Texas_Winter (7 page)

"Her mom just died," Riley said as he argued against Eden's idea for a press conference.
"So we don't take her anywhere for a while," Eden offered. "'Cause if we do, there'll be photos and speculation. How about we select one journalist and do some kind of spread here at the ranch?"
Riley groaned and hid his face in his hands. Jack sympathized with his husband. Everything post-Jeff's murder had finally begun to settle down, and now the controversial Campbell-Hayes needed to present a child in the mix from before Riley settled with a man. The journalists would have a field day.
"I do know someone." Eden interrupted Jack's thoughts, and he looked at her gratefully. If Eden could get a handle on this, then it was one less thing for Riley to have to focus on. "He's my—His name is Sean Harris. Do you want me to call him?" Riley responded with some lowpitched sound Jack couldn't make out, and so it was Jack that agreed Eden should get this Sean Harris out to talk about interviewing the Campbell-Hayes family.
"What about school?" Eden then said, and Jack felt his insides churn.
Where would Hayley be safe? Where could the two men keep Riley's daughter away from the shit that circled them? Jeez, how did they stop her from becoming a spoiled brat? Jack had no real idea how much Riley was worth, but it would be so damn easy to ruin Hayley by showering her with money and gifts. When Riley mentioned she could have anything in her room, a certain level of anxiety had started to build inside him.
"There's boarding school," Jack said with every single best intention in his words. Not that he really meant the idea at all.
Riley lifted his face from his hands with a horrified, "No." Jack held up a hand to indicate he understood, but Riley continued. "I'm not finding out I have a daughter only to dump her in some damn boarding school."
"A private tutor then, at least until college?" Eden said.
"Yeah, that worked so well for us," Riley snapped instantly.
Jack hadn't been aware Riley had received the rich version of home education, and he shuddered at the thought of his other half locked in that mansion of hate to learn. No wonder Riley had gone so wild at college.
"So what do we do?" Jack tried to look supportive but was probably coming across as irritable. He could hear it in his own voice.
"Other people have kids all the time." Riley knuckled his eyes. "We'll see what Hayley wants, and we'll do the right thing."

Riley couldn't get over how grown up Hayley appeared to be next to his niece and nephew. Losing her mother must be the hardest thing ever for an eight-year-old girl, but she was brave and strong and confident among kids she didn't know well. Jack had lost his dad at an early age, but his mom had always been there for him. He watched her as she played with her cousins, those related by blood and through his marriage to Jack. His mom's barbecue idea had been a good one—it was an informal setting for everyone to meet Hayley and get to know her better. If only he could get his head clear of what Jim had shared with him about HayesOil. Maybe then he could relax. Two beers in and he still wasn't relaxing.

