Authors: RJ Scott
“You’ve said that before.”
“And I mean it, Jack.”
They fell into silence, broken only by Hayley rushing by to get outside, something about riding and stuff. More likely she was hovering around the horses because Logan was here today having had this week off school for a revision break. Cory was here, and the two of them were working over at the school.
“Remember your—”
“Got it, Dad.”
Riley shook his head as the door slammed behind her. “So hard not to be on at her all the time,” he said.
“You’re doing well,” Jack teased.
“Anyway, back to Robbie and Eli.”
“I thought we’d done them.”
Riley raised a single eyebrow. “Nope. I want to talk weddings. So, what are we going to do? We should mark this. It’s important for us.”
“Have the big wedding in the public eye.”
“Yep. Also, I told Dad, if the vote was a yes, he should start the fight for joint adoption for Hayley, Max, and the twins.”
Jack’s eyes widened in surprise, then he smiled. “You did?”
“I want a wedding and a chance to have our kids officially, to the letter of the law, ours. I want it—the wedding—on the D. I want so many photos that you wouldn’t believe it, and I want to make this a big thing where we show everyone what can happen when two men fall in love.”
Jack shook his head slowly. “You’re a big sap, you know that.”
Riley stood from the table, rinsed their mugs, then leaned against the sink. “What do you think?”
Jack crossed to him and they kissed for the longest time, then, in a smooth move, Jack went to one knee. “My turn,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you proposed to me last time.”
“That wasn’t a proposal. I said if you didn’t marry me, I wouldn’t give money for Beth’s operation.”
“I think you actually said I should marry you for one year so you would use your money to buy help for Beth, pay off my mortgage and deal with any death duties."
“Well, that as well.”
“But under it all you meant that you loved me,” Jack deadpanned.
“Jack—”
“Shut up, Riley,” Jack said, firm and to the point. “Riley Nathaniel Campbell-Hayes, will you marry me, in Texas, all legal-like, and fight for joint adoption for the kids?”
Riley held out a hand and helped Jack to his feet. Cradling his husband’s face, he kissed him hard. “Yes,” he murmured against Jack’s soft lips, the scratch of stubble reminding him who he held in his arms. “A hundred times, yes.”
They listened to Obama’s speech and sat out on the porch. They hadn’t told anyone about their plans yet. They had one person they wanted to tell first—Hayley, who hadn’t come back from flirting with Logan.
“How long did your dad think it would take to get the adoption papers filed?”
“He said it isn’t the filing,” Riley admitted. “It’s the red tape nonsense that follows. We’ll get him out here to talk.”
“Sounds good.”
Riley caught sight of Hayley walking their way, Logan and Cory either side of her. She was chattering away, and both boys were paying attention. When they reached Riley and Jack, Logan and Cory split off toward the barns and the family’s horses. Riley leaned forward in his seat. “Can we talk?” he asked her.
Hayley perched herself on the porch side, her legs swinging. She looked so young sitting there, and she sported a broad grin.
“Did you hear the news?” Riley asked. “About the marriage vote.”
“No, but Darren was talking about it. The vote, that is. It’s good news.”
“I’ve asked Grandad to look into the legal side of getting things changed so it’s not only me as your dad, but your pappa officially adopting you too.” Riley held a breath wondering what Hayley would say. Riley was her father by blood, but Jack was Riley’s husband.
“I’d love that,” she said. She launched herself at Jack and hugged him tight. “Then you can be my pappa for
really
real, not just for real.”
Riley leaned in to be included in the hug, and the three of them held each other tight.
June 26, 2015, was damn important to the country, but it was
vital
for their family unit. Riley let out a breath.
Vital.
Unfortunately, when Jim visited that weekend, with Sandra at his side, the news wasn’t so good. Not that Riley had expected anything less in this fucked-up world.
Sandra had disappeared around the corner with the twins, the coffee was hot, and Riley was in a get-things-done kind of mood. “I want you to tell us about the procedure for adoption,” he said without preamble.
Jim sighed heavily, and Riley knew this wasn’t going to go well.
“You’re equal in marriage, you’re not equal under family law.”
