So yeah, the weight of it was on Liam, and he looked tired. He was still working long days, putting in his hours, making a home with Marcus in the apartment over the barn. Of the three of them standing there, he was the one who didn’t need to be in a place where people danced and expected a body to be smiling all the time. He needed something else.

“Liam,” Marcus said from the door. Jack sighed inwardly. His quiet place was getting busier than the party. “You okay?”

Liam turned to face Marcus, and Jack couldn’t help but see the shine of emotion in Liam’s eyes or the serious expression on Marcus’s face.

“Thinking Liam and you should have your own New Year’s,” Robbie suggested.

Marcus nodded and held out a hand that Liam took. “Is that okay, Jack?”

Jack frowned. What did it have to do with him? Never mind Marcus was looking for his permission and Liam really needed the support. “Get off before Riley catches you,” he joked. Liam and Marcus left quickly. Now there was only the two of them left—and Jack’s five minutes were up.

“Keep my fence warm,” he muttered. After knocking shoulders with Robbie, he went indoors and into the chaos that was a family celebration. He’d done worse. Once he’d spent fourteen hours with a pregnant mare in distress. He could do this.

* * * * *

Riley wasn’t exactly watching for Jack. Not really. It just happened that whenever Jack walked into a room, Riley was aware of exactly when it happened. Somehow he always looked over at the moment Jack was looking for him. Time stopped for a second, One Direction faded into the background, as did Hayley’s laughter with her cousins and Eli and Eden twirling in some mad parody of a tango; everything faded.

Every single damn time Riley looked at Jack, his heart hitched and emotion choked him.

Mine. I love him and he’s mine, and he’s the other half of me, and everything. Yeah, it didn’t make much sense, this overwhelming surge of ownership, of affection and need, but it was all it took for Riley to cross over and steal a heated kiss right there in front of the entire family. When he pulled back, Jack was smirking that infuriating laconic cowboy smile and his blue eyes shone with emotion. Dressed from head to toe in black, pants, matching shirt shot through with silver, and that Texas belt buckle, he was edible and all Riley’s.

“You missed me?” Jack teased.

“No,” Riley said. “Just warming up for midnight. Let’s get beer.”

A party tent off the side of the kitchen extended the house for this get-together with God knows how many family and friends milling around. Riley knew his mom and dad were in there somewhere, clapping along to Hayley’s dancing, which in itself was a miracle. Sandra Hayes was the last person Riley ever imagined would clap along to anything. But where her granddaughter was concerned, all the Southern genteel charm was put to bed and instead out came the mad-eyed grandma who loved her grandchildren. She’d never have the natural warmth that Donna exuded, but she was trying hard and she had a special connection to Hayley that Riley loved to watch.

The two men picked up beer, or rather, Jack did; Riley still had a cold fear about what would happen if they both got drunk. Although Jack didn’t ordinarily get drunk and neither did Riley, he wanted one of them to be entirely sober in case the twins needed them, or Max or Hayley. He opened a can of Sprite, and the icy-cold bubbles felt good on his tongue. He finished it off as he joined in with a heated debate about whether Brad was hotter than Angelina. Jack wandered off again, but this time it was just to stand with his brother and sister-in-law and their kids.

Logan was growing up, and he was looking an awful lot like his Uncle Jack. With the requisite floppy hair over one eye, he was a good-looking kid, and Riley couldn’t fail to notice Hayley looking over at Logan every so often. She still had that crush on her cousin, but Logan was three years older and headed for college in a year or so. Riley didn’t like to admit it, but he hoped to hell Hayley got over it. Not because he didn’t like Logan, Logan was a good kid, but Riley just wasn’t ready for Hayley to be dating anyone, let alone her kind-of-cousin.

“You look awfully serious, big brother.” Eden smiled up at him, and he pulled her into his side. Sean wasn’t there that night, but Eden didn’t seem too fazed by that. The couple had moved to a better place slowly but surely, and although Riley still had a few small reservations over Sean, he could see his sister was happy. For that Sean got a million brownie points.

“Just counting my blessings,” Riley answered. She cuddled in close and wrapped her arms around his waist, and Riley didn’t want to let her go. He had to eventually, especially when she wriggled, which was the only way she could get out of one of her brother’s bear hugs. She looked well, happy, her little black dress and strappy heels both covered in soft glitter. Riley glanced down at himself and the smattering of glitter he now had on his shirt.

“Your fault,” she said, and with a grin, she left.

He didn’t have time to think about how he was going to remove the glitter when Hayley ran to him and clung to him, asking him to go with her. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but he could see the emotion in his daughter’s eyes. She was close to crying, and as soon as he followed her into the good room, those tears began to fall. Riley sat on the sofa and pulled her into his arms. She was such an itty-bitty thing, and she needed a hug. She held him so tight and she was sobbing, her slim form shaking in his hold. Riley’s heart split in two.

“What happened, sweetie?” he asked when her crying had settled to a few hitched breaths.

“It’s Logan,” she began.

Riley’s chest tightened. Hayley’s big crush was obvious to everyone. Had Logan done something? Had he hurt Hayley? He was a good kid, but that didn’t mean Riley wouldn’t flatten him if he’d upset her. Jack would just have to understand; after all, this was their daughter and daughter trumped nephew. The daddy side of him wanted to call Logan out, the sensible adult side of him was trying to be patient.

“What happened?”

“He’s… he’s… g-got a girlfriend.” Hayley managed to get the words out before sobbing into Riley’s shirt, and Riley held her as his little girl’s heart broke into a million pieces. He stroked her long blonde hair and back. He felt powerless, but he knew this was only the first of so much that Hayley would be experiencing, and it wasn’t like a skinned knee or strep, he was helpless here.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he said gently as he stroked her back, marveling at the softness of her hair and her scent and the very wonder of holding his teenage daughter in his arms. She still loved them at the moment; she hadn’t reached that point where a father’s love would be replaced by the angst of teenage years or the love of another male.

“I’m so stupid,” she said. “He’s at a school with girls, and I’m stuck at mine.”

Hayley being at a school with just girls was a bone of contention between Hayley and her dads. She loved it there, she was safe, she had friends, and Riley had gone to an all-boys school for a short while and it hadn’t done him any harm. But she wanted a boyfriend, and she’d set her sights on Logan.

“He’s older than you,” Riley began quietly. He wasn’t entirely sure how that was going to go. She’d either snap at it by saying Logan wasn’t too old, or she’d understand where he was coming from.

“I know,” she said so softly that Riley could barely hear her. “But when I’m older, when I’m bigger and sexy and have boobs, then he’ll be sorry.”

Riley nearly choked on a combination of a laugh and groan. He almost felt sorry for Logan. Hayley reminded him of Eden in so many ways, so utterly convinced of her journey through life, so focused. But even though he tried to be the hands-on dad, listening to what his daughter said, he still couldn’t get his head around talking about Hayley and her boobs.