Beyond the softly undulating ‘hills’ to one side of the room was a young kid’s Thomas playset winding in circles and over bridges and through tunnels. The train moved slowly, and Riley had read up on the best things that Max would want with the train, the different-colored carriages, the smiling faces of Thomas, James, and Henry. Max crawled up over the hills and disappeared on the other side. He didn’t immediately come back. Riley and Jack moved silently to peer over, and Riley’s heart swelled when he saw Max curled on his side with his own Thomas watching the train move on the wide tracks.

Riley and Jack exchanged smiles and backed out of the bedroom. So it wasn’t a party for forty little kids or cake and pass the parcel, nor was it a full-blown family affair, but for Max it was perfect and he was happy.

That was all Riley wanted.

The two of them left Max with his trains and met Carol in the hallway. She was twin-free.

“Thought I’d just go get a birthday hug before I need to feed the twins” she said with a smile.

“He’s in with his trains.”

Jack held his hand out, and Riley instinctively twisted his fingers in his husband’s.

“He’s happy with what he has in there,” Jack said.

Carol simply smiled at this. “Of course he is.”

She carried on into Max’s bedroom, and Hayley ran up the steps and slid to a halt in front of them. She held out the house phone.

“Pappa, call for you.” Jack took the phone and released Riley’s hand. Riley took the opportunity to lift Hayley off the ground in a hug.

“Dad!” she squeaked in outrage. But then she giggled and clung like a limpet to him. “Come see what Eden did with me.” Riley glanced at Jack, who was evidently deep in some discussion over horses and bookings.

“What’d she buy you this time?” Riley said with an exaggerated sigh.

“Nothin’.” Hayley looked affronted, then wriggled down from Riley’s hold. “We made it.”

Riley followed her into what he and Jack privately referred to as the pink palace. No doubt when Hayley turned fifteen, everything would be somber and teenage-dark, but for the moment the room was bright and cerise and pale roses. She had a huge bed in the middle and wide windows with views over the ranch. The room was pillows and blankets and everything a girl wanted it seemed.

She pointed at the wall and the large pin board that covered half of it. Eden had put this up? Riley’s sister? That Eden? Riley looked at the large thing with trepidation alongside the sincere hope it wouldn’t fall off and on someone’s head. Eden wasn’t known for her skills with nails or glue. He recalled the incident of the Barbie and G.I. Joe falling to their deaths from top floor of Hayes Oil when they were kids. He’d liked that G.I. Joe, and Eden convinced him the parachute she’d made would be fine and that both Barbie and G.I. Joe would float gently to the ground some fifty stories below. They were lucky no one was under the projectiles as they plummeted into the gardens in the center of the atrium. He smiled at the memory and the fact he had new teasing material with his little sister.

“Look. See?” Hayley pointed excitedly.

On the pin board was a big selection of One Direction posters and to the right sat a neatly arranged collection of family photos. The three of them, him, Jack and Hayley, before the twins, before Max. Then groups of family, cousins, her mom, the ranch, horses. Some photos he recognized, others were new. There was a small grouping of photos of the twins and Max.

“It’s gorgeous,” Riley said honestly. He couldn’t take his eyes off the photos of his family. He sat on the edge of her bed and held out his arms. He couldn’t get enough hugs with her before she became too old for them.

She sat on the bed next to him, and together they admired the board.

“Can I ask you something, Dad?”

“Course you can.”

“Abigail has a boyfriend.”

“She does?”

“Yeah, he’s from that show about the vampires and the mountains.”

“Uh huh,” Riley said. He didn’t want to appear downright stupid, but the only vampires he knew about were the Twilight ones. Hayley probably meant one of the CW shows she watched religiously. Jack sometimes sat with her to, in his words, check what she’s watching. Riley suspected his husband liked watching the young beautiful guys who seems to populate the shows.

“He’s fourteen, but his dad is an actor. They met at a party last week. She’s all, I’m in love, I love him, he loves me.” Riley could hear the exasperation in Hayley’s voice. “Thing is, I don’t think I’ll ever get a boyfriend.”

Riley frowned. “Of course you will.”

“Look at it this way,” she began in her best grown-up voice. “You don’t have parties with cute boys, and Pappa only has horses.”

Riley couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face and thanked God that she couldn’t see his expression.

“So you’ll meet a cute boy at the mall or at school,” he offered helpfully.

“I’m twelve, Dad, I never go to the mall without someone, and I go to a school for girls. You need to have parties, with boys.”

“You know why you don’t go to the mall alone? And why you’re at Bryant Faraday?”

“Duh,” Hayley said. She wriggled away from him and sat with her back to pillows and her legs crossed in front of her. She looked impossibly young. “You’re really rich and you married a man and there’s oil and so everyone wants to photograph me. I get that. I just…” She threw up her hands dramatically. “Dad, I don’t even have boobs.”

Riley mimicked her position opposite her. Boobs. He used to be an expert at all things female but only from the point of view of a horny young man. He wasn’t even entirely sure he ever wanted a boy to look at Hayley, let alone be her boyfriend. “That will happen when you start your period,” he said with as much confidence as he could muster. He had to remember that whatever his gaps in knowledge, he’d done his research and was entirely comfortable with discussing Hayley’s puberty with her. He was her father, and he should be her first point for information. Well, he or Jack anyway. Just because she had two daddies didn’t mean she was missing out on a mother; they would do their very best to be there for her at all times.

“There’s something else, I email with Logan.”

“Your cousin Logan?” Riley knew she emailed and texted all of Jack’s family, who were now her family. He and Jack hadn’t given in on the whole Facebook thing as yet, but he guessed it wouldn’t be long, a couple of years maybe.

“Yeah, he’s really nice and he doesn’t treat me like a kid, not like he does Lea.”

Riley smiled. “Lea is Logan’s sister and it’s a brother’s job to keep their little sisters little for as long as they can. Look at me and your Aunty Eden.”

“You think one day he could be my boyfriend?”

Riley’s brain froze. Wasn’t there some rule about cousins? No, wait, was that first-generation cousins by blood? Logan was Jack’s nephew, not at all related to Riley except through marriage. And he was only fifteen, jeez, Riley recalled what he was like at fifteen and exactly what he wanted out of anything he had to do with girls. Finally, when his head felt full of all these questions and he realized she was expecting an answer and all he could say when she tilted her head expectantly was the truth.

“Maybe one day.”

There. He hadn’t lied or exaggerated or put her off or demanded she stay in her room forever. He felt quite proud of the simple way he’d handled this. Until she sighed and rested her chin on her hands propped on her knees.

“I think Logan is very pretty,” she said dreamily. “He looks like Harry.”

Riley couldn’t recall a Harry and he asked the first thing that came to mind. “Harry who?” He knew he’d committed some kind of old-person error. Hayley rolled her eyes.