“You have to admit, two men as family figureheads is somewhat unusual,” she finally said.

“I see,” Riley said, deceptively calm. He extended his hand, which she shook. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer.” He turned on his heel, and Jack didn’t even stop to shake hands.

When the two men were outside, Riley narrowed his eyes and stared at some far point. “Bigoted fucking idiot,” he snapped.

“You’re not really going to call lawyers on her, are you?”

Riley sighed noisily then relaxed just as quickly. “I should. I could get Jim to call her and put the fear of God in her whispery head. But I won’t.”

Jack was relieved, although angry forceful Riley was a sight to behold.

They walked back to the car and climbed in.

“So what next?” Riley asked.

Jack turned in his seat. “I had this idea.” He held up a hand to forestall Riley’s interrupting. “Why are we even doing this? As you said, we can handle things around work. Hell, you’re right, Robbie can handle most of what I do, and with Liam’s help he’s set. You’re needed in the office, but you could schedule times and maybe get in another assistant to help Kathy. We could call on Eden, Anna, Beth, the moms, get them on a rotation to help us out maybe one day a week.”

“You think we could pull this off?” Riley sounded half interested, half doubtful.

“We pulled off marriage, Hayley, murder raps, fires, being shot at, almost kidnapped, fights in bars… I think we can do anything we set our minds to.”

Riley shuffled closer so hardly any distance separated their lips. One of the benefits of his height was that he could lean over and not be impaled on any parts of the center console.

“I love you so much, Jack. Every day I fall a little bit more in love. Every. Single. Day.” He dropped small kisses on Jack’s lips after each one-word sentence. Finally the kiss deepened and it was only when Jack felt the urge to strip naked and climb onto Riley’s lap that he knew they had to stop. Being arrested for lewd behavior wouldn’t look good for either of them.

“Home,” Jack ordered. Riley smiled and the smile reached his beautiful hazel eyes. “I love you,” he added to soften the order that he knew dripped with the urgency of sudden need.

Riley started the car. “Home it is.”

* * * * *

The ob-gyn looked down at her notes then up at Rebecca and he was smiling, which Jack took as a good sign.

“So, Rebecca, looks like we’re getting close,” he summarized.

“I felt the dropping,” Rebecca said in agreement. “A couple of days ago.”

Jack swallowed. They were nowhere near ready for the babies now. Jeez. Would they ever actually be ready? “How close?

“Well, we’re at week thirty-two now, and I’m looking at two weeks maximum.”

“Okay,” Jack said reasonably. “That’s a good thing? Will the babies be too small?”

“They’ll be fine,” Riley offered gently. He’d obviously picked up on the level of stress in Jack’s voice. Jack hoped to hell Rebecca didn’t hear.

“Settling, or what we call dropping, is when your babies are getting ready to get their way out,” the ob-gyn explained to Jack and Riley. Riley nodded his understanding, but Jack realized he had anxiety and excitement fighting for dominance inside him and chose to stay quiet.

“How are your breasts?” he asked Rebecca.

Rebecca huffed. “Lumpy, a bit sore,” she said. “The usual.”

They listened to the heartbeats, and with terror joining the concern and enthusiasm, Jack had to fight hard to simply stand still. He wanted them here now. He didn’t want them here now. He wasn’t the only one with conflicting emotions. Appointment finished, they drove Rebecca home, and then both he and Riley remained quiet and thoughtful all the way back to the ranch. The car stopped in the yard in front of the house. Jack could see Robbie chatting to Liam beside two of the new cutting horses they had in for training. He could see the new barn looking a little faded three years on from the last burning to the ground. Hayley wasn’t home yet, but inside his house, along with a small army of workmen, there was a home for the babies.

His and Riley’s babies.

Excitement won the battle for supremacy inside him.

“Two weeks,” he whispered.

Riley reached out and squeezed his hand. “Two weeks,” he repeated. “Fuck.”

“Agreed.”

* * * * *

The photo appeared online a few days after the appointment. Eden was the one who saw it and called them as soon she could.

“I’ll send you the links.”

“Links?” Jack asked. “How many are there?”

“Two of you and Riley in a meeting, one of you outside of an agency that provides nannies, one of you getting on in the car. Nice kissing, big brother.”

“Go away, brat,” Riley said with no heat. He clicked on the link to some site that appeared to mostly host photos of rich people doing stupid things. Jack peered over his shoulder.

Gay couple adopting a baby ? Not so, says our source. Seems like one of the sexy Campbell-Hayes guys has been playing away. Go boys.

Jack sighed. Only one person could have got the kind of photos that appeared here. From the damn nanny meetings. Riley wasn’t wearing his jacket, which meant it could only be one of the three.

Riley came to the same conclusion. “That freaking blonde and her cell phone.”

“Taking photos,” Jack agreed.

“Now this I’m suing for,” Riley said.

“Why?” Jack sat down next to Riley. He had a gut feeling they shouldn’t do anything of the sort. “If we make a fuss it will go on and on. When the babies are here we’ll give a press conference and talk about the surrogacy, have an official photo call.”

“I may just ask Jim to call Ms Lane though,” Riley said. He frowned and clicked away from the pictures.

“To put the fear of God in her?” Jack asked.

“Yep.”

Jack huffed a laugh and kissed Riley. “Good call.”

Chapter 19

~August~

Riley couldn’t sleep. The clock showed two am but something nagged him, and he couldn’t get to that point where he could switch his brain off. Jack was restless as well, and not even a mutual blow jobs four hours earlier had helped either of them settle properly.

“You ’sleep?” Jack mumbled into his pillow.

“Can’t seem to get relaxed.” They hadn’t drawn the drapes and the light from the huge moon shone in through the glass.

Jack rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. “It’s been two weeks and three days,” he said. “I know that is why I can’t sleep. I keep expecting the phone to ring.”

Riley lay on his back mimicking Jack’s pose. Their shoulders touched and the warmth of Jack against him was familiar and reassuring. They’d been on a hell of a journey the past year or so. Booking appointments, legal issues, getting pregnant, all the ups and downs of the last seven months, and now they were so close Riley could almost smell the baby powder scent that Emily carried everywhere with her.

Riley spoke softly. “You think it will be two girls?”

“I don’t know,” Jack whispered back.

“Do you hope it’s a girl and a boy?”

“Do you?”

“I asked you first.”

Jack chuckled. “I don’t care either way. I just want them safe and for Rebecca to be okay.”

“We’ll never be able to thank her enough you know.”

“Rebecca?”

“Yeah.” Riley paused and shuffled a little closer to Jack. “She’s giving us the greatest gift of life.”

“That’s kinda profound, het-boy,” Jack drawled.

Riley laughed and in a smooth move, he was up and straddling Jack. “You dissing me, you ass?” he asked. He pinned Jack’s hands to the pillow and looked down at the gorgeous sleepy sexy face of the owner of his heart.