"Solo-Alexandra." The voice from behind startled him. Robbie cursed himself for his inattention. It was things like this that got a man in trouble. He slowly turned to face the man whose voice he recognized. Hmmm. Big and hulking, aka Jack Campbell-Hayes, one of the married guys.

"Sorry?"

"Alex for short. Her momma is this beauty, SoloCal." Jack was indicating a gorgeous sorrel mare pushing at his arm for attention.

"Beautiful horses." Robbie wasn't sure what else to say. Neil had tried his hardest with Jack, but Robbie had seen one too many drunken emails from his friend demanding to know why Jack hated him. Well, for Robbie, someone hurting his friend riled him.

"Almost lost them both a while back in a fire," Jack continued.

"Neil told me." No point in letting Jack think that Neil hadn't told him every damn thing concerning the Double D.

"I'm not placing your accent." Jack was frowning. He was a good-looking guy, and a frown darkening his blue eyes wasn't a good look. He was everything Robbie avoided. First he was a cowboy, a stubborn one at that, and second he was a strong guy and could probably drop Robbie to the ground in a heartbeat. After everything that had gone down back home Robbie had learned his lesson. No cowboys. No big cowboys.

"Wyoming born and bred, Australia for the past ten years," he finally answered reluctantly. Social skills escaped him.

"Australia?"

"As a buckaroo, a cowboy, working with quarter horses on a spread in the Northern Territories, some three thousand acres."

"The D is eight hundred acres," Jack mused. "Australia, eh? That explains the accent, I guess." Jack lifted a booted foot and rested it on a wooden crossbar below Alex's stall door. "Definitely a tinge of something other than American in there."

For a few minutes the two men looked in on the horses in a near companionable silence. Robbie wasn't entirely sure what to say. He had a lot of questions inside him. Neil had said Jack was expanding the training side of the ranch. Did that mean he was training horses for rodeo and show or for working on ranches? Robbie had a list of questions in his head and he was concentrating on how to word them when they were interrupted.

"Hey, gorgeous." Jack turned with a grin and Robbie watched as way-tall-dude, the other half of the Campbell-Hayes couple, near pounced on Jack. Clearly Robbie hadn't been spotted if the way Riley was grinding up against Jack was any indication. "Knew you'd be hidin' out here."

Was it Robbie's imagination or was Riley's voice a little slurred?

"How much champagne did you swallow?" Jack asked with a grin.

"Enough to fuck you here and now in front of everyone," Riley answered. His tone was deadly serious.

"We have company," Jack explained. Riley didn't stop with the hugging and pulling but he did at least look over his shoulder at Robbie. His eyes widened and then he extricated himself from Jack with a rearrangement of his groin area. Robbie pretended not to notice. Riley was gorgeous up close. He'd seen photos, he had Internet, and he had followed the whole soap opera that was their lives from murder to barns being burned to marriages to hostage situations. Where Jack was all holy-hot-as-hell cowboy, Riley was wearing that suit like he'd been born into it. He was leaning into Jack and Jack wasn't moving away or keeping any distance between them. If anything, Jack had an arm around his husband and was pulling him closer. Riley certainly seemed to sober quickly and Robbie wondered how much was alcohol and how much was playing.

"Don't mind me," Robbie said quickly. Silence. Fuck. What the hell had he just said? He was trying to be clever and funny and instead had come over as some kind of voyeuristic pervert. He waited for either man to say something, anything. In fact, he tensed in expectation of being beaten to the ground. Every muscle tightened in anticipation of the need to defend himself.

Jack simply looked up at Riley, who was smiling broadly.

"Nah," he said. "Let me take this big lug indoors. Nice to meet you, Robbie." Jack extended his right hand and Robbie rubbed his own on his best jeans before shaking Jack's hand. When Riley did the same Robbie shook and then took a step backward. He left the barn, walked around the corner, and leaned back against the wall. He wasn't far enough away not to be able to hear Jack and Riley talking but he couldn't make out whole words. Sighing, he turned to go find Neil and make his excuses. When he passed the open barn door he couldn't have stopped himself from looking in if he'd tried.

Riley and Jack were locked so closely in an embrace you couldn't see light between them. Riley had his head tilted back and Jack was tracing a path of kisses from jaw to throat. When Riley let out a groan of need and pushed Jack away from him and back against the barn wall it was possibly the most erotic thing Robbie had ever seen. Flushed and harder than he had been in days he left the area as quickly as he could. Shame at his reaction conflicted with the lust inside him.

He had never missed Paul more than he did today.

* * * *

Riley's gift to Donna and Neil was a week on the same island that he and Jack had been on when they first heard that Riley was a dad. When he initially broached the subject with Jack he had expected some kind of resistance, but Jack smiled and said that the whole idea was a good one. Not one word about the amount of money Riley was using on the gift.

The guests were grouped around the limo that Josh had been responsible for organizing. It had been decorated with ribbons and balloons. Riley didn't envy Donna and Neil the trip to the airstrip, where the Hayes jet sat ready and waiting, with that much crap advertising their just-wed status.

Everyone was waving as the car pulled away and no one moved until the vehicle was nothing but a trail of dust in the air to mark its passing.

"That was a lovely wedding." Eden sighed. Riley pulled her closer for a hug. Her boyfriend, Sean, was a long-term partner but he had yet to pop any kind of question of marriage. As a journalist he was very seldom in Texas and their time apart was more and more frequent. He hadn't made it to the wedding today or indeed stepped foot anywhere near Eden for a month. Riley liked the guy. Well, he liked him as much as any big brother liked a sister's lover. But he couldn't be the only one who was wondering why he was away so much and why it was taking this long to settle down and propose to Eden. Maybe he had gotten cold feet? Maybe he had someone else? Riley didn't vocalize his fears.

She turned in his arms and hugged him close. "Hey, are you okay?" Riley asked.

"I'm fine. Can't a sister grab some brother time now and then?"

Riley laughed and hugged her even tighter. He was a good foot taller than her and she was soon in a position of finding it hard to breathe. He released her when she punched him in the thigh with her free hand and in a flash brother/sister was normal and on an even keel.