“We need help in here,” he said, frantic with worry.

One of the nurses walked straight up to Hayley’s bed. All matter-of-fact, she checked the readouts and pressed some buttons. She rubbed her hand on Hayley’s back, and while Riley and Jack watched, the focus came back into Hayley’s eyes.

“Hypo,” the nurse said. “Hayley, can you tell me how you felt?”

“Really sad, like…. I can’t describe it.” Hayley looked from Jack to Riley with a worried expression. “I felt hot, and my eyes were….” She stopped and scrubbed her eyes with her fist. “My head hurts.”

The nurse stopped her, patted her shoulder. “Post hypo headache,” she said. “You’ll learn what a hypoglycemic attack feels like.” She looked at Riley and Jack. “Your dads will help you with that. And you’ll get to recognize the warning signs. You may feel disorientated, hot, shaky, and sometimes you might not even realize what is happening.”

Riley sat up. “That was a hypo?” He didn’t know what he’d been expecting. More collapsing, something more dramatic. “And what if it’s worse and she doesn’t realize?”

The nurse nodded. “That was a baby hypo. She won’t get huge swings here because everything is so tightly controlled. At home, she’ll need to keep up her testing regime and make sure she accounts for what she eats. The first hypo you see that isn’t controlled—the one where she slurs her words, or talks nonsense, or refuses to believe she’s hypo at all—that is the scary one. She’ll need to eat or drink something sugary. We’ll show you all that.”

Jack was nodding his understanding. All Riley could focus on was that there were worse hypos. Scary hypos.

“Then there is the opposite of a hypo. When the sugar levels are high, we call that a hyper,” the nurse added. “You know, so they are opposites.”

“When the sugars go too high,” Riley finished.

“Hayley, you will become lethargic, and again, you’ll learn what they feel like. As long as you are testing regularly, you’ll be able to decide whether to inject more insulin, or whether your sugar is low and you need to eat something.”

Riley looked at Hayley in the bed. She was listening, understanding, so completely focused on what the nurse was saying. To Riley, it sounded like the end of the world. Hayley seemed to treat it like it was the next accepted, positive, step in her life. He and Jack would have to look out for her and see that she was okay, keeping everything under control.

“It’s all about balance,” the nurse said.

Riley smiled at her. Balance was something he could get behind. He was determined that Hayley would be supported as much as he could.

Riley settled back in the chair outside Hayley’s room and picked up the paper. He skimmed the front pages—nothing more than opposing views on everything and anything, and while he loved debating, he was tired and had really had enough. Day two, and sitting in the hospital was getting to him. He’d encouraged Jack to go home, check on the kids, the horses, the Double D, anything to get the man who lived for the outside, actually outside this damn place.

At least the coffee he was sipping was hot, and the bagel Jack had dropped to him before he left was fresh. Nothing in the hospital was fresh by the evening.

He turned to page seven and the editorial that was the only thing he ever read in a paper or online. His interest peaked when he saw it was about the upcoming same-sex marriage decision from SCOTUS. There were pros, there were cons, but none of that mattered to Riley. When he read the cons, all he could remember was the comments they’d received before.

He recalled the moment they were told that Jack and he couldn’t both legally adopt Hayley or the twins. He remembered some of the crap they’d been given outside the support of their extended family and friends. He imagined the shitstorm this would cause in Texas. No way was a yes decision from SCOTUS going to go down well in this red state.

He put down the paper and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes and thinking about what he would do if the vote was passed. Get his dad to look into the potential for full co-parent adoption; that would be first, and maybe he and Jack could do what they’d talked about: a proper in-your-face wedding to shout from the rooftops.

I married Jack Campbell, and look at us in love and freaking happy!

“Morning, Mr. Campbell-Hayes.”

A voice jogged Riley from his thoughts. He opened his eyes to see a nurse with a tray of food. Hayley was eating better here than at home. She probably wouldn’t want to leave.

“Morning,” he replied and followed her in.

Hayley was sitting up in bed, her eyes bright, her skin still pale, but she looked positive and awake. The nurse talked her through the foods on the tray: hidden sugars in fruit, the kinds of carbs that would work for different scenarios. Like the brainy kid Hayley was, she soaked it all up like a sponge. Riley listened. He’d already bought twenty-three diabetes-related books that were being delivered home the next day. Never let it be said that Riley Campbell-Hayes wasn’t going to know every damn thing about his daughter’s diabetes.

He’d also friended Yasmin on Facebook. She accepted his request, and they chatted privately about life and diabetes. Riley learned a lot from her.

“So she has kids?” Jack had asked when Riley explained who she was and how she was helping him to understand. Riley also admitted they’d slept together once, way back… a long way back. There was no point in getting Jack to friend her because a, Riley would have to get Jack onto Facebook, and b, Jack and any kind of technology had a love-hate relationship. He’d blown the microwave up only a few weeks before after leaving a metal spoon in a coffee he was reheating.

“Two,” Riley said. “A girl and a boy.”

The lecture in the hospital room was finished, and the nurse left with a smile and a hello to someone coming in the door.

If it were possible, Hayley brightened more as Anna, Sarah, and Logan stopped by her bed.

“Lea sent this,” Anna explained and handed over a soft toy. She helped Sarah up onto the bed, and they sat and chatted while Hayley ate her breakfast. Well, everyone except Logan, who was mute, looking down at his phone.

That didn’t matter to Hayley. She loved being the center of everyone’s attention, and Riley was happy to see her smile.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Robbie watched as the shit hit the fan on the twenty-sixth of June. Not only had he needed to deal with an incredibly hyper Eli this morning, but now he’d walked into complete chaos in Jack and Riley’s kitchen. At one moment Eli was up about the SCOTUS vote on same-sex marriage, the next down at the thought of today being another in a long line of cancer checkups. Robbie had said what he could, but when that wasn’t enough, he’d escaped that stress only to land himself in the middle of another.

When he recalled previous episodes of shit hitting fans around the Double D, he knew this was going to be another doozy. The problem was he walked in on Hayley in tears, Max rocking in his chair, Lexie smacking her bowl repeatedly on her high chair, and Riley in the middle of it all looking like someone had stolen his lunch money. There was no sign of Jack or Connor, or indeed Carol, which didn’t bode well.

“No shouting, no shouting,” Max said as he rocked.

Robbie didn’t know what to do first. He looked at the milk spreading across the table toward the six packets of cereal in the middle, Hayley burying her face in her hands, her medical stuff to one side, and back at Riley.

Max first.

Robbie pressed a hand to Max’s shoulder and lifted the little guy when Max extended his arms. Thankfully at that moment Carol appeared back in the kitchen and silently took Max, followed by Jack, who picked up Lexie and disappeared again after shaking his head at Robbie. Did that mean he wanted Robbie to go?