Texas Wedding (21 page)

They looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

All the serious issues were there, but they could still laugh. This celebration was going to be wonderful. Music, dancing, laughter, and family, Texas barbecue, both round
and
square tables. A proper Texas wedding.

Vaughn wiped his hands on the dish towel. “I don’t get why we were the ones who had to hold the new puppy. I swear it peed everywhere.”

Jack had come over to collected it a while back to take to Riley. There was still puppy pee in the weirdest of places.

Darren handed up the half-used pack of wipes. “Because Robbie and Eli’s place isn’t puppy-proof.” He’d said the same thing more than once, and each time his smile grew bigger.

“This isn’t funny, asshole,” Vaughn snapped.

Darren kissed him. “It is a bit.”

Vaughn scanned their rooms, part of the new staff accommodation that Vaughn had a hand in building. Three rooms, a kitchen-lounge area, a large bedroom, and an enormous bathroom with an extra-large shower area. All rooms built for them. So sue him if he had this thing for sex in the shower. Some people hated it. He loved it, and fortunately so did Darren.

Robbie and Eli, on the other hand, had this sprawling old property full of nooks and crannies, while he and Darren had very few places a puppy could hide.

Of course the tiny bundle of cute had found those few places, but Vaughn had the measure of the little thing, and he found ways to block it from getting too far under the bed.

Vaughn held up his running shoes. “Jack owes me a new pair.”

Darren couldn’t help himself. He snorted a laugh at the sight of the two chewed shoes, and while he was laughing, Vaughn huffed and collected all the trash to put outside. He included the shoes, which also had a poop deposit inside one. Finally coming back in, Vaughn found a contrite Darren waiting for him. This whole puppy-sitting exercise had been Darren’s idea; or rather, he didn’t say no when Jack asked. They’d had said puppy for a whole day. Well, eighteen hours—which was near as dammit an entire day. The tiny terror had ruled their lives and hadn’t stopped trying to make Vaughn into some type of puppy bed.

Vaughn shook his head. “Never again,” he warned.

Darren nodded, biting his lip, probably to stop himself laughing.
Asshole
. “I always wanted a dog,” he announced finally.

“No. You’re joking.”

Darren held up a hand as Vaughn advanced toward him, edging him back and to the bed. “Okay, okay, I’m kidding.”

Too late. Vaughn had caught the teasing tone in Darren’s words, and he was going to pay for those words in the best way Vaughn knew how. Darren yelped when Vaughn pushed him back on the bed, laughed when he yanked at his clothes, and sighed audibly as he swallowed Darren whole in one quick move.

Having Darren bucking up into his mouth while gripping Vaughn’s hair was intense. He stopped his sucking and instead moved up his body until he could nestle between Darren’s spread thighs and kiss his lover senseless.

When they came up for air, they stared at each other for the longest time.

Vaughn could lose himself in Darren’s gray eyes forever. “Love you,” he whispered.

“Not as much as I love you.”

They kissed again, this time the caresses were soft, quiet, and Vaughn set a rhythm to have Darren spilling in his hands. Vaughn opened his eyes as Darren arched and came with pure, unadulterated passion in every line of him. Enough to have Vaughn finishing himself off on Darren’s smooth skin. They were in each other’s arms for the longest time before Vaughn knew exactly what he wanted. He grabbed lube and led Darren to the shower.

“Need you inside me,” he asked.

Vaughn started the shower and tested the temperature, making to step in, but stopped when Darren pulled him aside.

Darren cupped Vaughn’s face with his hands. “I can do that.”

And he did.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The first week of August, work started on the planning for the old property, the same day that Sean turned up with a notebook and recorder to talk about weddings and all things gay.

That meant Riley was alone with Sean for the ten minutes it would take Jack to get back from the old house. Ten minutes to get Sean to reassure him how this was being done and how much exposure the Campbell-Hayes family would have.

“An article in the quality press. No TV, no audio. A one-off.” Sean summarized. He was a writer full-time now, of fiction and nonfiction. He was doing this article as a favor and because he honestly believed in the equality that had been handed down.