"How have you been, Riley?" Lisa's voice held a nervous edge, and Riley tensed when he heard it.
He wasn't avoiding talking to his dead brother's wife. After all, despite the drinking, Lisa was trying very hard to be a good mom to Luke and Annabelle. He turned to face her and felt an instant stab of pity that always accompanied every time he really took the time to look at her. He had no excuse for not seeing what had happened to her at Jeff's hands. He'd just put her moods and her inappropriate come-ons as nothing more than the alcohol talking. She looked tired but well. She had a smile on her face, and Riley pasted a matching smile on his own face. He evidently hadn't put enough of an effort into the smile because a brief flash of uncertainty crossed her face. Shit. Covering the moment, he pulled her into a close hug, which was obviously sufficient as her smile had returned when he released her.
Her blonde hair was pulled back from her face, and she was wearing jeans and a T. Riley didn't remember ever seeing her out of a dress before, but he thought she looked so pretty.
"You're looking really good," Riley offered with another smile.
"Seven months sober," she said proudly.
"Wow, Lisa, that's awesome." He hadn't realized how far she'd come. Why hadn't he known?
"Thank you." She blushed and dropped her gaze. "I'm not making a big thing of it." She looked up. "Y'know, with the family."
A strange mix of emotions assaulted him. First guilt that he hadn't made more of an effort to follow what his sister-in-law was doing or, at the very least, how Luke and Annabelle were doing. Then there was a strange discomfort and a low level embarrassment. He could pin that square to knowing everything he did about her.
"The kids doing okay at school?" He changed the subject. The subject of his niece and nephew was always a safe thing to ask about. She brightened considerably, and her eyes lit up.
"Annabelle is a cheerleader and is going through her first real boyfriend problems… and Luke?" She shrugged. "He hasn't taken losing his dad so well. Acting up at school, the usual teenage things I suppose, just made worse by the fact he was a real daddy's boy."
"Can I do anything to help? I should have said if you needed—"
"No. Please." She reached out and touched Riley on the arm to interrupt what he was going to say. "I do need to ask you a question though. More of a favor I guess." She was so uncertain, and it screamed from her every pore.
"Anything."
"I want you to listen to this and think about it. Talk to Jack. Agree together." Riley glanced over at his husband, who was standing nursing a beer, watching them talk with narrowed eyes.
Lisa continued, "I want to know if anything happens to me you would look out for Luke and Annabelle. I know it's a big thing to ask—especially with Hayley now—but in my will, I want to name you and Jack and Eden as guardians. Just promise me you'll think about it?"
"They're my family, Lisa, and there is nothing to think about."
"Talk to Jack for me. Don't just assume he will agree."
"I will."
With her gaze fixed firmly on his, she reached up and touched his face. "You always were the best brother, Riley." She didn't let him reply. Instead, she made her way over to where Eden was dishing out salad, and Riley assumed she was going to have the same heartfelt discussion with his sister as she had done with him.
"You okay?" Jack's voice was a welcome sound, and Riley relaxed instantly. He took the beer Jack offered him and nodded.
"She wants to know if you and I and Eden would agree to become legal guardians for Luke and Annabelle if anything happened to her."
"Jeez." Riley didn't think Jack sounded shocked or angry. If anything he sounded overwhelmed.
"I said yes for me, and it would be enough. You don't have to say yes as well." Riley looked over to Eden and Lisa, who were hugging; he knew his sister would say yes.
"Does she not have other family she could ask?" Jack asked thoughtfully.
"Just a couple of cousins I think; no one she is close to."
"Why me? I mean I can see why you and Eden, but why me?"
"She knows the man you are, Jack Campbell-Hayes; the same as I do."
"Okay then, if it's what she wants, then yes, of course, she can name me."
Riley threaded his hands through Jack's and tugged him to follow from one side of the yard to the other. "Let's go tell her then."

The papers came back from the investigator on Sarah's husband, Hayley's uncle.
"He's done time for hacking…" Riley read down the paperwork. "He was some kind of computer expert who decided to embezzle from the bank he worked in. Resisted arrest and used a gun. Hence the arrest and the prison sentence."
"White collar crime then. He's not a murderer or a wife beater? An abuser or anything?"
"Let's say he didn't get an early release for good behavior. He did his entire sentence—five years. Finally worked his way through it and got out a few weeks back."
"So he's done his time. Why was Lexie so adamant he have nothing to do with Elliot?"
"An ex-con who failed to meet standards for early release doesn't sound like a good role model. I still don't understand how Lexie and Sophie think he's a threat to Hayley but I am sure they had their reasons."
"Okay," Jack conceded. "Maybe there's nothing we need to worry about." Riley shrugged, and Jack could see his husband wasn't convinced.
"We'll see."

Now that was a leading question. Riley's phone had sounded at six, and he had left the bed with some rambling excuse about work, the last Jack had seen of Riley other than a hurried shower. When Jack asked him, all Riley could say was he had paperwork to complete and calls to make for CH Consultancy. Jack knew his husband was being economical with the truth; Riley was so damn transparent. He just wasn't ready to call him on it, not when they were focusing so much of getting Hayley settled.

"I'm not sure, sweetheart, but he'll be here in a minute." They sat in companionable silence, and Jack watched as she continued to comb her hair in front of the large mirror in the hallway.

"It's not dad's fault, you know," she said quietly. "What isn't?"
Hayley didn't answer straight away, but Jack didn't

push for an answer. A good few minutes passed before she said anything else, by which time Jack had checked his watch and seen they'd need to leave in less than thirty minutes.

