If Jack had been anywhere but the principal’s office he would have banged his head on the nearest wall. One look at Aiden and the whole class would be swooning. How the hell were horses going to compete against Mr Pecs-the-movie-star himself?

“Jack Campbell-Hayes,” he introduced himself and held out his hand in welcome.

“Aiden Hunter,” Aiden said as he gripped Jack’s hand.

Jack wanted to say, ‘I saw your films’, but actually he’d be lying, so instead he immediately turned back to face the principal. She’d had coffee brought in and clearly had an agenda that she followed for all parents before they were let loose on her school.

“What we are trying to do is give the girls a well-rounded idea of what career choices are out there. We find that even at this age seeds can be sown that show how a woman can have a place in the world. If you could both include some reference to how your families fit into your career that would be good. I have a checklist to help you.” She glanced down at her desk and tutted. “One moment, I’ll be right back.” She left the office, and abruptly it was just Jack and Aiden.

Awkward. Jack knew looking at the guy would probably end up with him staring again. Hell, Riley would be there chatting, he was the one that had all the social skills for meeting someone famous. Jack was just fucked. He glanced sideways to find Aiden was looking at him, and Jack smiled nervously.

“I know how you feel,” Aiden commiserated.

“You do?” Jack said before he could regulate his thoughts.

“I hate sitting here; I always feel like I’m in trouble for something.”

He was talking about sitting in the principal’s office. “I hate it too.”

“I spent so much time in Principal Edward’s office back when I was younger,” Aiden admitted. “I was the class clown, the one who hid a lack of talent behind dark bangs and making people laugh.”

Right there Jack bonded with Aiden in a way that was easy. “I was the strong, silent one,” Jack said with a self-deprecating laugh. “My brother was the loud one.”

“I wish I didn’t have to do this,” Aiden admitted.

“You’re a movie star, what’s more exciting than that?”

“Do you know how often my talks get reduced to me listing what people I’ve worked with? I don’t think anyone looks at me and appreciates my craft as an actor.” He shook his head. “So what is it you do?”

“I own a horse breeding ranch outside of Dallas.”

“You do?” Aiden turned in his seat. “Seriously? God, I always wanted to be a cowboy.”

Jack smiled. “Maybe you could be a cowboy in your next film,” he suggested.

“My wife would love that; she has a thing for cowboys.” He grinned and glanced down at Jack’s hand. The age-old checking for a wedding ring, Jack assumed. “What does your partner do?”

“My husband runs an ethical oil exploration company.” Jack waited for a comment, but Aiden seemed more interested in the oil side than the fact Jack was married to a man.

They talked for the remainder of time until finally the two men were sitting at the front of the class of fifteen girls, all of whom sat prettily in three rows of five.

“I’ve never had such a tough audience,” Aiden whispered.

Jack only stopped laughing when Principal Andrews frowned at him. He could see Hayley in the second row, and she grinned at him. She looked happy, settled, and her approval gave him the impetus he needed to draw strength and get the hell on with what he needed to do.

“First up for us today is Mr Campbell-Hayes, Hayley’s dad, and he’s going to talk about what he does as a career.” She indicated Jack should stand, and every eye was on him expecting brilliance.

“Go get ’em,” Aiden said under his breath.

Pulling back his shoulders, Jack took a moment to compose his thoughts. “Morning, girls. My name is Jack and I have a ranch with horses. I began working with horses as soon as I was old enough to sit in a saddle. Before that I would watch my mom and my brother, because my ranch is a place for family.” He paused. “So let me tell you about my horses…”

Chapter 7

Tension built in Jack over the course of the weekend just before they were due at the clinic for the surrogate meetings. It wasn’t helped when Riley disappeared on Saturday morning after a panicked call from Eden. She said Sean wanted to cut all ties with her, and so Jack couldn’t begrudge Riley the time to help her.

Things between her and Sean were out of control. Sean was in and out of surgeries on his eye, and Eden was thrust into a world where not everything was solved with money. He loved Eden and he respected Sean, but he could see this whole relationship thing they had going ending either in forever marriage or a breakup. There was no middle ground.

Pushing concerns about that and the whole surrogacy thing aside, he and Hayley went riding on D land and ended up visiting with Robbie and Eli.

Eli was busy playing cards with Hayley, and seeing he wasn’t paying attention to them, Jack encouraged Robbie out onto the steps from the apartment. Together they stood against the metal and Robbie looked at him expectantly.

“What?” Robbie asked with a suspicious tone.

“The house?” Jack asked simply. Robbie sighed at the question and slumped down on the top step.

“I hate that Eli and Riley are arguing about it, but I can see Eli’s point. He doesn’t want to be a charity case,” Robbie admitted. Jack joined him on the step, and together they drank from their bottles of beer, each lost in thought.

“So what can we do about it?”

“Eli sees that he isn’t in control of it all, like it’s charity.”

“So you pay rent.”

“Riley would make you set rent really low, and Eli would say you weren’t charging enough, whatever you charged us.”

Jack huffed. “I could smack their heads together.” They sat in silence for a little while longer. Then it came to Jack in a flash.

“I’m raising your salary,” he said in no uncertain terms.

“You are?” Robbie glanced at him and there was confusion written on his expressive features.

“Yep. Your work with Daisy, Storm, and Catty made me a lot of money, made the D a lot of money.”

“Okay…” Robbie still looked confused. “But that is my job.”

“Well it’s not like I’d be paying you any money though.” Jack said. “I’ve decided that we need another hand, and that is a genuine need—no one is bullshitting Eli on that. You need someone to train up now that we’re expanding. Hell, I’ll talk to you about that later. Okay, so the hand needs a place to stay, he can have this apartment.”

“Where will I go—“

“The new guy can bunk down with us in the house until you’re ready to move to your new place, which is part of your new increased salary.”

“Okay. Wait. So we’re going above Riley’s and Eli’s heads to do this.”

Jack held up his beer bottle and Robbie clinked his against it. “Hell yes,” he said with a grin.

* * * * *

Riley paced the corridor and ignored Eden’s request that he sit down. He couldn’t. He was sparking with nervous energy, and adding insult to injury, the chairs were too damn small for him. Clearly visitors to the ER were short people with skinny asses. He said so to Eden but her eyes were wet with grief and she said nothing. Riley realized he was losing his grip on the situation here and forced himself into a chair two down from Eden before trying to calm the hell down. What had started as a visit to a hysterical Eden had ended up with paramedics being called and Sean behind the door marked staff fighting every single person who wanted to help him.

“Do you think he meant to do it?” Eden asked suddenly. “He’s taking oxycodone and Valium, maybe he just got them confused?”