Texas Wedding (8 page)

“Writing it down is like we’re making a deal with Rebecca,” one of the other parents said. “We have to stick to the timings rigidly. But if something goes wrong, like the event we are going to is canceled or something like that, it makes everything so hard.”

Riley nodded his agreement. “Max is inflexible.” He felt guilty, as if he was badmouthing their son. “I don’t mean that in a bad way,” he added, and saw a lot of parents looking at him and smiling. They all got it. They knew what it was like.

“Inflexibility, stubbornness. These are parts of autism. Imagine it as a kind of extreme OCD.”

They talked for a long time about the stubbornness, to the point where Riley could see parts of himself in the words.

Sybil opened the floor again. “Does anyone else have a question?”

The group discussed the cycle of temper and the social aspects of living with autism. Sybil covered so much that Jack wished he’d taken notes.

They broke for refreshments, and Jack went to find paper and a pen, stopping to talk to Sybil by the table as Riley got them coffee.

“I heard good things about the riding center, Mr. Campbell-Hayes,” she said as they shook hands.

“Jack, please.”

“I’ve written out a referral for a young man with complex needs. Are you set up for children in wheelchairs?”

“We’ve had all the training, and we have special saddles.”

“Then I will pass on the referral. Unfortunately the family doesn’t qualify for funding, but maybe we could talk about that?”

“We have bursaries,” Jack offered. He’d more or less made that up on the spot. “Send over the referral, and I’ll cover it.”

Sybil nodded. “Thank you.”

By the time the break was done, Jack had made new friends, exchanged phone numbers, and joined some kind of online group. Well, when he said “joined,” he told Riley about it, and Riley would join for them. They agreed to barbecues and play dates at the ranch, and one couple had a daughter in Hayley’s school just a few years below her.

Jack realized one thing. He and Riley were not alone, and so they sat for the rest of the afternoon, learned strategies and techniques for ensuring that Max had a better life, and that they would do the best for him. It was the first day of what Jack knew would be many; there was so much to learn, but he and Riley could be the parents that Max needed in every way.

When they got home, Jack sat with Max in the sensory room, with Riley on the other side of Max, and they played quietly with Thomas the Tank. They used a couple of new strategies they’d learned today in communication, a few social stories, and Max was quiet but pleased to see them in his own way.

Only when they were in bed did it all hit Jack in one push of sadness and resignation. Autism is such a big word, and Jack felt helpless under the weight of it all. It was only because Riley held him and they were in this together that he pulled himself out of it.

He was Max’s pappa, and he was going to be a damn good one.

He and Riley, both.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The day of the Valentine’s dance was chaos in the Campbell-Hayes household.

Eden smiled as she exited Hayley’s bedroom. Jack had hovered outside ever since Eden had walked past them in the kitchen, gone out to her car, and come back in, looking very focused. Riley had laughed at his expression, but Jack was taking this seriously. Eden had come over to help Hayley get ready for the dance and the two had been locked away in Hayley’s room for going on two hours.

“Is everything okay?” Jack asked worriedly.

“Wonderful,” Eden said. She grasped him by the elbow and encouraged him back into the kitchen, where Riley was playing peekaboo with Lexie. She pulled the door shut behind her and released her hold of Jack.

“I’m a little worried,” she began.

Jack’s head filled with scenarios of why Hayley was causing worry. Had she confided something in Eden? “What?”

Riley looked up from Lexie with a similar expression. “Is everything okay?”

“Two things. One, I had to take her dress in a little, and the other thing, she’s beautiful, and she’ll walk out in a minute, and I need you to be really grown-up about this.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t you dare comment about her dress, or her makeup, or her hair.”

“Makeup?” Riley said a little weakly.

“Lip gloss,” Eden reassured.

“And taking the dress in, was that a problem?” Jack recalled it had seemed to fit well enough two weeks back.

“She’s got Riley’s genes, all right. She’s getting tall so quick, and that isn’t an easy thing, okay. She’s self-conscious, about her height, the dress, her hair. So be nice.” This last she said to both of them, although she was looking at Jack.