"He didn't know 'cause she didn't tell him." Her words were intense, and she startled him when she caught his hand in hers. The fingers looked so small against his, and he focused on the delicate pale skin. "Is he angry about it?"

Jack swallowed his immediate reply. Was Riley angry? No. Riley was off doing fuck knows what for some nebulous reason he wasn't sharing with Jack. In the process, he was obviously upsetting Hayley, and it wasn't right.

"No, I promise you. All your daddy wants is to find you the best school and make sure you're happy."
"Okay," she replied simply.
Riley came back into the house a few minutes later, but Jack didn't have time to call him on whatever bullshit was going on. Not when Hayley stood between them with a wide and happy smile on her face and her hand gripping Riley's.
"Want to go see your school?" Riley said with animated enthusiasm, and Jack couldn't help but grin. "They have hamsters, you know."
God, his husband was a dork.

Jack was fully aware this school was—according to the research Riley had carried out—the best private girls' school they could find for Hayley. Riley had requested information, pamphlets, booklets, and prospectuses for almost twenty schools, but only this one really stood out to them all. He, Riley and Hayley had sat with paperwork spread out between them. The Bryant Faraday School for Girls, just short of fifteen miles from the ranch, was the one that ticked all the boxes. He liked the sports program, and as Hayley already showed signs of having her dad's height, he was adamant she would do well in high jump, long jump, sprinting, and in fact anything they offered. Riley liked the security aspects and the educational results, and Hayley was smiling as she read the pamphlets. Hayley loved the uniform, the fact it was close to her new home, and the added evidence there was a buddy system and a program for animal care. Of course, there was also the fact both Riley and Hayley loved the idea of hamsters in every classroom.

So here they sat, waiting on the principal, one Mrs Andrews, who had sounded, according to Riley, very approachable on the phone. Jack had shaved this morning before Riley could get up in his face about being a cowboy and had actually worn his best jeans again. Riley, however, seemed too distracted to comment on anything Jack had or hadn't done. Riley was wearing the same suit he'd worn the day Hayley had landed in their lives, looking every inch the smooth business man. That day seemed so long ago now. She was part of their lives now, completely and utterly, even though it had only been a few days in reality. She'd laughed and giggled in the car on the way here, and even though he said so himself, she looked very pretty in the dress he had pulled out of the closet for her.

They now sat in uncomfortable chairs in a nondescript waiting room, and Jack wished he didn't feel like a kid waiting on some kind of cruel and unusual punishment for brawling. Or indeed any one of the hundreds of reasons he had found his way to the principal's office when he was a child.

"Where were you this morning?" Jack said under his breath so only Riley could hear. Riley looked straight at him with guilt in his eyes.

