Jack thumped him on the arm.

They came up to an assistant who waited patiently while Hayley and Jack found the perfect tree. Riley was content to stand and watch over the twins and Max, who was actually confident enough to clamber down from Riley’s arms. He was singing something under his breath, and Riley immediately recognized the Christmas song from the radio in the car. Max had a cute little voice to go along with his cute little heart.

Tree chosen, the assistant handed out instructions, then stood back to watch Jack tackle the tree. They hadn’t done this before, always ordering in a tree to be delivered, but Hayley’s casual leaving of her iPad out with the homepage for this place along with its annoying bright and cheerful theme music caught Jack’s eye. His enthusiasm was infectious.

Jack had the tree down in minutes, and Riley looked as impressed as he could be without breaking out into song and clapping. The tree was gorgeous, his husband with his jacket off confidently swinging the axe, all those muscles, and his dark bangs loose on his forehead had Riley falling in love all over again.

They paid for the tree and agreed getting the twins and Max back in the Tahoe first was probably a good idea. Then with Riley’s extra height a bonus, they finally had the tree tied to the roof.

“You can drive,” Riley said and tossed the keys at him. “She’s so easy to drive and you know you want to.”

“Is this just a way of being able to sleep on the way back?”

Riley kissed him. “Don’t you know it,” he said.

Halfway home on a quieter back road, they joined the tail end of a traffic jam, the traffic slowing, then stopping and starting every so often.

“What happened?” Hayley asked from the back.

“I don’t know, sweetheart,” Jack answered automatically. Riley peered into the growing darkness, but he couldn’t see anything beyond the regular flashing blue of emergency services and red of brake lights. “Could just be construction,” he added. Although his sideways glance told Riley he didn’t believe that. The car in front moved a little, and Jack left the space between them. He tapped his thumbs on the steering wheel in time with Mariah Carey. Then he began to hum.

“I can’t believe you’re singing along with Mariah Carey.”

“Hey, no dissing anything Christmassy,” Jack joked.

“The Eurythmics, I get, but Mariah?”

Jack huffed a laugh and shot him another sideways glance. “You have no taste.”

“I married you, didn’t I?” Riley said with a smirk.

“True.”

Riley opened his mouth to say something when Jack cursed loudly and the car leaped forward with an accompanying horrific crunch of metal. The noise was unearthly, and Riley was flung to his right and against the window. Everything went so fast, whoever told him that things went into slow motion lied. The car listed and lurched to a sickening stop, and all Riley could hear was ringing and shouting. Terror gripped him as he looked at Jack slumped against the side impact bag to the left hand side of the car, then increased when Jack groaned and pushed himself to sit upright—his husband had blood on his forehead and what about the kids?

Riley pushed the airbag out of the way and twisted in his seat, as did Jack, absolutely petrified of what he would see. Relief flooded him when he saw the twins still secure in their seats and Hayley talking quietly to Max. Everyone was okay. The airbags had worked, nothing had pushed its way into the car. They were all okay.

“Semi,” Jack gasped as he touched the wound on his forehead.

Raised voices came close to the car, and a fireman wrenched open the door.

“Sir? Everyone okay?”

“I think so,” Riley said immediately. “My husband, he has blood. The children?”

More emergency services gathered around the car, and finally the entire family was out on the side of the road. Riley was protective of Max, held him in his arms and Hayley’s hand. They ranged around a paramedic’s rig with Jack sitting on the step and the twins in their car seats behind him. Lexie was fractious, but Connor was quiet and staring up at the lights reflected on the ceiling.

From here Riley could see the semi that had failed to see the brake lights and had barreled into the cars behind them. Everyone had shunted with damage, but Jack leaving a gap between them and the car in front had meant they were the front of the line and had probably saved them from more harm. The two cars behind them had passengers being cut out, and Riley felt sick. How close had they come to being injured?

“It was the cell charger,” Jack said. His words were low, but they broke through Riley’s thoughts.

“What?” he said as his eyes focused in on the tiny cut on Jack’s temple.

“It’s nothing. The charger detached and cut me. I’m fine.”

Riley stared at his husband and pulled Hayley in close to him.

“We could have been…”

Jack reached a hand out and placed it on Riley’s arm. “But we weren’t,” he said calmly.

A phone call to the ranch and both Robbie and Liam arrived in the two ranch trucks. After leaving their details with the emergency services and arranging for the Tahoe to be towed and where to, they left in silence back to the ranch. Jack was in with Robbie and the twins, Riley with Hayley and Max being driven very sensibly by Liam.

Only when they got home did Riley see that Robbie and Liam had managed to get the tree into the back of Robbie’s truck. There was no damage to the tree and no damage to his family apart from the small cut that was now sealed with two Steri-Strips.

Riley didn’t really have a faith as such, but standing there in the yard of the ranch with the damn tree leaning against the steps to the kitchen, he thanked every god there could possibly be.

And that tree would be the best-decorated Christmas tree this side of the Red River.

* * * * *

Beth settled into the chair in the sun room that she loved, and Jack was happy enough to sit with her. Today he’d woken up a little sore and tired, and it had been a long day talking to the cops and the insurance company.

The semi driver was texting and had assumed the road clear; he’d rounded the bend and suddenly he’d been faced by the line of traffic, four cars stacked behind Riley’s SUV. He’d swerved to the center of the road then back and hit two cars behind from the side, which pushed forward into Jack. The cops said Riley and he and the children were lucky to get out with just the one injury. The passenger in the car behind them would be spending Christmas in the hospital, and probably into the New Year as well.

Riley had got it into his head the tree was the focus of everything and was attempting to pin him down for tree trimming. Beth was here, Josh as well, Donna, Neil, and so many children he was feeling a little overwhelmed. Max had gone the whole day without comment on what had happened, Hayley was dramatizing it to her friends via texting, and for the twins it was just another day.

All Jack wanted was ten minutes just to sit with his new nephew, but it wasn’t only Riley that was there tapping fingers, waiting for him. Hayley and Liam were also hanging on for him with nothing short of extreme enthusiasm—Hayley desperate to delve in the box of decorations and Liam because he wanted to borrow some to put up in his place. When Marcus turned up as well, Jack just knew he had to go find Beth and some quiet.

“You should go back,” Beth said. “Riley is way past excited on this tree trimming thing.” She chuckled.

“He’s overcompensating. Says the tree’s survival was a sign.”

“A sign of what?”

“A sign that it needs to be the best decorated tree ever.”

“I love that man.”

He placed her water on the small table to one side. Today he was feeling off, and his world didn’t sit right. It wasn’t the twins, they were well, and Carol was a godsend. Hayley was doing well, still out there now, crushing on Logan and making puppy-dog eyes at him. Max was good as well. He sometimes found the Campbell-Hayes family confusing and jumbled, but he was thriving here with the horses, and despite his silence, today he’d been calm and even shared Thomas for a few minutes with Riley over breakfast. It wasn’t even Riley, who had a head full of Christmas now. It was yesterday. It was knowing that without luck on their side they could have had one of the children in hospital or worse.