Jack couldn’t understand why he was so on edge tonight. She was his daughter as much as Riley’s, but he was the one who couldn’t sit still. He loved her so much that his heart would break if anything happened to her. He knew Riley felt the same, but Riley appeared to have a handle on dealing with tonight. Well, after he’d asked Jack for the key to the gun cupboard, that was. Riley had been joking, but maybe a gun would be a good thing…. If this
Cory
knew they were armed—

“Stop it,” Eden admonished. “I can see your brain working, Jackson Campbell-Hayes. You don’t need to get a rifle out. She’ll be fine.”

Jack’s mouth fell open, how did Eden know about the whole dads ’n’ guns thing?

Eden tapped a finger on his chest. “I know everything.” She answered his silent question. “And I’ve already had this conversation with Riley.”

Jack looked at Riley and considered how he should have come back from the horses earlier to have been here when Eden arrived.

“Okay,” Jack said. He wasn’t entirely sure what he was agreeing to, but it was too late. Eden had left the kitchen, and it was now or never.

“I would sit down if I were you,” Riley suggested.

Jack sighed inwardly. They would have to get over this. She was a teenager and she would have boyfriends, she would go on dates, attend parties, and he and Riley couldn’t be with her every second of every day she wasn’t at school.

Eden came back in, then stood to one side and with a flourish announced, “Hayley.”

Jack tensed as did Riley, but when Hayley walked into the kitchen, all he wanted to do was cry. Literally cry. The dress was beautiful on her, and Eden had done something with Hayley’s hair so it was all curls cascading from some kind of clip thing. The gloss on her lips was nothing new, but the apprehension in her expression was.

“You look so beautiful,” Riley said.

“Oh, Hayley,” Jack added, “you look as pretty as….” He couldn’t think of an analogy, then it hit him. “Solo in the grass.”

Her apprehension turned to a beaming smile and Jack’s heart filled to bursting. Next to him Riley placed Lexie in her high chair and stood to pull Hayley into a gentle hug.

“You have so much of your momma in you,” he murmured.

“You think I really do? I have your hair, your eyes. I’m tall like you.”

Jack wondered what Riley was going to say. When he looked at Hayley, he always saw a miniature Riley, but he hadn’t known Lexie.

“There’s a beauty in you that I remember in your mom,” Riley said. “I couldn’t be prouder of you at the moment.”

Jack stayed back a little. He wanted to get a handle on his emotions, and, after all, Riley was doing well with this.

“Ready to go?” Riley asked.

Eden was staying here, and Riley and Jack were driving her to the venue. The dance was at the school, and they needed to leave now.

They chatted in the car about everything and nothing, about school and lessons and horses, and Jack subtly tried to ask about this Cory kid who was her date. He couldn’t very well come out with asking what his parents did for a living, but it turned out Cory’s mom was a lawyer and his dad something in finance. Cory was Logan’s friend at school and had three brothers. He was a hard worker who was brilliant at math, or so Hayley said. They’d met because she was friends with him on Facebook, through Logan.

He wanted to turn around and say that Hayley was too young to have a boyfriend and that there would be no practicing, but he didn’t. Instead, they talked, and he and Riley worked through their dad issues separately. Jack could see the tension in Riley as he drove—pressure that ramped up as they reached the school. They met other parents in the parking lot, and Jack was relieved to see Aiden Hunter, the actor friend he’d made at a show-and-tell day a few years back. Hayley was best friends with Aiden’s daughter Megan, who looked as wide-eyed as Jack felt.

Then it was time to meet Cory.

Cory, who was taller than Hayley, and broader, looked every day of sixteen. He was a good-looking kid, with dark hair and green eyes, and was respectful, shaking Riley’s hand, then Jack’s.

This was nothing like the dates Jack remembered from school. When he was young, you didn’t meet the parents, you dated and kissed in the dark. Then again, maybe it was different when it was girl-boy; Jack had never dated a girl. Well, apart from Tiffany and that one dance where Jack had ended up face-planted on the gym floor and Tiffany had stormed off to the toilets with all her friends in tow.

“You be good,” he warned. He wasn’t exactly looking at Cory when he said it, but his words were underscored when Riley laid a hand on Cory’s shoulder and squeezed. Cory paled a little, but he offered a small smile.

