Texas Fall (12 page)

Didn’t mean Riley could
face himself in the mirror in the morning. And that was ridiculous. He’d shot
at the man to save his life. To save Tom. Gut reaction was to save them both.

He rolled his shoulders
and cracked his neck, then led Sean down and out of the house. His ankle hurt
like shit, but he grabbed painkillers on the way out of the kitchen and took
his crutches. Companionably, they headed toward the school at a very slow pace and
did exactly what Riley wanted to do.

They talked about
everything and nothing and not one part of it was tinged with worry or
resentment or a need to prove anything from either of them. If Sean was going
to be his brother-in-law, then they needed
normal
.

Jack was nowhere to be
found at first glance, but Liam indicated he was up in the loft space above the
classroom with the guy here to fix air conditioning. Riley leaned against boxes
at the bottom of the ladder and called up.

“Jack?”

Jack’s face appeared at
the top of the ladder and grinned down at Riley. “We have A/C,” he announced.
“Hey, Sean.”

“Hey, Jack. You need any
help up there?” Sean even made to climb the ladder, but Jack stopped him with a
waved hand.

“No, but wait. I need to
talk to you.”

Jack met them at the
bottom rung and led them outside before brushing himself down. “What did you
think of the classroom?”

“It looks good,” Sean
observed.

“Did you think any more on
my offer?”

Riley watched the two men
talk about the chances of Sean working with the school on some kind of basis. He
suddenly realized that his name had been mentioned. Sean was looking at him,
and Jack had asked him something.

“Sorry?”

“Sean said you talked this
morning,” Jack prompted softly.

Riley glanced at Sean, and
they exchanged smiles that held meaning. Between them some small thing was
healing, and it was a good feeling. “Yeah, you tell him, Sean.” He was too
tired to keep standing, and the meds hadn’t kicked in yet.

“I wanted to ask Riley
about… I’m going to ask Eden to set a date. I know I’ve blown it with her
before, but Riley said he’d help me convince her it’s time.”

Jack pulled him into a hug
and slapped his back. “That’s awesome.”

“She hasn’t said yes to a
date yet.”

Jack huffed. “She’s already
head over heels in love with you, already engaged, she’ll say yes as soon as
she’s convinced that is what you want. She’s been waiting a long time.”

They went out into the
yard and ended up at the empty stalls. Riley couldn’t be prouder of Jack, and he
separated from his husband and Sean and their discussion of therapies to
investigate the building more thoroughly. Every piece of the place showed
Jack’s hand: the pristine white fencing, the grass curved at the edges, the
stalls ready for the ponies and horses that Jack would be using. The cameras,
security beyond standards that Riley had seen elsewhere on the ranch. And the
hoist for the kids who needed help.

This was Jack’s baby, and
it was beautiful.

“Hey, Riley, have you come
here to help us build a wall?”

Riley turned carefully on
his good foot and came face to face with Robbie and Eli, both of whom looked
dusty and hot. Eli grinned at him, and Riley realized how much he missed that
smile of Eli’s. Vaughn joined them, and he had a bucket of cold water and mugs
the three men poured over their heads.

“It’s a hot one,” Vaughn
said.

“Said Riley here should
help us with this damn wall,” Robbie groused. “We need his extra height.”

Vaughn looked Riley up and
down, then let out a snort of laughter. “Those are expensive jeans, right? And
a designer shirt, by the look of it?”

Riley glanced down at
himself. Vaughn was pretty much dead-on with his assumptions as to what Riley
had dressed in this morning. Jeans by Gucci, the softest, most comfortable
jeans he’d ever owned, and a polo from Ralph Lauren. He’d been planning a day cross-legged
on the floor with maps—well, as cross-legged as he could manage with a cast. Vaughn
was lucky Riley wasn’t in his usual pants, shirt, and tie.

“Fuck it,” Riley said. “If
my ankle holds out enough to pass you some bricks, then I’ll cross charge any
tears to Jack.” Then with shared smiles, water, heat, and camaraderie, he sort
of helped a little to build a retaining wall that he was told would hold a
small shower block and restrooms. Sean joined them, and Jack wasn’t far after,
and under the blazing sun, even when he had to sit the remainder of the
building out, Riley was halfway to happy.

Heads turned when Eden
walked into the restaurant, both men and women, and Riley was smiling even
before his sister slid into the seat opposite him and let out a very unladylike
curse.

“Fuck. I’m sorry, my
meeting ran over.” She settled herself and placed her purse to one side. “Damn
administrator needs me to kick his ass.” She tucked her blonde hair behind her
ears and smiled at Riley.

“It’s fine,” Riley said.
“Meant I got to see your dramatic and speedy entrance, which was a pretty good
one.”

“Paparazzi lurking,” she
confided. Leaning in, she tilted her head. “That actor from that film is at the
front, you know, the one with the robots.” Then before Riley could ask her to
point him out, she launched into a summary of what was on the menu and their
orders for seared scallops were taken before Riley got a word in edgewise.
“How’s your ankle?”

