"Sorry to call you back so early in the day," Riley started.

"No problems. I'm still on UK time. Only flew back in to the US a few days ago and my clock is all over the place. Sleep is not my friend. How are you?"

"Doing good."

"I read all the stuff that happened in the last few years."

"Yeah?" "Sorry about your loss."

Riley wasn't sure which loss Eli was referring to. His brother? His dad? HayesOil? Instead he gave a standard, and very safe, answer.

"Thank you."

"And sorry I didn't… you know… contact you to give support and shit but I had some stuff of my own going on."

Typical Eli. Flighty, incorrigible, but at least freaking honest. Riley decided he wasn't ready to face that particular elephant in the room and instead changed the subject.

"How are you?" Riley asked. He wasn't sure what else to say so he guessed it was best to stick with the usual pleasantries until he could see if the old friendship was still alive.

"Usual shit. Got asked to leave London for a slight indecent exposure misunderstanding," Eli said.

Riley snorted a laugh. At that point, despite the eight-year gap since they had talked, they dropped the formalities and were once again back as pledges and causing shit together. The last time they had spoken, or rather argued, was the discussion that had driven the wedge. Neither mentioned it. Riley wasn't sure he ever wanted it brought up again. Especially considering the focus of it.

"They threw you out?"

"More encouraged me to leave. Said, and I quote, 'the UK will not accept behavior on Palace grounds such as what they had witnessed'."

"Palace grounds?"

"In my defense I didn't know. I mean, where was the security if I managed to get over the wall? I was coming home anyway. London I love, but Texas is home."

They talked about college, and Hayley, and Jack. Riley ended up inviting Eli over for dinner that night and as easy as that the old friends had healed a rift far too childish to even consider as anything important now. Riley couldn't even remember exactly what it was that had been said the day Eli left college. Something about a boyfriend who was giving Eli grief and it was somehow connected to Lexie and Riley. Maybe they could cover that when they talked.

"I have a favor to ask of you though. But that isn't why I reconnected. I was going to get in touch with you as soon as I got settled." Eli was rambling. "Only something happened that upped the timescale a bit. I just think this could be good for you and your husband and for the ranch and—"

"Spit it out. Jeez, you haven't changed a bit, have you?" Riley smiled. This was the Eli he remembered, all big explanations and plans and in-your-face demands. The whole package wrapped up in Eli's lithe figure had always been so much fun.

"I kind of found my niche in London. You remember my camera?"

Remember it? Riley hated the damn thing. God help him if any of the photos Eli took at college were leaked to the press. He recalled Eli had been good at photography though.

"I do," he answered.

"Well, it's a career now." The normally boisterous guy sounded simply proud of himself. That was a change. Half of Eli's issues at college were because he felt he had something to prove to anyone and everyone. That he was faster, better, or bolder. And every time he ended up just being the one in the most trouble; hence his early exit from the college. "I've been asked to create a marketing suite of photos for an underwear company."

"Okay?" Riley posed a whole raft of questions in that simple word.

"How would your husband feel about using the Double D as a backdrop? Nothing identifiable to him or you," he hastened to add. "But barns, horses, y'know, cowboy stuff."

"Cowboy stuff," Riley said. He couldn't help the snort of laughter. Luckily Eli didn't take offense and was laughing alongside him.

"Why us then?"

Eli sighed. "There is still so much shit flying around about gay cowboys and getting spreads to agree to have me and twenty near-naked men on their property plus all the extra stuff is nigh on impossible."

"But you think because of the fact Jack is my husband that I will be able to influence a decision?" Riley considered the evidence in the proposal. Jack wasn't hidden in any sense of the word but he was very much a man's man and liked his privacy.

"Also I would get to catch up with you. Couple weeks is all, in mid-September."

"I'll ask him. We'll have an answer for you at dinner."

* * * *

Dinner was boisterous and noisy and that was just Eli and Hayley. They hit it off immediately, especially when Eli admitted he knew Hayley's mom.

"So your dad was standing up and giving this huge speech about boom and bust, it was part of an end of course assessment, and he was using all these cool words." Eli used air quotes around the word cool and Hayley laughed. This was despite the fact she probably didn't understand half of what Eli was talking about. Riley simply groaned and sank lower in his seat. He cast a quick look at Jack who was sipping coffee and alternating between loud guffaws of laughter and wicked grins he was sending Riley's way. "Then he uses this one explanation and it's something like… hell, I can't recall."

"Equilibrium price," Riley supplied. He remembered the day as if it was yesterday. On the chart of embarrassing moments it was pretty much up there.

"Oh my—yes." Eli threw back his head with a loud laugh. "So your mom is in the front row and your dad here has been liking her from afar for months and she won't give him the time of day. So I don't know what happened but he couldn't get the word equilibrium right. And your mom corrected him. She told him loudly and firmly how to pronounce it."

"She was clever," Hayley said.

Riley looked across at his daughter who was leaning against Jack. She didn't appear sad to be talking about her mom. Maybe he should tell her more things that only he could know.

"So clever," Eli agreed. "So, your dad here, he was steaming. Bright red as well—"

"Like when he gets all angry about football and shouts at the TV?" Hayley was all innocence but Riley could see the spark of mischief in his daughter's beautiful eyes.

"Don't get me started on football," Eli said with a laugh. "You would not believe the stories I have about your dad from college."