“Isn’t it a natural progression from the same-sex marriage vote?” Jack asked what Riley was thinking. “That we’re now equal as parents?”
“I wish. There’s this whole mess of family laws that need to be advocated against.”
Riley sighed as heavily as his dad. “Great. More fighting.”
Jack grasped his hand. “It would be worth it, and we have the money to do it.”
“I know. I just want everything to be simple.” Riley had known in his heart it wouldn’t be easy.
“Nothing about this will be simple, son. You remember you faced a maze of legal obstacles to adopting Max before the court’s decision. Same when the twins were born. We tried for you to be named on the papers, but we knew there was no point.”
“I hate that Riley only has limited parental rights for the twins,” Jack said.
Riley nodded. “It’s not fair,” he said.
He didn’t say that kind of thing often, but where his children were concerned, he wanted them to be equal in the eyes of the law. He wanted Jack to be officially recognized as Hayley’s dad, and Max’s. Even the adoption of their little boy had only been in Riley’s name.
“No one ever said life was fair,” Jim said. “I imagine people thought that with same-sex marriage legal, consistent parental rights would follow. I’m sorry it won’t happen that way. Hell, we still have county clerks refusing licenses.”
“We know.”
“So I can’t tell you how long it will take because I don’t know whether more litigation will be needed. As you know, Texas birth certificates only allow for a mother and a father to be listed.”
Riley remembered the day they’d filed the twin’s paperwork, with Jack’s name on there and not his. The non-biological parent had to adopt the child later to gain parental rights. And they’d tried all that and failed, to the point where Riley and Jack had both said they’d rather use legal documentation to delay anything happening to the kids should either Riley or Jack die.
Jim continued. “Couples adopting a child run into our fine state’s requirements for supplemental birth certificates that would establish parental rights for adopters, and you know only one parent is listed for same-sex couples. The Department of State Health Services has already modified marriage licenses to accommodate same-sex couples, but they haven’t made a decision about birth certificates.”
“So, what do we do next?”
“We need to get a family lawyer, one who specializes in this. I have a couple of names. It won’t be cheap.”
Riley glanced at Jack, who returned his gaze steadily.
“We know,” Jack said.
“I’m not sure the matter will be easily resolved. Most family lawyers I spoke to are predicting it’ll take a legal challenge to force the state to modify birth certificates.”
“So we push for that.” Riley was fired up over this. Maybe it should be him and Jack, with the finances they had behind them, to be the trailblazers.
“Think about it,” Jim warned.
Sandra came back at that point, her hair in disarray, Connor on one hip, and Lexie toddling beside her, holding her hand. Sandra had a happy grin on her face.
“Finished?” she asked. “I wanted to ask if I could bathe the kids?”
Riley blinked steadily at his mom, her clothes covered in dirt, Connor chewing her hair, and Lexie yanking at her. “Of course you can,” he said, once he’d gotten over the shock.
She was well away and into the house before Riley turned to his dad.
“What?” was all he said.
Jim winked. “She’s all Zen since she passed sixty; you’d be surprised what we get up to now.”
Riley groaned and buried his head in his hands. “No, I don’t want to know.” He really did not wish to hear about his mom and dad having sex.
“There was this one time—”
Riley was up and away from the table in seconds, with the sound of his father’s and Jack’s laughter following him.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Jack passed his phone to Riley. They were enjoying a lazy Sunday morning, and Jack had not long gotten an e-mail from Robbie.
“And that is them after they were married,” Jack said.
Riley peered at the small screen. Jack’s phone was ancient, held together with hope and prayer, and the viewing area was tiny. “I can make out Elvis,” he said. “Although that could be Robbie. I’m not sure.”
Jack took the phone back and peered at the same picture. “Nope, that’s Elvis.”
“Robbie and Eli were married by an Elvis lookalike?” Riley looked up from the bowl of mashed banana he was feeding Connor. Well, “feeding” was a loose interpretation. More like smearing, throwing, and spitting.
“No,” Jack began in his most patient, you’re-not-really-listening tone. “Robbie and Eli married at this chapel next door to the one with the Elvis lookalike.”
“So, not Elvis.”
“No.”
