“It would be alongside what you do. Liam, you’re not only my ranch hand, you’re my friend, or at least I like to think we are. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. I can as easily donate money to an existing shelter—”

“But you want one where the people staying here can work with the land, the horses.” People like me.

“Yes. So what do you think?”

Liam held out his hand, and Jack took it. “I’m in.”

A car rounded the bend before the long road to the house, its headlights sweeping in a wide arc.

“Marcus is home,” Liam said soft and low.

“I think maybe you have a lot to tell him.” Jack stepped back and away. “We’ll talk in a few days.”

“Thank you, Jack,” Liam said with heartfelt sincerity.

“No, Liam. Thank you.”

Jack waved at Marcus and walked back indoors, and Liam walked over to where Marcus was pulling in his car.

As soon as Marcus was out, Liam pulled him close and hugged him so tight that the poor guy probably couldn’t breathe.

“What’s wrong?” Marcus asked as he was finally allowed free.

“Jack is setting up a shelter thing for the boys who were hurt by Hank, and maybe more, I don’t know. He asked me to be a part of it.”

Marcus reached out and cradled Liam’s face, then pressed a kiss to his lips. “I’m so proud of you,” he whispered into the kiss. “So damn proud.”

Hand in hand, they went into their apartment, and Marcus proceeded to show Liam just how proud he was.

Jack walked back into the kitchen as Hayley was closing her history book. She hurriedly finished her water, refilled the glass, picked up her cell, then kissed Jack and Riley good night.

“How did it go?” Riley asked with a yawn.

It wasn’t that late, but today had been a very long day with Riley out at the office in the city since before seven this morning.

“Well, I think I nearly fucked it up, but Liam’s okay with it, and Darren has information he can give me from a PI he hired.”

“Will it mean your guy can track them down?”

“Darren said he sent checks, but two weren’t cashed. It might be enough to give us something to go on.”

“So you’re going ahead with it?”

“I need to find Kyle and talk to him face to face.”

“You don’t want to start on fixing the buildings?” Riley stood up and stretched tall, walking his fingers on the ceiling, and exposing way too much warm skin. Jack had a quiet argument with his libido that the kids were still up, it was Carol’s night off, and actually, he didn’t need to bend Riley over the kitchen table and make love to him. “Hey,” Riley snapped his fingers in front of Jack’s face. “Where’d you go?”

Jack pressed a hand to his more than eager erection. “You don’t want to know.”

Riley hugged him, then they kissed, and Riley was as hard as Jack. “Later,” Riley said with promise in his eyes. “We’ll lock ourselves in the bathroom again.”

“You know you’re never quiet. Remember last time?”

“You’ll have to keep me quiet,” Riley teased. He was out of reach now, and all Jack wanted to do was to yank his lover back to him. “I signed a petition today,” Riley added from the safety of the other side of the kitchen, over by the cookie jar and coffee.

Jack pulled beer from the fridge and sat at the table as Riley explained.

“Thousands have signed. Marriage equality and all that.”

“Yeah?”

“I sent you the link.”

“It won’t happen.” Jack wasn’t angry at that, or sad, only resigned. No one lived their entire lives in Texas and expected marriage equality.

Riley placed two mugs and the cookie jar on the table between them. “SCOTUS make a decision, Texas won’t have any choice but to agree.”

Jack shook his head. “And there we go: talks of secession all over again, Texas splitting away, and all that shit.”

“What if it does get passed? What if it’s legal here?” Riley sipped at his coffee in between talking and mouthfuls of chocolate chip cookie.

“They’ll recognize our marriage, I guess,” Jack said. That would be good, because then they may be able to follow it through and fight to get both of them on the adoption papers for Max, and get the twins and Hayley connected to both of them instead of just one.

Riley stood up abruptly. “That reminds me,” he said, then disappeared from the kitchen.

When he came back, Jack groaned good-naturedly. Riley had the photo albums out.

“Look,” Riley said. He pushed a folder toward Jack, who opened it curiously, tipping out the contents.

He blinked at what was inside. “Oh my God,” he blurted as he shuffled them around.

“You remember those?” Riley asked.

“You’re asking if I remember the day you blackmailed me into marrying you, and the photos that girl took for us to prove we were in love?”

“Yeah.”

“No, not at all,” Jack deadpanned.

“Look at them, though.” Riley took the photos and placed them in a row, then sat next to Jack. “You looked so pissed,” he commented.

“I wonder why.” Jack bumped shoulders with Riley, letting him know he was only teasing. They may have started this marriage one hell of a weird way, but they were ending it perfectly right. “And look at you. Jesus, you had a stick up your preppy Hayes ass.”

“I did not,” Riley protested.

Jack pointed to an unusually clear photo where they were smiling for the camera with their arms around each other. “See what you’re doing—getting all toppy, holding me still, all ‘this has to be done right.’”

Riley peered closer. “Jeez, yeah, and shit, look at this one.” Riley slid another over.

Jack huffed a laugh. “That has to be one of the photos that never made it to daylight.”

In it, the photographer had caught them scowling at each other.

“Too right,” Riley agreed. He opened the album of their ceremony on Double D land—a simple exchange of vows in front of family—and the difference was remarkable. They were smiling and so in love, it was obvious.

“These are good memories,” Jack murmured. He turned the page to a cameo of him and Riley laughing at something.

“We still had things that were waiting to go wrong, though,” Riley said. He pointed to the background at the family surrounding them. “Secrets and lies and Beth.”

Jack stopped Riley with a shake of his head. “We don’t focus on those things. We always look for the happy.”

Riley smiled at him as if he made all the sense in the world, and Jack felt ten feet tall.

“You know what, though, if they pass the ruling about legalizing same-sex marriage, you think we could do it again, for real? A big wedding so we can slap it in the faces of everyone that thinks us being married is wrong? We could be loudly, proudly married in our home state, the place we love.”

“You want to do that?” Jack was surprised at that, and if he admitted it, a little bit hurt. “I loved our day.”

Riley was quick to answer. “I did, but I want a big celebration, to show the world what you mean to me.”

“Really?”

Riley leaned into Jack. “With no shadows. With Hayley in a dress, and the twins, and Max in a little tux—can you imagine?—with all our family around us, and friends.”

Jack shook his head. “I always knew you were the girl in this relationship,” he teased.

“Ha-freaking-ha.”

“You want to do that, we can do it.”

“Really?”

“It’d be one hell of a party.”

“Yeah.”

“Texas won’t let it happen, though, whatever the vote says.”

“It might not have a choice.”

Jack shrugged. He wasn’t holding out hope that the state he loved would ever love him back in the same kind of way. “We’ll see.”

CHAPTER FIVE

The day of the board meeting dawned bright and clear, and Riley had to fight to get his head around what he had to do today.

“I really don’t want to go to this,” he said as Jack walked into their bedroom. Jack was still in boxers, and hadn’t shaved. Not that Riley wanted Jack to shave; he hadn’t been joking about loving Scruffy Jack in the Boardroom. Part of him, a small selfish part, wished Jack would be at the meeting.