“Is everything okay?” Riley asked immediately.

Eden looked up, startled. She’d made herself comfortable against a few seat cushions she’d apparently requisitioned. Lisa had done the same. “Riley.” She looked past him to the lit reception. “What’s wrong?”

Riley crouched next to his sister. “I was worried.”

“What about?” She frowned at him, her expression thrown into shadows by the glow of the area behind them.

“The baby,” Riley said. He sat cross-legged in front of Eden, and Jack took a seat right next to him on the dirt.

“We were tired,” Lisa explained.

“Yeah, two pregnant ladies needing a time-out,” Eden laughed.

Riley’s anxiety shifted into feeling stupid. He held out a hand, which Eden took and gripped hard. “Thank you for today,” he said. Because the real words wouldn’t come. He couldn’t say that he had been imagining the worst because he couldn’t find her, so he fell back on the thanks to stop him feeling like an idiot.

Eden chuckled, then sobered. “You two having fun? Was it a good day?”

Jack put his arm over Riley’s shoulder. “The best,” he said.

Eden’s cell phone buzzed and she checked the screen. “Time for the video.” She made to stand, and Riley scrambled up to help her, then Lisa.

“Such a gentleman,” Lisa said with a smile.

The four of them walked to the fence, and Riley held his tongue as his sister scrambled over the top.

She’s not ill; she’s pregnant. She’s not stupid, he told himself, and he was proud he didn’t say a thing. The side of their barn had been set up with a projection unit and a screen and everyone began to cluster around the area. This was Sean’s baby. He would edit the video and upload it to YouTube in support of the lawsuit Riley and Jack had started over adoption rights.

Jack gripped his hand again. “Nervous?”

Riley wasn’t going to admit he was terrified about what his family and friends were going to say about them. What he was happy to accept was that he was an emotional wreck.

“A bit,” he said.

They were shown to two chairs, decorated with ribbons and lights.

“We did this,” Hayley announced. She gestured to the twins who were with Donna and Neil. “Max helped.”

That much was evident when Riley sat down only to have to move a small train to one side. He picked it up and recognized the red engine immediately. James.

When everyone was quiet, Sean stood up. When he first began to speak, he tilted his head, keeping his scars in the shadows, but as the words flowed, he stepped forward a little into the light.

“When Riley and Jack asked me to create a memory of today, I imagined something simple: family talking about memories and moments. Only it became more than that. What they are doing now, beginning the fight for their adoptions to be joint and fair and legal, I realized would be a greater thing than only the words spoken.”

This was the moment he stepped fully into the light, confidence in his stance.

“I’m proud and honored to be part of this, and I wanted to congratulate Mr. and Mr. Campbell-Hayes on this very special day.”

There was some talking, and clapping, and Sean stood to one side. Eden turned off the lights, and Sean pressed the button for the film.

Photos of Riley and Jack—informal poses, ordinary life, some posed—flashed on the screen. Then the first interview appeared. Hayley.

Riley smiled so hard, it hurt, then Hayley spoke.

“Having two dads properly?” she began. “I don’t like that question.” She tucked her hair behind her ears in a gesture so familiar, it made Riley’s heart hurt. “That says I don’t already have two dads, and I do.”

“So maybe we should reword the question?” Sean’s voice was off camera.

Hayley nodded. “Maybe everyone should think up new questions. Like why it’s okay to say that my pappa, Jack, can’t be my dad where the law is concerned.”

“You sound very grown-up with this, Hayley. Are these the kind of words you’ve heard spoken about your dads?”

Hayley tilted her head and frowned. “I’m not copying what I heard. I’m not stupid. I know all the big words like advocacy and attrition, and I certainly know what I want for our family.”

“I apologize,” Sean said.

Hayley shook her head. “That’s okay, Uncle Sean. I’m not mad but no one will listen to the children.”

Riley’s heart tightened, and he looked at Jack, whose eyes were shiny with emotion in the light of the screen.

Hayley continued on camera. “I love my dads. I want to be Jack’s daughter too. I know I am, and he’s my pappa, but I want it so that if it was only him and me, then no one could take me away.”

“Some people might say that with all your family’s money, it would be unlikely you’d be taken away.”

Sean was playing devil’s advocate, Riley knew that. Still, the words were hard to hear.

“I’m lucky. I know that, but what about a kid on their own, with no family except for their two dads or two moms, what then?” She sounded so grown-up, thoughtful, and passionate. Riley swelled with pride.

“Thank you, Hayley.”

“Can I say my bit now?”

“The bit that won’t be in the video the public sees?”

“No, Uncle Sean, I want all of what I say to be in the video.”

Sean chuckled. “Okay. Go for it.”

“Okay. So I want everyone to know that we are a family. I’m not using words like happy, or normal, or ‘nontraditional.’” She air-quoted that part and added a grin. “As far as we’re all concerned, we are a family, with no other words attached to it. We laugh and we cry, and we argue and sulk, and we play stupid card games, and we swim in the pool, and we are nothing different to any other family. So I wanted to show everyone watching exactly how important our two dads are. I have a message from the twins and Max.” She looked directly at the camera. “The twins are only two, so they don’t have a way of actually saying the words, and Max, well, his autism makes it hard. So I asked them what they would give to their daddies to make them super happy. Max was easy. He brought down the pink Stetson from Aunty Eden’s wedding, that was for Pappa Jack, and James the red engine was for Daddy Riley.”

Jack moved in his seat and pulled out the Stetson he’d sat on by mistake. “This is killing me,” he muttered under his breath.

Riley agreed.

“Then the twins made me laugh. Lexie brought down her entire collection of stuffed dogs, and one of Toby-dog’s chew toys. She put them all in a line on the table, and Max moved them so they were exactly equal. Connor took a lot longer to think about presents. Then he brought down two books, his favorites that you read him. He loves it when Pappa Jack makes all the noises in the Bear Hunt book, and he said his favorite is the squelchy mud. The book he chose for Daddy Riley was kinda weird, but he opened it to the page and pointed at the car.” She smiled at the camera. “It was one of your car magazines, Dad, and it had this picture of a red Ferrari. Apparently he wants you to buy that one.”

The crowd watching the video had been sighing and chuckling, and that last comment got quite a few out-loud laughs, not least from Riley.

Hayley continued. “And from me? I have one thing to show you.” She reached down beside the chair and held up something Riley recognized instantly. The Christmas decoration she’d made them the first Christmas they were together. “I made this for us all. It says, ‘Daddy, Pappa, and Me. My Family, 2011.’ And now there is Max, and Connor and Lexie. We love you, Pappa. We love you, Daddy. Congratulations on your wedding day.”

She looked off-screen to where Riley imagined Sean was sitting. “You’ll keep that in?” she asked. “I want everyone to see that we are a family, whatever anyone thinks is true.”

Sean was in the picture, hugging Hayley. “We’re so leaving that in, sweetheart.”

Riley swallowed the emotion and wiped away the tear that had escaped. He was glad it was dark and everyone wouldn’t see the fact Hayley’s words had brought him to tears. Well, everyone except Jack, who put an arm over his shoulder and held him close.