Jack arrived in a flurry of motion, put his hat on the table, some coffee in a mug, and wore intent written onto his expression. “How are we doing this?”

Sean chuckled. “I want to get your take on the vote. On what it means to you, how you think it will affect you, and I had another idea I wanted to run by you. I want to interview your family and friends and have their opinions and views about you and what you’re doing.”

“Really?” Jack sounded skeptical.

“Marriage equality isn’t only about the couples at the center of it. It’s kids, and parents, and adoption. The whole issue of what is and isn’t a nuclear family.”

“And you can do this?”

“I can,” Sean reassured. “First off, though, and I am asking this for Eden, not for me.” Sean shook his head. “What date is your wedding celebration? I should mention she’s already arranged three possible dates and somehow I need to get you to agree to one of them.” Sean was poised with his pen above the notebook, waiting for an answer. It wasn’t that Riley and Jack hadn’t considered a date, both had said September, but neither had suggested an actual date.

“We’re thinking about Anna and the baby being due in September. Maybe we should push this to October.”

“Eden already talked to Anna, who assures us that whatever date it is, even if she’s in labor, she’ll be there.”

Jack coughed a laugh and muttered, “Yeah, right,” under his breath.

Sean shrugged. “What can I say? The women in this family are crazy.”

“We’ll text you,” Riley said. This was something that needed deciding carefully.

“The nineteenth. Anna isn’t due until the end of September,” Jack said at the same time. Both Riley and Sean looked at Jack, who smiled enigmatically. “It’s an anniversary,” he said.

“Of what?” Riley had all the anniversaries in his phone. Their first marriage, the unofficial vows, the day they met…. What had he missed?

“When you did that thing.” Jack said.

He trailed off, and Riley frowned.
What thing?

Sean coughed next to him, and the cough turned into a laugh.

“Jesus, guys,” he said. I don’t need details. All Eden wants is dates, and that’s one of the ones she had, because—”

Now it was Riley looking at a grinning Sean. “What? Because what?”

“Because she needs to pin down all the catering and—” He checked the list. “—tables and stuff.” He passed them a very long list, then cleared his throat. “Also,” he began with a red flush on his cheekbones, “she wants to get an idea if she needs to buy a looser dress because of the bump.”

Riley wasn’t following—then, all of sudden, he was. “Eden’s pregnant?” He leaned forward in his chair.

Sean nodded. “She’ll be—” He paused and closed his eyes. “—eighteen weeks by then.”

“And everything is okay?” Riley attempted to hold back his worry, but hell, that was his little sister, and after what had happened to Anna in February, his first instinct was panic.

“Everything is fine. We had a scan yesterday. She’s twelve weeks, and she was going to come with me to tell you, but there was some kind of funding crisis at the hospital.”

“Should she still be working there still?” Protective-big-brother mode kicked in with a vengeance. In Riley’s head he had his sister sitting somewhere with her legs up on a sofa, focusing completely on being pregnant. Not rushing around with her fundraising role.

Sean sighed. “She’s determined and stubborn, and focused.”

“But should she be—?”

“You can talk to her if you like,” Sean interrupted.

“You think I should?”

“I promise you, Riley, she’s well, everything is normal, all her tests are good, and the scan we had a few days back is of a beautiful baby.”

Riley nodded. He knew his sister well. That didn’t stop him worrying; it never would. He pulled out his cell as Sean and Jack talked.

“Why didn’t she tell me?” Riley asked softly.

Jack glanced at him, but Riley needed to know. He felt like he was outside the circle a little with this news.

Sean fiddled with the pen in his hand. “You are literally the first people we’ve told. Not my parents, or yours. She wanted you to know first, but she’s only just come to terms with it herself. We didn’t know ourselves until a couple of weeks back. She’d had the flu, or we thought it was the flu.”

“But she’s okay?”

Sean smiled. “She’s okay. Nauseous, but fine.”

Sean told us. Love you
,
little sis
, he sent with a kiss. He didn’t have to wait long for the reply.

I love you too, big brother
, she texted back, adding a kiss and a smiley face.

Take care of yourself.
Riley reworded that quite a few times before sending.

Always, Uncle Riley.

