“Hayley has a boyfriend and he’s sixteen,” Riley blurted out.

So much for talking rationally with Jack.

Jack’s eyebrows raised so high, it was comical. “What?”

“Hayley is going to a dance, and her boyfriend is a friend of Logan’s, and he’s sixteen.”

Jack’s mouth fell open. “Hell, no,” he said.

“Exactly what I thought,” Riley agreed.

They stared at each other. Riley wondered if Jack was thinking the same as he was: older boyfriend. Sex. Grandfathers in their thirties.

“We need to…”

“…do something,” Riley finished.

“Talk to her.”

“Yes,” Riley said. “You do it.”

“What? Why me?” Jack looked like someone had hit him with a sledgehammer.

“Because she’s too much like me.”

“And that makes me the better person to tell her she can’t go to a dance with an older boy, how?”

“Well, you handle me just fine.”

“Riley, you’re a grown man, not a hormonal teenager.”

They stared at each other, and Riley knew his face held the same horror as Jack’s. Suddenly he couldn’t hold back the laughter. This was so serious, yet both of them were wary of their teenage daughter. “We’ll do it together.”

Jack raised a single eyebrow this time. “Joint assault?”

“Agreed.”

Jack tugged Riley into an awkward sideways hug and released him.

“Who was that on the phone?” Riley asked, wanting to change the subject.

“I have a PI tracking down the two missing from the court case. Guy called Ethan Farrell: young, but he’s an ex-cop.”

“A PI? That’s good, right?”

Jack shrugged. “I tried calling Kyle Brandon. His is the only contact number I have, and it’s his workplace. He’s not interested in talking.” Jack’s shoulders slumped a little, and compassion flooded Riley.

“He’s probably dealing with things on his own. You’ve made contact. He’ll do what needs to be done now.”

“Yeah, I know that, but…”

“But you want to fix everything now.” Riley turned the nearest chair around and straddled it. Jack placed coffee in front of him and settled into the opposite chair, Connor climbing him like a tree.

“I suppose so, and I haven’t talked to Liam yet. He may not want that connection near him.”

“I think Liam is stronger than we think. Robbie says he’s project-managing the porch.”

Jack nodded. “He said Liam did the most on the bunkhouse as well.” Jack sounded proud of Liam, and Riley realized he felt a similar emotion. Liam was still quiet, but he fitted in well here.

Connor wriggled and looked back at Riley, and Riley couldn’t help a long indrawn breath. From the stubborn chin, to the stunning blue eyes, to the thick dark hair—this was like a miniature Jack looking at him.

“What’s wrong?” Jack asked, concerned and ever so slightly frowny.

“Connor looks so much like you.” Riley sipped his coffee. “He’s going to be handsome when he grows into that chin.”

Jack lifted Connor and peered at him, getting a slap on the nose from Connor in the process. “Yep,” he announced, “he’s a good-looking kid.” Jack tossed him in the air a little and made Connor laugh.

“Talking of good-looking kids, and quite apart from the older-date stuff, Hayley wants us to go shopping with her.” Riley swallowed the laughter that threatened. “Dress shopping.”

The look of horror on Jack’s face was so comical that the laugh Riley had been holding in blurted out.

“No,” Jack said. “Seriously? That’s worse than having a talk about S-E-X.”

“Seriously, Eden’s away, and when I suggested Anna could help, Hayley went bright red and said she wanted us.”

“Us? Not just you?”

“Honestly, she said us.” Riley gestured between them. “Both of us. Friday after school.”

Jack blanched. “I have a… I need to….”

Riley smirked. “You have nothing, right?”

“No.”

“Then we brush ourselves down, finish work, and take our daughter to find a dress for her first date with an older boy.”

Jack’s eyes widened. “Aren’t we shutting that down?”

Riley snorted. “No, hell. We’ll explain the birds and the bees, talk about sixteen-year-old boys, and pray to anyone who might listen that he’s a good kid.”

Jack snapped his fingers as inspiration hit him. “Wait! What about Logan? She likes him doesn’t she?”

“You hated the idea of her being with Logan.”

“Only because it’s weird.”

“They’re not related.”

“I know that. But he wouldn’t be a strange sixteen-year-old boy—”

“I said the same thing,” Riley interrupted. “Apparently she is still marrying Logan.”

Jack groaned and scrubbed his hands over his face. “Jesus, Riley, this is not happening. We need to lock her in her room or something.”

“It’s okay,” Riley said. “We have guns.”

Jack nodded. “And a big expanse of the ranch to bury a body.”

They looked at each other. Abruptly they laughed at the same time as the enormity of everything became one more thing they could handle if they did it together.

The chat with Hayley didn’t go so well. They’d left it until they were in the car on the way to the dress shop.

“He’s sixteen,” Jack said for the third time in the conversation.

“Not helping,” Riley muttered under his breath.

Jack shot him a look that spoke volumes.

“He’s really nice,” Hayley said again.

That was also the third time of saying, and this conversation really wasn’t going anywhere. Riley decided that this round-in-circles talking about things in an oblique way wasn’t working, and decided to come straight to the point.

“We’re worried that he’ll want to have sex with you,” he said, firm and direct.

Silence.

Complete and utter silence. Riley cringed, Jack shot him a look that said What the fuck?

“Daaaad,” Hayley said with that tone only a teenage girl could get right. “I won’t do that.”

Jack cleared his throat. “Believe me, sweetheart, I know exactly what a sixteen-year-old boy wants.”

“Me too,” Riley added.

Hayley sighed. “I know you both do, and I know what I want, and anyway, Logan told me way before that Cory is more interested in boys than me.”

That was a bombshell which rendered both men silent.

“Oh,” Riley finally said. “And that’s okay with you?” He looked at Jack, who was refusing to look at him, instead focusing on the road. Jack wore a faint smile, and Riley imagined there was a story there. “Spit it out,” he ordered.

“I was fourteen, had this huge crush on this guy in Josh’s year, so I got myself invited as a plus-one with this girl—Tiffany, I think her name was.”

Hayley giggled. “See, Pappa’s okay with it.”

“I didn’t say that,” Jack said.

Riley shook his head. The minute Jack had opened his mouth with the Tiffany story, they had lost control of this. “Just be careful. We’ll be there to drop you and pick you up.”

He waited for some kind of argument, but Hayley sounded a little puzzled when she replied.

“Of course you will be,” she said. “I’m way too young to go home on my own.”

Out of the mouths of babes… Riley thought. What could he say? Hayley was in a brave new world, and she knew her own mind even at such a young age. Not for the first time, he wondered if she’d always been so levelheaded. He wished her mom were still here to ask.

They arrived at Alison Catterill’s, a smart one-of-a-kind type boutique outside the city. Alison herself was a cheerful young woman with gorgeous long platinum hair and violet eyes. She was chirpy and evidently hyped up on life. Everything was stunning and beautiful and lovely and rainbows. In her world, anyway.

Money was a big part of Hayley’s life, yet she never asked for material things. Yes, she was at private school, but that was a safety concern. Other than that, she was far from what Riley had expected of a typical teen. But this dress? She was a mess of anxiety and excitement that had Riley concerned about what was going on in their daughter’s head.