“What else did the e-mail say?”
Jack sighed. “I read it all out to you. Were you listening?”
Riley side-eyed him with a smirk. “Robbie emailed you to tell you that he and Eli are officially married. That they got married in a chapel, and it was quick but really good, and that they are now having a honeymoon in one of the strip hotels. Oh, and could you advance them a year’s wages so they could go on the slot machines.”
Riley had more or less gotten the entire contents back in the order they’d been said, even the tongue-in-cheek part about the wages. Fucker had been yanking his chain. Connor mouthed at the last spoonful of banana, and Riley raised his hands in fists of triumph.
“A whole banana!” he exclaimed.
Connor grinned, sucked in air, then spat the mouthful out with such force, it ended up on Riley’s shirt, his chin, his neck, and some in his hair.
“Yay,” Jack teased, “a whole banana in your face.”
Riley narrowed his eyes, then addressed Connor. “Don’t listen to mean old Pappa. Like him and Lexie are doing any better.” He held out his hand, palm up, and Connor slapped a sticky, banana-covered tiny fist onto it. “Down low, little man,” Riley said with a smile.
Jack laughed along with them and passed over the ever-present pack of wipes that accompanied every mealtime. Riley cleaned himself up, and finally lifted Connor out of his highchair before rubbing gently at tiny hands with a wipe and their son’s round pink face. Connor squealed and turned his head, blowing a raspberry and showing his baby disdain for everything wipe-like.
“Anyway,” Jack continued, “they’re back a week Friday. I thought we could have them here, get people over, beers, maybe have a small party for them.”
“Sounds good to me.” Riley pushed an envelope toward Jack. “Got a letter from the center about the next education day.”
Jack took the letter out of the envelope and read it. “We should sign up.”
“I’m up for it.”
Riley read out the title. “Communication, word cards and dealing with stress.”
“Our stress, or Max’s?” Jack smiled.
Riley didn’t see the smile, or get the teasing, clearly, as he frowned at the letter. “Max’s, I guess.”
Jack was okay with taking this all seriously; it was what they needed to do. “Sign us up and put it on the board.” He gestured toward the huge organization board that Riley had devised. Riley was excellent at organizing their family to the point where Jack checked the board first before making appointments of any sort.
Where would they be without Riley? Impulsively he leaned over and kissed Riley—a down-and-dirty promise of a kiss.
“What was that for?” Riley asked when Jack moved away.
“Love you,” Jack said. He picked Connor out of Riley’s arms. “Let’s go see horses, little man.” With that, he left, knowing that ten minutes later Riley would join them with Lexie. Sometimes Max would come out, sometimes he wouldn’t. Either way, this was the beginning of half an hour of family time with their babies.
They stood together by the corral, Lexie and Connor supported and resting on the fence. Solo came over and nibbled Jack’s hand, huffing and knocking against Lexie so gently that she giggled and reached for his mane. In two months their twins would be two. Both had words, were bright, inquisitive kids who loved horses and kind of fit into Riley and Jack’s life as if they had always been there. As to Max—he sat on the same fence, a little way down, fussing Taylors, who stood placidly and gave a small wrinkle of the nose every so often, which made Max giggle. The twins and Max were smothered in sun cream, and Jack thought maybe Taylors was making known his dissatisfaction with the smell.
Jack’s cell sounded, but he ignored it. This was a beautiful moment in the June sun; another to add to the list of times he had felt absolute peace.
Connor yawning was the first sign that maybe they’d better get the twins in for a quiet play session. They left them with Carol, who pulled out books and toys, and Max stayed with them, setting all his toys in a straight line and patiently putting them back each time one of the twins knocked into them.
Jack checked his cell while sipping black coffee. He read the text, reread it, then very deliberately placed the cell on the table.
“What is it?” Riley asked.
“Huh?” Jack looked up from the message.
“You look shocked, is it bad news, from Robbie?”
“Kyle said he’d meet with me,” Jack said. He couldn’t quite believe it. Last time he’d seen Kyle had been on the stand in Laredo, and the young man had ignored all his calls to date. And now, out of the blue, his PI was saying Kyle was willing to meet. Today.