Uncle Riley. That sounded good to hear that from her. He couldn’t be happier. He turned his attention back to Sean and Jack, who apparently at some point had stopped talking and were now staring at him with amused expressions on their faces.

“Better?” Jack teased.

“My baby sister is having a baby of her own,” Riley announced, realizing he was a little dazed.

Riley held out a hand to Sean, who took it, then the two men stood and hugged it out.

“Congratulations,” Riley said.

They sat down, and Sean began writing notes. “So, the nineteenth, then….”

The party for the twins was a joint affair between Cameron, who had turned one on August 1, and the twins who were two on the fifteenth.

As usual everyone congregated on the ranch for barbecue and beer, and Riley spent so much time with Eden asking her questions and fussing around her that Jack only had to count down to the moment Eden shoved her brother away. Josh and he made bets that Eden would put up with the attention for only so long. Jack said she would tell Riley to back off “pre burgers” before Josh could vote for that, so Josh was left with “after burgers.”

Jack watched Riley hover protectively around his sister almost as much as Sean hung about her. Any minute now shit was going to hit the fan, and Jack watched, amused, from a safe distance as she turned on them both and said something with a lot of waving of hands.

Riley slunk away immediately; Sean pulled her into a hug.

“Everything okay?” Jack asked innocently as Riley came to stand next to him.

“I was just asking how she felt….” Riley began to defend himself, then smiled ruefully, “I’m taking a step back in fear of my life.”

She had managed Riley until the first burger.

“She’s told him to stop worrying.” Josh announced. “I win.”

Jack had Josh doing a weird victory dance that had Hayley and Lea falling about on the floor laughing. Even Logan joined in. In fact Logan was a different person since their last real get-together. He’d brought Cory with him again today. Jack was pleased to see how settled and at ease Logan was, and that Cory was smiling. Seemed like Cory was ready to forgive Logan, and at the end of the day, that was what it was all about.

They toasted the baby, and when the various children were occupied and happy, with Hayley and Lea in charge, the entire family began to plan the wedding celebration.

Sean was going to each person individually, asking questions and making notes in his book, recording responses. He spent the longest time with Hayley, who seemed to have an awful lot to say.

When Jack casually walked that way, he thought he caught their daughter with tears in her eyes, but when he took a second look, she was smiling. He caught up with Riley on the steps of the porch. Eli sat next to him, and they were looking at something on Eli’s phone.

“More photos,” Riley explained. He turned the phone so that Jack could see. “Tell me that doesn’t look like Elvis.”

Eli snatched the phone back. “That’s me, asshole.”

Robbie walked up with more drinks, passing them around. Jack was on soft drinks tonight, having opted to be the sensible one, because he loved seeing Riley laughing and being generally like an enormous puppy on speed. Talking of puppies, they had tied Toby to the porch on a long leash. He was almost able to reach the food and had begun to grow into his paws, even after these few short weeks. He was walking in big arcs, taking fuss where he could from whoever would dispense it. Max was fascinated by the puppy, and once the initial shock at Toby’s excitability had passed, he and Max were becoming firm friends. Toby calmed when he was with Max, spent a long time just curling into him.

Jack had found the two of them yesterday, in a pile on Toby’s bed, asleep. Max’s Thomas Tank was still in his hand, and Toby was resting his head on a stuffed soft chicken he’d taken from the twins.

“So who’s next?” Robbie asked. He nodded toward Vaughn and Darren, who had joined the party a while back and were talking at length with Donna and Neil.

“Vaughn and Darren?” Riley said. “Nah.”

“You don’t think so?” Eli asked. “They’re a really close couple.”

“Because. Things.” Riley said helpfully before resting his forehead on the upright by the steps.

“Riley makes perfect sense,” Eli said seriously.

Robbie frowned. “Really?”

Eli sniggered and rested his head on Riley’s shoulder. “Nope,” he said cheerfully. “Not at all.”

When everyone left, Jack and Robbie cleared away, ably assisted by Vaughn and Darren. Eli and Riley were of no use to anyone and had long since sprawled in the porch chairs with bottles of beer and bags of chips. Toby had put himself to bed, and the front yard was quiet.