,” Simmons, according to his embroidered name that Jack could now see, said. “Sugar at seven-twenty.”

The second paramedic made a note on his paperwork, then came out and around to climb into the driver’s seat.

Riley moved farther into the ambulance. One of them had been encouraged to ride along, and Jack didn’t begin to argue that it was Riley who should be there.

“What does that mean?” he asked Simmons. “Is that bad? What’s wrong?”

“Let’s get her to the hospital.”

Simmons was all patience and support, but Jack knew he had something on his mind. Jack opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when Simmons pulled the doors shut, giving Jack his last view of Riley’s tall frame hunched over Hayley.

Jack wasn’t a religious man, but at that moment, when he saw the doors of the ambulance shut on a pale Riley, he prayed to every single god that anyone believed in.

Keep her safe.

Jack wasn’t entirely sure how he made it to the hospital in one piece. He couldn’t see anything other than the back of the ambulance, and he only split from it when the paramedics pulled into the emergency bay and Jack had to take a turn into visitor’s parking. He was out of the car in an instant, locking it, sprinting past other parked cars to the ER entrance and sliding to a halt in the waiting room. He couldn’t see Hayley or Riley anywhere through the glass main doors. He bypassed the small queue at the window, leaning over to speak.

“My daughter has been brought in.”

The nurse on desk duty glanced over from booking in a woman with a bloody hand wrapped in a towel. “If you take a seat, I’ll find out where they took her.”

Jack shook his head. “I know where they took her,” he blurted. “Straight into the ER. Let me through.”

“One minute, sir.”

“I don’t have a freaking minute,” Jack snapped. “I need to see my daughter and husband.”

“Sir, please take a seat.”

“I need—”

“I’ll be with you in a minute. Please.”

Jack stepped back from the desk and screen, and turned to face the rest of the people in the waiting room: kids, moms and dads, elderly couples, a guy in Army uniform—a sea of faces staring at him as if he’d gone mad.

He couldn’t sit; the energy sparking in every one of his veins was enough to have him resting his hands on his knees and bending over. His chest was tight, and he realized he was losing it.

“Jack!”

Riley’s voice.

Jack looked up and saw Riley the other side of security. In seconds, he was at his husband’s side with the door shut behind him. The nurse at the desk caught his eye, and all the adrenaline left him in a rush. Sorry, he mouthed.

She smiled a little, then turned back to the woman she’d been dealing with before.

“What did they say?” Jack asked as Riley led him past screened-off cubicles and a couple emergency rooms. The scent in this place was overwhelming: sterile, bleach, and the noise was unbelievable. People talking, the buzz of conversation; there was crying and a toddler screaming from behind the last curtain to the left.

“They haven’t said anything. A doctor is with her.” Riley pushed aside the curtain, and Jack followed right on his heels. There wasn’t a lot of room around the bed for two big men like them. A nurse was extracting blood. A doctor, peering at notes and ordering tests, was looking way too damn serious.

What the hell is happening?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Diabetes.

Riley followed the sign for the cafeteria, but he wasn’t thinking about the coffee he’d promised a shell-shocked Jack. He was questioning every single thing the doctor had told them. He’d needed distance. A moment when he didn’t have to see the way Jack was reacting, or feel the anger that curled inside him.

This is probably my fault. Something in my genes.

Jack knew. Jack looked at him with such shock in his eyes.

“Riley, wait up!”

Riley stopped and turned on his heel, seeing Eden rushing along the corridor toward him.

“I was calling,” she said as she reached him. “Where’s Hayley?”

Riley turned and carried on to the cafeteria. “They moved her to a pediatric ward. She has diabetes.” The words were so final, but he didn’t want to talk anymore, so what was the point in encouraging questions. Eden had the facts, now she could go find Jack and Hayley and do her Aunty thing.

Eden yanked him to a stop. “You stand right there, Riley Campbell-Hayes,” she snapped.

Riley attempted to tug his arm free, but she had a grip of iron and knew exactly where to hold him.

“Let me go,” he said.

“No. You’re doing that Riley thing again.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes you are. You’re shutting down and dealing with everything inside.”

“No I’m fucking not,” he said harshly and endeavored again to get free.

“Jack is sitting there staring at Hayley, and he tells me you went quiet and disappeared off for coffee, I knew this was what you were doing. He didn’t want to leave Hayley alone, said she needed one of her dads in with her.”

“He’s right. He can deal with this.”

“This isn’t about you, big brother.”

“It is,” Riley snapped. “This is my fault.”