They walked outside and found Jack and Beth in the barn with little Emily sitting on a box and humming along to a song in her head.

Steve got with the plan. He grasped Beth by the hand and tugged her out of the barn. When they left, Riley instantly pulled Jack in for a hug.

“You okay?” he said quickly.

“Worried,” Jack admitted. “But, if the doctor says she’ll be okay… I can't exactly…hell, I don’t know what to say.”

”Unca Ri, Unca Jack,” Emily demanded their attention. “Want rides.”

Riley scooped Emily up into his arms and tickled her until she was giggling with glee. “Time for cookies,” he said. With Emily in one arm and holding tightly to Jack’s hand, the three of them made it to the house.

Jack was quiet, but by the time Beth and Steve walked into the kitchen, he had brightened enough to hug Beth close.

Everything would be okay. It had to be.

Chapter 4

~November~

The phone call wasn’t unexpected, but it still took Jack by surprise. The Walker Clinic had kept both Riley and Jack in the loop with how their profiles were going with the surrogates on their books. There wasn’t an instant match, and Jack wasn’t sure if he was pleased or annoyed. If surrogates weren’t choosing him and Riley, financially stable with a daughter and neither with any health issues, then they were clearly the ones losing out. And were probably homophobic to boot.

He never mentioned his concerns to Riley, and given Riley had contract negotiations at work and site visits that kept him occupied, it was easy to avoid the elephant in the room completely. Jack had slid back into his routine: his horses, Hayley, listening to Riley, making love with Riley. He didn’t forget the Clinic and everything that was going on outside his control, but he did compartmentalize it very nicely.

So when the phone rang the first week in November, Jack answered it in a very offhand manner. He’d already had three sales calls from different feed companies, and this would be nothing different.

“Double D,” he said and rummaged through his drawer for a missing pen. Hayley kept helping herself to his pens or Riley did. He’d have to hide some somewhere if he was ever going to get these training schedules done. The last pen he’d seen was actually in Robbie’s hands. Damn that pseudo-Aussie, he needed to learn Jack’s pens stayed in the office.

“Hello?” The voice was faint, and suddenly Jack realized he’d moved the receiver away from his ear.

“Sorry, hello, here.”

“Mr Campbell-Hayes? This is the Walker Clinic, Marcus’s assistant Tina speaking. He asked that I call and arrange a meeting for you to interview the surrogates. Whom am I addressing? Riley or Jackson?”

“Jackson, Jack,” Jack said quickly. His adrenaline spiked. He felt a little nauseous and a whole lot shocked.

“Mr Campbell-Hayes, would you and your husband be available to visit our offices a week from Monday. The eleventh?”

“Monday,” Jack repeated blankly. “Ten days’ time Monday.”

Jack could hear the smile in her voice when she replied. “That’s right. At nine am with a view to running through the matches with Marcus, and with the first interview at ten?”

“We can do that,” Jack said. He wished he had a damn pen.

“I’ll email you the time and date.” True to her word, the little icon appeared on his screen to indicate new mail. “You should have it there now.”

Fumbling the phone to his other ear, he clicked the mouse with his free hand and nodded when he saw the email. Then he realized she would not be able to see the nodding.

“Yes. I have it. Thank you. Do we need to bring anything with us?”

“Nothing at all, Mr Campbell-Hayes. I look forward to meeting you then.” She rang off, and suddenly he was on his own with his computer and looking directly at his pen, which had rolled under the monitor. Carefully he eased his fingers under the flatscreen and pulled the pen out. Riley needed to know. He had to tell Riley now.

He dialed the direct number from memory, but clearly Riley wasn’t at his desk because the call diverted to Riley’s assistant, Kathy.

“CH Consultancy, Kathy speaking.”

“Hi, Kathy, is Riley there somewhere?”

“Hi, Jack, last I saw he was up on the third floor in the map room. You need me to go find him?”

Jack considered the question for a moment. When Riley was in the map room, normally cross-legged on the floor with maps on the ground next to him, he was concentrating. Jack knew how his husband’s freaky mind worked, how Riley could imagine the layers of rock and sift through the evidence to find oil deposits. He glanced at the time. He could be at Riley’s in under forty minutes and kissing him in forty-one.

“Does he have a lunch meeting?”

“Not today, no.”

“I’m coming in,” Jack announced. “See you shortly.”

“Should I tell Riley to expect you?”

Jack only waited a few seconds to answer. “Nope, I want it to be a surprise.”

He wanted Riley to be as shocked as Jack had been…fair’s fair, after all.

* * * * *

Riley pushed a map to one side and shuffled to the desk with the lighting under it. He picked up the next map and laid it over the first. Looking at the formation and concentrating on the story it told, he never heard the door open, so the first indication he got that Jack was anywhere near him was the scent of his lover. Outdoors, horses, shower gel, Jack. He leaned back into Jack’s arms, safe in the knowledge that his man was right behind him and wouldn’t let him fall.

“Hey, gorgeous,” Riley murmured. He turned his head for Jack’s kiss and lost himself in a lazy meeting of lips and tongue and the chuckling he could feel in Jack’s kiss. He pulled away. “We need to make this quick,” he deadpanned, “I wouldn’t want my husband to find out.”

Jack huffed and smacked Riley on the ass. Then he manhandled Riley to face him and with a push back against the nearest map table, he deepened the kisses. Riley loved this Jack, all pushy and toppy and in his space. Jack used a knee to force Riley’s legs apart, and he didn’t argue, simply slumped a little and shuffling his feet out until finally he could settle into the groove of Jack’s thighs and they were groin to groin. He reached up, curled his hands around the back of Jack’s neck, and used the link to hold on tight. This was going to be hot and fast and heavy, and he was damn thankful that standing orders meant no one disturbed him in the map room. He also sent up thanks that the map tables were strong enough to support his ass as Jack pressed close.

“Do you have anything?” Jack asked between kisses.

“Not here,” Riley answered quickly. He’d not thought to plant lube in the room. They had it in the bedroom, their barn, Jack’s truck, his 4x4, but in the CH map room? Well shit.

“Fuck,” Jack echoed the disappointment. “I want you naked on this table with my cock in your ass and my hands holding you down. I want your legs wrapped around me…” He kissed deeper and placed both hands on Riley’s ass to force him closer. Fuck. Riley’s cock was threatening to burst through the zipper of his pants at any given moment. When Jack moved a hand between them to push past the button and zip, Riley nearly keened in relief. The feel of Jack’s fingers on him had him cursing into the kiss. If he released his hold around Jack’s neck, would he stop kissing Riley? But if he didn’t let go, how was he going to get his hands on Jack? In the end the lust to touch Jack was too much, and he released his hold to push his way into Jack’s jeans. They fumbled and rutted, and Riley moaned into the kiss that Jack didn’t break. Together they pulled each other to completion, and when Riley lost it, Jack wasn’t far after him. They collapsed to the floor and lay on their back staring up at the white ceiling of the room.