“We will,” he said. He evidently realized what he’d said and the implications of “we,” because he blurted out random words and flushed scarlet. “I mean… we’ll dance okay… on our own, together, I won’t… I’ll….” He stopped when Riley patted his shoulder. Jack could imagine Riley leaning in and saying something in a gangster’s voice about the fact he and Cory had reached an understanding.

As quickly as that, the tension left. This was a school dance, with chaperones, and Jack should trust that Hayley was responsible and that Cory feared for his life enough that he’d be respectful.

The two of them watched the kids go inside, and abruptly it was only the adults in a loose semicircle.

“Want to get a drink?” Aiden said to Jack.

Jack and Riley had planned on finding somewhere to park up, Jack with his stock reports, Riley with his Kindle, but beer somewhere, given Riley was driving, sounded like a good thing to Jack.

“And they have our numbers, right?” Jack said after he’d finished his first beer, with a second on the way. They’d found a small out-of-the-way bar where hopefully Aiden wouldn’t be recognized and they could get a drink in peace.

Aiden laughed. “I guess this is your first rodeo, cowboy,” he said with his best approximation of a western drawl.

Riley coughed on his tonic water, and Jack narrowed his eyes at Aiden. “You seem laid-back about this.”

“Megan has an older sister, Julianna. She’s sixteen, you know. Been there, done that.”

“Does it ever get any easier?” Riley asked.

Aiden leaned in conspiratorially. “Nope, but did I mention Julianna is sixteen, and she wants to be an actor?”

“Following in her daddy’s footsteps,” Riley commented.

“Are you okay with that?” Jack asked. He was curious because he’d seen the articles about kids acting at a young age and burning out.

“No, of course not, but that isn’t what I tell the press when they ask. It’s all smoke and mirrors. I give the usual line about how it’s a hard business, but if that’s what she wants, then I’ll back her every moment.”

“And you’re lying?” Jack asked.

“Hell yes.” Aiden sighed. “I already nearly lost my marriage to the business, and I don’t wish that on anyone, but she’s a good little actor and I’ve been approached about having her as my daughter in my next film. So yeah, having all that means Megan’s first dance is all in perspective.”

Jack sat back and nursed his beer. Everything was okay when it was only him he had to consider. He could work as hard as he needed and worry about the Double D and have all those issues. Now he had four kids, a husband, a riding school, his horses, and was contemplating the shelter. Sometimes it was overwhelming.

Riley leaned into him and kissed his cheek. “You look so serious. She’ll be fine.”

Jack nodded. He knew that really.

Two girls came to the table and asked for a selfie, which Aiden gave, albeit a little reluctantly. What must it be like to be on show like this all the time?

“Are you an actor as well? Or maybe a model?” one of the girls asked Riley.

Riley shook his head and chatted a little, and the girls left. Luckily they passed the rest of the hour there without anyone else disturbing them in their quiet corner.

All that time, Jack kept looking at Riley, at the laughter in his hazel eyes and the way he kept running his fingers through his blond hair. Riley looked older than when they first met; the young man Jack had fallen in love with had matured, same as him. He was gorgeous: thick lashes framing his eyes and his lips generous and ready to be kissed. He was beautiful, and he could have been an actor or a model. Instead he’d chosen to be Jack’s husband.

And that was exactly right for them.

They picked up a giggling, happy Hayley and watched as Cory placed a small kiss on her cheek. The teenagers hugged a little, although it was slightly awkward.

They were home by ten, and Hayley, plus her phone, went straight to her room.

But not before she’d laid one hell of a bombshell on them.

“So what did you and Cory… do?” Jack couldn’t think of another way to phrase it.

“Danced a lot,” she said. “I was so thirsty, because it was hot, and he got me all my drinks.”

“That sounds good,” Riley offered.

“It was, but we didn’t kiss or anything, so you can stop worrying.”

“Oh?” Jack felt suddenly defensive; didn’t Cory like Hayley? Jack wasn’t stupid, he realized what his weird daddy-brain had done. He didn’t want kissing, but the thought of Hayley not getting a kiss was like an affront to his innate “daddiness.”

“Of course not, Pappa. I said he doesn’t think he likes girls—he likes boys. Anyway, I told him I’m marrying Logan.”