Still Riley didn’t move, and Hayley didn’t look up. Robbie couldn’t in all conscience leave the situation. Abruptly he imagined Hayley was ill or something. She’d been out of the hospital and home over a month now, and she was well. The odd hypo, but nothing she couldn’t handle. Only once had she gone a little too low, becoming disoriented and flushed. Jack explained this in some detail to Robbie the next day. Robbie had heard stuff like that before. He had a friend back in Australia with diabetes, and for a girl so young, Hayley had a good handle on it.

Robbie placed the paperwork he’d been dropping off onto the side of the worktop, then very carefully stepped right in front of Riley, who flinched.

“Riley?” he asked carefully.

“I….” Riley began, then stopped.

Riley had been so wrapped up in Hayley. Hell, he checked everything she ate, kept a record of her readings, and explained every little thing to her. Privately, Robbie thought Riley was overprotective, who was he to say.

“I fucked up.” Riley said finally.

He looked tired. Almost as tired as he’d been after the twins had been born. Robbie glanced back at Hayley, who had now sat up and was scrubbing at her eyes. She met Robbie’s gaze but dropped hers and instead fiddled with her blood reader, before looking at her insulin pen, setting an amount, and injecting herself in her tummy.

“What happened, Riley?” Robbie asked.

“I wasn’t thinking. I put sugar on Hayley’s cereal.”

Okay. There was an actual thing at the center of this that Robbie could work with. “Accidents happen,” he offered in his best attempt at encouraging philosophical acceptance.

“He shouldn’t be near my cereal,” Hayley snapped. “I can look after myself.”

Oh. So, it was one of those arguments. The teenager-parent kind. The overprotectiveness of Dad against the fact Hayley was growing up and wanted control.

“I’m sorry.” Riley was talking to Hayley, but Robbie was in the way. Robbie stepped aside as Hayley pushed past and out of the door. “Hayley!”

“Leave me alone,” she shouted back and slammed the bottom half of the door shut as she left.

Jack walked back into the kitchen, concern morphing to an expression of Where the fuck is Hayley?

Robbie wasn’t going to ask. “Reports are here for you, boss. I’m off now.”

“Thanks, Robbie.” Then Jack turned to Riley. “Where’s Hayley?”

“She went out, and I don’t know if she checked her sugar.”

“Riley, you need to take a step back.”

As quick as he could, Robbie was out of the kitchen. He had the day off, and even though he wanted to help, he knew he’d been the odd one out in that family. Somehow Riley and Hayley would be okay, Jack would be all calm, Carol would be there, and everything would settle. He was absolutely convinced of it.

Some instinct had him sauntering over to the barn, like he had no intention of seeing if Hayley went that way, but checking anyway.

He found her pretty quickly, her head against Red’s mane.

“Why won’t he leave me alone?” she sobbed to the horse. “I’m okay to do my own testing and my own jabbin’. I don’t need him checking everything.” More sobs, louder, and Hayley’s hands gripped Red’s mane so tight that Robbie could see an accident happening. He should go back and find Jack. Or Riley. But… maybe that wasn’t what she needed.

“Hayley? I wouldn’t grip Red so tight, darlin’.”

Hayley released her hold and stepped back immediately, Red chasing for her hand with his soft nose.

“See, I can’t even do that right,” she said through tears.

Robbie stepped closer, stroking Red’s nose and chuckling under his breath. “Red’ll take a lot more of that than you gave him,” he reassured. “I’m thinking you want someone to talk to, and Red is the best there is. He doesn’t tell any of my secrets.”

Hayley smiled up at Robbie, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I guess he doesn’t tell any of mine either.”

“You want to talk?” A large part of Robbie hoped she’d say no, only because he didn’t have an awful lot of practice with hormonal girls.

Hayley sighed noisily and scratched Red’s face, burying her fingers into his mane once more. She mumbled something that Robbie couldn’t quite catch.

“You feelin’ okay?” he asked.

She looked back at him and nodded. “I tested my levels, and had new cereal. Only….”

“Only…?”

“Dad watches me every second of the day. He wants to see my readings, check my insulin. He fusses and lectures.”

“Aww, Hayley, he’s just worried about you.”

“I know that. But he has Max, and the twins, and work, and Jack. He should be thinking about all of that. There’s no space for my problems as well. I don’t need them like everyone else does.”

Robbie’s heart twisted in his chest. Is that what she thought? That Riley had more vital things to care about than his own daughter? Of course he had other pressures, but family was paramount in Riley’s head.

“Hayley—”

“He wouldn’t let me play rough with Connor yesterday,” she said, and the tears began to fall again. “Said my levels were too low and I might hurt him.” The crying got uglier. “I wouldn’t hurt him.”

Robbie sidled closer and placed a hand over her shoulder. “Of course you wouldn’t. Your dad’s got some adjusting to do. He needs to understand as much as you do now.”

“I bet he wishes he never took me in,” she hiccupped.

A strong arm came between them, and Riley gathered his daughter into a hug. “Hayley Campbell-Hayes, don’t you ever say that.”

“I’m sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean it—” “I’m sorry, Hayley. I know I’m interfering—”

They spoke at the same time, and slowly Robbie backed away. This was Hayley-Daddy time, and he needed to find Eli for the appointment if they were going to get there in time. Riley shot him a grateful glance, Robbie nodded in recognition then left the two of them talking.

He found Eli out the back of the barn with Vaughn, and it seemed like today was the day he was coming in at the end of conversations. He hung back until they’d finished because Eli looked like he was talking to Vaughn seriously.

“…I can’t see it myself,” Vaughn said. He was hefting equipment for transfer to the school, lifting it from the ground onto the trailer.

“If SCOTUS says yes today, though, what’s stopping you?”

Robbie stopped. He and Eli had discussed this same-sex marriage thing at great length last night, and Eli had reminded Robbie of what he’d said. If it’s legal here, the very day that Texas says that, I will be on my knees begging you to marry me. So you can never run away.

How come Eli recalled it so readily, word for word? Robbie never really imagined it would be passed, not really. Texas was his home, but he never thought it would get to this point.

He wanted so badly to be Eli’s husband. So bad, it hurt.

Vaughn stopped what he was doing and considered the question. “My Nana Pearl was a mom to five and a wife in everything but name. She said she never saw the big fuss for the paper saying it was legal. Her and my gramps were together fifty-seven years, and not a day of it was after swapping vows.”

“But if we get the chance, we should. We owe it to the people who fought for this.”

“So,” Vaughn began lazily. “You’re saying that if they pass it today and it’s legal, that jus’ ’cause we can, we should?”

“No, not like that. But you love Darren, don’t you?”

“No doubt about that.”

“And you haven’t thought about what you’d do…?”

“We talked some.” Vaughn shrugged. “We’re happy as is for the moment.” He didn’t sound uncomfortable, but Eli had words in his head that looked like they were going to tumble out, and Robbie needed to put a stop to it before Vaughn decked him one.

“Hey,” he said, announcing his arrival.

Eli beamed a huge smile. “Hey back,” he said.

Robbie and Eli had only parted an hour before, but every time he saw his man, Robbie felt his chest tighten with emotion. Getting to be a bit of a nuisance, actually, all this passion and love and need that threatened to burst out every time he saw Eli.