“And this one.” Alison interrupted his thoughts.

He looked up at a dress he could only describe as puke green. Maybe it looks better on.

“I’m not sure about that one,” Hayley said. She was getting more confident with each dress. Alison nodded in agreement, then clearly had a eureka moment. She disappeared and came back with a sapphire dress made of not a lot of material to Riley’s eyes.

“You’re so slim, sweetheart. This is the smallest size we have, but I can certainly alter it so it will fit you like a glove.”

Riley looked at Hayley critically. She had sprouted recently, at least a couple of inches since Christmas. If she inherited his genes, then she’d be tall, but as she stretched up, she appeared to be going in around the middle. Jack had commented on it last week. Only here, standing next to a very slim Alison, Hayley looked tiny in size, despite her height.

So not only was she beautiful, with her long blonde hair and soft brown eyes, but she was heading for having a model’s figure.

“Suddenly locking her in her room seems a good idea, right?” Jack whispered as Alison and Hayley disappeared behind a curtain.

“Fuck, yes,” Riley agreed.

The curtain twitched and Alison reappeared, rummaging for shoes and some glittery thing from the shelf above the counter.

Finally, after some time, the curtain moved fully back and Hayley stepped out. Riley blinked at his daughter, glanced at Jack, then back at Hayley.

“Daddy? Pappa? What do you think?”

“It’s…” Riley couldn’t find the words. The back was a little lower than he would have liked, the hem a little higher, the material so soft on her, the heels perhaps too tall—but all he could think was that Hayley stood in front of him with so much naked hope on her face. “…Beautiful,” he finished.

Their baby was stepping out looking like a teenager, in a perfectly respectable dress, and he wished to hell Eden were here to calm him the fuck down. This Cory kid had better keep his hands to himself.

“You look lovely,” Jack said. He was a little more reserved, and Hayley looked sad.

“You don’t like it?” she asked.

Riley was damn pleased Hayley’s laser focus was on Jack and not him.

“I think…. Could it be a little more…?” Jack waved his hands.

“I like it,” she murmured. She patted the skirt which flared from the waist in a circle of material that swung with each step.

Jack reached for Riley’s hand, squeezing it tight.

“I love it,” Jack said.

This time, Riley thought, the same shock that he had felt was replaced in Jack with acceptance.

“You’re so beautiful,” Jack added.

Seemed like both daddies had handled this completely fine, and contentment and self-congratulation stole over Riley. They’d done okay.

Alison took measurements and said the dress would be couriered by the next Tuesday. Dressed back in her school uniform the glimpse of the young woman Hayley would become vanished.

She hugged them both, and they ate at Olive Garden before heading home.

Only in bed at night did Riley start to worry about Hayley, going over the what-ifs. He tried to stop himself by focusing on other things.

“We have that meeting soon, the autism early-intervention one.” Riley ran through the letter in his mind. Neither he nor Jack knew what early intervention was exactly, but Riley had researched and found out as much as he could. He and Jack would be part of a small group of other parents learning about autism, about the techniques to use when Max was having a meltdown or when he was locked in his own head and unresponsive. Recently Max had been having quite a few meltdowns. Riley was proud in a way; Max was testing the limits of his world like any normal kid would do. Not that Max wasn’t normal, he corrected himself immediately. Different. Special.

“I already have the day crossed out.”

“I wonder what they’ll say.”

“Did Carol tell you what happened today? With the cookies?” Jack asked with a sigh.

Riley had heard, and immediately leaped to Max’s defense. “He doesn’t understand.”

“He has to, though,” Jack insisted. “He has to know you can’t put half a container of salt in the mixture, we have to be able to guide him in his world without him having a tantrum.”

“He’s independent,” Riley said. He knew he was making excuses. Max was 95 percent cute and sweet, and 5 percent terror. Riley had found him trying to unscrew a plug socket with a knife only last week. He’d told Jack in horror, and both men had gone silent. The idea of Max with a knife into electrics? Not worth thinking about. Next day Riley organized an electrician to come out and add in circuit breakers on the old system, which had in turn led to a complete emergency electrics overhaul of the entire house. At least Max would be okay if he did it again.

But the point was they should be able to find a way to explain how dangerous it was.

The idea of any of the kids being hurt filled Riley with a kind of fear he had never felt before; an all-consuming, terrifying, breath-stealing fear.

“We’ll ask in the meeting,” Jack rolled over to spoon Riley, and wriggled until they were comfortable together. “Everything will be okay.”

“I worry about Max because he doesn’t understand. I worry about the twins—well, Lexie mostly, because she’s into everything—and as to Hayley and a boyfriend, and that damn dress….”

“She’s careful and sensible.”

“If she’s anything like me….” Riley couldn’t finish the sentence. Hayley wasn’t like him. He’d been a spoiled kid, a boy with indifference to responsibility and family. Hayley was the complete opposite. “She’s like her mom, thank fuck,” he muttered.

Jack tightened his hold for a moment. “Stop that,” he ordered. “She’s like you as well. She’s got a lot of her dad in her.”

“I’d kill anyone that hurt Hayley,” Riley said fiercely, “and the twins, and Max.”

Jack sighed against his back.

“Not if I get there first.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Liam washed the last of the mugs and placed them in the drainer. Marcus was due back in an hour and they were going riding; Liam was showing Marcus the ropes. Marcus had proven to be good with horses, but not so much with riding. He’d already fallen off once, or rather he’d more slid off the horse. Liam had to stop himself from laughing at his lover’s comical expression as he fell to one side, in slow motion. Thinking about that made him smile. Not because Marcus had fallen, but that he’d stood up, brushed himself off, cursed the parentage of the horse and of Liam, and climbed back up.

Liam loved that about Marcus. His absolute dogged determination to never give up. There was an awful lot about Marcus that Liam loved—the way he kissed, the way he spoke, how clever he was, his smile, and his soft brown eyes…. The way it didn’t matter that Liam had all the emotional baggage he did. Marcus was there. Always understanding.

Liam checked his watch again. Marcus was on his way home, and Liam was done for the day. All he had spread out in front of him was time for Marcus and time to relax with a coffee on the steps up to their apartment.

Perfect.

A voice accompanied a knock on the door. “Liam, you in there?”

Darren.

Liam went from relaxed to tense in an instant. “One minute,” he called out.

What did Darren want? Darren didn’t visit Liam’s place. No one visited Liam except for Jack. Liam used the breathing technique he’d learned at counseling, and pasted a ready smile on his face before opening the door.

Darren had his back to Liam. The broadness of the man was never more evident than when it showed in the stretch of cotton against his shoulders. He was looking out from the apartment steps to the big house. He turned as soon as he realized the door had opened.