Riley tensed when she
asked, which of course was not good for his injury, but he had to answer
truthfully. “Sore,” he said. Then he changed the subject before they could
dwell on the kidnapping. “I wanted to talk to you,” Riley began. He was
uncertain how to word this whole thing, but he hated the idea that he was
somehow a barrier to his sister’s happiness.

“About Sean,” she said
with sisterly insight, or maybe just with a lucky guess.

“How did you…?”

“One, you have your
serious face on. Two, Sean told me he visited and why.”

Riley sat back in his seat,
deflated. “He told you.” What was the point in Sean coming to see him if he was
just going to talk to Eden anyway?

“Yep, not directly, said
he’d come out to talk horses with Jack, but he can’t lie to save his life.”

Her cell vibrated, but
after glancing at the screen, she pushed it to one side. “Simmons with more
proposals for the Hayes wing,” she mumbled. Then she sighed. “I have another
meeting at four with the hospital administrator to approve the specs, and the
man is a lecherous windbag.”

“Don’t tell Sean that,”
Riley teased.

Eden huffed. “Do I look
stupid? I’m not telling my fiancé a damn thing. He’s way too protective.
Anyway, Simmons I can handle, it’s no worse than fighting over a Gucci purse
after a catwalk show.” She laughed as she said it.

Riley couldn’t contain his
big-brotherness. “I couldn’t be prouder of you,” Riley blurted. He hadn’t meant
to say it quite so bluntly, but that is what he was thinking.

Eden blushed, she full-on
dipped her eyes and blushed. “I’m proud of you too,” she said softly.

Between them they had all
kinds of money, all the family history, Hayes Oil, and the weight of
generations, but both of them had forged their own paths in this world. Abruptly
she reached out and grasped Riley’s hand, and he held tight.

“That’s why I’m scared,”
she said.

Riley squeezed her hand. “Scared
of what?”

“Of becoming what I don’t
want to be. When Sean talks about a date, he says that he wants a family, and
I’m ready for that, and I want to marry him, but I’m so scared.” Sadness tinged
her voice and colored her expression.

“Talk to me, Eden,” Riley
prompted.

“When I first met him,
what, four years ago, I don’t know, I just fell so hard. I would have given up
everything, the money, even you, because I was so in love.”

Riley’s chest tightened at
the horrible thought of Eden not being part of his life. He didn’t say
anything, just let her talk.

“Then I became involved in
the hospital, the board, the kids’ wards, and I found the real me, and it was easy
because Sean was never there. He had his career and I had mine and I was still
happy. And now, he wants what I wanted four years ago, and it’s—” She paused
and sipped at her ice water. “—overwhelming.”

“Because?”

“I won’t give up the
hospital, I won’t face making that decision, and I won’t give up you or your
kids.”

Their lunch arrived, and
Riley thanked the waiter. But neither set about eating anything.

“You don’t have to, you
know,” Riley began. He squeezed her hand. “Being in love doesn’t mean to the
exclusion of everything else. Sean wouldn’t want you to give up anything, and
hell, even if you were to be expecting, you wouldn’t have to give up your work
at the hospital.”

“He said that?”

Riley shook his head. “He
didn’t have to. He said he loved you, and I filled in the rest myself. He
wanted my blessing, something about you thinking I didn’t approve.”

Eden chuckled and released
her hold of Riley’s hand to pick up her fork. She poked at a scallop, chasing
it around the buttery sauce it was coated in. “We’re so over that,” she said.

“He said I was the older,
wiser brother, and that I was in charge.”

Eden quirked an eyebrow.
“He did not.”

They ate in silence, and
this time the quiet was broken by Riley’s cell vibrating.

“We’ve done well,” Eden
said gently as Riley ignored the call. “Before… just before, did you think we’d
ever end up where we are?”

Riley put down his cutlery
and steepled his fingers, resting his chin on them. “You mean how we broke free
of our dysfunctional family?” he teased.

“Ass. I was being
serious.”

“Want to hear something
weird?”

“Weirder than usual?”

“I love my flashy cars,
right? I swapped out the Porsche for a new SUV, and I think about the Land
Rover and the lease agreement and how much that is costing and it all feels so
obscene.”

Eden nodded. “Don’t forget
I was the one who used the company jet for shopping trips,” she pointed out. “Now
I reuse all my clothes.”

Riley snorted water and
was acutely aware people were staring at him.
Let them stare
. He used
his napkin to mop the spray. “First-world problems,” he said on a laugh.

She grasped his hand, and
the grin faded to a pretty smile accompanied by a small frown. “I’m going to
ask Jim to give me away. You think he’ll say yes?”

Emotion tightened Riley’s
chest, and he recalled the moment she asked Jim if it were possible that he was
her dad as well. He’d said no, but that didn’t count when he and Eden were so
close.

“Of course he will. He’s
your father in every way,” Riley said. “Does this mean you’re going to put Sean
out of his misery and set an official date?”

Eden nodded. “August,” she
said. “Can we…?” She looked down at her glass, and her free hand rested on the
table. “You think Jack would let us do something at the D?”