"Tried to find you." Jack encouraged the truth with the simple opening.
"I was on my cell by the barn. You know what reception is like in the house."
"I had to advise Hayley on her dress and hair. Does it look okay?"
Blinking, Riley turned to look at Hayley, who had her nose buried in a book. "She looks lovely," Riley said distractedly, and pulled his cell out of his pocket.
Jack was getting closer to pissed. Riley had his cell in his hand everywhere he went. This morning Jack had even been tempted to check the call log just to see what the hell was going on. Riley was too out of it for it to be just work. Something was happening, but he'd worry about that later. He pulled his focus back to Hayley
"She asked me to help her with knots, and I tried to be gentle," he said, holding his large and work-scarred hands out in front of him. Riley made a
hmm
noise under his breath but said nothing in reply, just turned his cell over and over in his hands. Jack decided there and then there would be some serious conversation to be had after Hayley went to bed tonight.
"Misters Campbell-Hayes?" Riley and Jack stood at the words and turned to face the small woman who looked like she couldn't blow over a paper tower. Gray hair and dark-rimmed glasses certainly gave her the appearance of a school mistress, but being so close to the floor? She couldn't be an inch over five feet, and Jack felt like a giant. God knew how Riley felt.
"We don't tolerate cell phones at the school," she added.
Jack watched as Riley first nodded in agreement and then looked at the floor as he realized she was talking about him. Riley pocketed the cell, and Jack gave thanks for small mercies. He wondered how his husband hadn't worn away the logo on the phone with all the rubbing he'd been doing to the poor thing.
"I apologize, ma'am." Riley used the crisp vowels of a city boy, and Jack smirked inwardly.
"Please come in." She moved into a large airy office. The walls were hidden beneath the hundreds of photos that adorned them, alongside certificates gilded with silver. Jack expected her to sit behind the desk that sat imposingly in the corner, but instead, she led them to a grouping of comfy chairs. The chair seemed to swallow Jack, and he struggled to sit upright, looking over to see Riley was having the same problem. Squirming without making it too obvious, he perched more towards the front. Clearly, the chairs were some kind of torture for parents, one way to level the playing field given her height. She forced all the tall big people to fall into a sofa abyss.
"Hello, Hayley," she said.
"Hi," Hayley replied. Her voice was steady, but she inched closer to Riley and grasped his big hand.
"Your dad told me you would like to come to school here."
She was quick to respond. "Yes, ma'am."
"I have someone to take you on a quick tour of the rooms. Would this be okay?"
They heard a knock, and the door opened to reveal a girl not much older than Hayley, dressed in the navy and red uniform Jack recognized from the prospectus.
"That would be good." Hayley seemed interested, and Jack made to move from the chair.
"Just Hayley for the time being, Mr CampbellHayes. I will be giving you a separate tour after this meeting, but we need to complete some paperwork, and it is important Hayley forms her own opinions."
"Okay." Jack wanted to shrug the words off, but he felt like a naughty school kid again. He glanced at Riley, who was grinning at him. Great, Riley could clearly see how uncomfortable he was. Well, there was a reason he and school had never seen eye to eye. Horses never judged him for getting Fs or for his inability to sit still in classes.
They filled in the required paperwork with as much information as they had been given in the lawyer's files. With the admin stuff out of the way, it seemed they were down to the gritty stuff.
"We have an experienced counseling team at Bryant's, and I should imagine they would want to have regular meetings with Hayley and also with both of you. Losing a parent is a particularly traumatic experience for any young child."
"She seems…" Riley started and then looked at Jack for reassurance. "We're worried she hasn't cried or anything similar since she arrived to live with us."
The principal made a small note in her file. "That isn't unusual. She seems, from what you say, to be well adjusted, and the counseling will ensure she receives the right help to flourish at this school. All of this of course would be carried out after full consultation with the two of you."
"Thank you," Riley said.
"Our students are such that Hayley will be among other children with similar emotional needs. This is something I think is very positive." Jack and Riley nodded. "There is one other thing that's important for me to cover here."
Jack narrowed his eyes. This sounded serious.
"It is important you realize you are not unknown to the school, Mr Campbell-Hayes." She was focusing her attention on Riley. "We pride ourselves on being a progressive school—"
"But you're worried about us being gay and married," Riley interrupted. Jack didn't like the tone of Riley's voice. He sounded resigned.
"Goodness me, no," she said instantly, "family is family. Our concern is the paparazzi that follow your story so very closely. The school is home to daughters of past governors, our elected officials, judges, and even one actor, and we have dealt before with press interference. I just need your reassurance that you will work with us to handle any problems that should arise."
"We will," Jack said, jumping in before Riley could say anything. How the hell they were going to do that was another matter altogether. The press ate up all the gossip surrounding the Hayes family. His emotions had gone from confrontational to agreeable in an instant, but Riley was still on edge.
"I can't control the papers," he said, and leaned forward in the chair. "But I can assure you I will always have my full resources at hand should there be any issues." She inclined her head in acceptance of what he said. "There's one more thing though," Riley said. "I need to make sure, need to know, whatever happens, as long as we can afford the fees, she can stay. Yes?" Silence. Absolute silence as she looked at Riley with a steady gaze.
"Are you expecting a problem covering the fees?" she finally asked with a look of confusion on her face.
"Not at all." Jack listened to Riley's instant words of reassurance, but he knew he was lying. What the hell?
"We have never refused a place to any child who deserved it, Mr Campbell-Hayes."