“You want to get married
at the ranch?” That was unexpected. Riley had imagined his sister would want
the whole hotel wedding with the ballroom and the train on her dress and the
flowers. A wedding on the ranch wasn’t something Riley thought would be on
Eden’s list.

“You think you’d be okay
with that? You and Jack? It won’t be large; I only want family and a few
friends.”

Riley sat forward. “We’d
love that,” he said. “Tell us the date you want, and we’ll be there.” Riley
stopped again. He was the organizer in the family, you only had to see his big
kitchen calendar to see who kept on top of everything in the Campbell-Hayes
household. Who would be in charge of Eden’s wedding? Was she going to ask him?
Anxiety hit him, kids’ stuff and Jack he could handle, but a wedding?

“We only want something
small, and I’m asking Beth to help out.”

Riley relaxed at the idea
that someone other than him would be dealing with caterers and tents and
candles and all the other accoutrements of a wedding. Thank God no one was
asking
him
.

“Perfect.”

“So I’m going to ask Jim,
and I’d like Hayley as a bridesmaid. What about Max?”

“What about him? He’d
probably be overwhelmed if you’re thinking of asking him to do something.”

“I don’t want him being
left out. He’s my nephew, and I want him included.”

Riley wasn’t sure how to
explain Max. In his heart he desperately wanted his son to take part in it all,
but he was also a father and he and Jack were growing to understand their son
more and more each day.

Chaos and noise were the
two things that Max couldn’t handle, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t get him
a tiny suit for the day. He might wear it.

“He won’t understand the
concept of being left out, he won’t feel it at all,” Riley said, even though it
broke his heart to say it. He knew he was being irrational, but he couldn’t
help putting his own adult feelings onto Max. Their son wouldn’t care, and both
Jack and Riley needed to stop doing this thing where they tried to imagine Max
being upset.

“He’s a sweetheart,” Eden
offered. She brightened. “Hey, I know. We could have a Thomas-themed wedding cake.”

Riley’s heart nearly burst
from his chest. He loved Eden, and yes, she was right, they’d done good. They’d
learned and become better people, allowed the love in their hearts out to the
world, made themselves vulnerable to people who loved them back.

“I love you, sis.”

“Back atcha. Just please,
for God’s sake, when I give you the date, plan to be there.” Then she softened
a little and became more serious. “And Riley, please don’t get kidnapped again.”

* * * * *

Riley was introspective on
his journey back to the D, thanking the heavens he could even drive with the cast,
and thinking on the twins and Max and Hayley. He was considering his place in
their lives and all kinds of heavy shit that had him desperate for one thing: a
hug from Jack.

When he reached the ranch,
Jack was nowhere to be found and instead Riley ended up shooting the breeze
with Liam and Robbie. Liam looked calm and relaxed, even to the point he
appeared more grown up than before the trial. He was teasing Robbie about
something to do with cats and feed, and Riley was happy to listen to the bantering.
When Eli strolled over to join them, Riley broke out ice-cold lemonade, and the
four men sat in shade to enjoy the break. Robbie and Eli sat close to each
other, Liam sprawled this way and that in the dirt, and Riley carefully lowered
himself to the floor.

“You okay?” Eli asked. He
looked concerned and even shuffled a little closer to Riley and held out a
hand.

Riley waved him away. “’M
fine.”

Eli moved back to bump
elbows with Robbie. This close Eli looked tired, but his skin was tanned warm
and he seemed happy. Riley wanted to ask how the latest check went, but he
didn’t have to when Eli launched into a whole explanation as to why hospital
seating was designed by the devil himself.

“So then they tell me
oncology is running fifty minutes late and I lost it.”

“He didn’t lose it,”
Robbie pointed out. “He very politely went up to the administrator and reminded
her he’d been sitting there an hour and weren’t sick people a priority?” Robbie
chuckled, but Riley didn’t like the sound of it.

“Is the cancer back?” he said
quickly.

Eli blinked at him, and
his eyes widened. “Shit. No. Riley, I’m still all clear. I was just teasing the
woman.”

“Trying to win her over
with his green eyes and his super cuteness,” Robbie interjected.

“Didn’t work, though,” Eli
said with a shake of his head. “She just looked at me and said the doctor would
be with me in fifty minutes, and you know what I did? I sat down.”

“You never mess with
admin,” Liam said.

Riley glanced at the young
man. He was looking better these days, but Riley knew what had happened to Liam
and it never failed to amaze him that he was getting on so well. It led him to
think about Beth, which pulled him down a dark tunnel to thinking about Jeff
and how he had attacked Beth.

Jeff had raped Beth, tried
to have Jack framed, nearly killed him and Jack. He and Gerald Hayes had stolen
so much from so many people.
No wonder I’m screwed up, look at my fucking
family. I didn’t stand a chance.

“You okay?” Eli asked
Riley, which was enough to pull himself out of his train of thought.

Angry at himself, he
levered himself upright and forced a smile on his face. “Some of us have work
to do,” he tried to tease. Then he left and he knew he’d lost another inch of
control again.

Slowly but surely, Riley
was convinced he was losing his mind. He was in free fall, and no one was there
to catch him.