Texas #4_Texas Christmas (13 page)

“Look. See?” Hayley pointed excitedly.

On the pin board was a big selection of One Direction posters and to the right sat a neatly arranged collection of family photos. The three of them, him, Jack and Hayley, before the twins, before Max. Then groups of family, cousins, her mom, the ranch, horses. Some photos he recognized, others were new. There was a small grouping of photos of the twins and Max.

“It’s gorgeous,” Riley said honestly. He couldn’t take his eyes off the photos of his family. He sat on the edge of her bed and held out his arms. He couldn’t get enough hugs with her before she became too old for them.

She sat on the bed next to him, and together they admired the board.

“Can I ask you something, Dad?”

“Course you can.”

“Abigail has a boyfriend.”

“She does?”

“Yeah, he’s from that show about the vampires and the mountains.”

“Uh huh,” Riley said. He didn’t want to appear downright stupid, but the only vampires he knew about were the Twilight ones. Hayley probably meant one of the CW shows she watched religiously. Jack sometimes sat with her to, in his words, check what she’s watching. Riley suspected his husband liked watching the young beautiful guys who seems to populate the shows.

“He’s fourteen, but his dad is an actor. They met at a party last week. She’s all,
I’m in love
,
I love him, he loves me
.” Riley could hear the exasperation in Hayley’s voice. “Thing is, I don’t think I’ll ever get a boyfriend.”

Riley frowned. “Of course you will.”

“Look at it this way,” she began in her best grown-up voice. “You don’t have parties with cute boys, and
Pappa
only has horses.”

Riley couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face and thanked God that she couldn’t see his expression.

“So you’ll meet a cute boy at the mall or at school,” he offered helpfully.

“I’m twelve, Dad, I never go to the mall without someone, and I go to a school for girls. You need to have parties, with boys.”

“You
know
why you don’t go to the mall alone? And why you’re at Bryant Faraday?”

“Duh,” Hayley said. She wriggled away from him and sat with her back to pillows and her legs crossed in front of her. She looked impossibly young. “You’re really rich and you married a man and there’s oil and so everyone wants to photograph me. I get that. I just…” She threw up her hands dramatically. “Dad, I don’t even have boobs.”

Riley mimicked her position opposite her.
Boobs.
He used to be an expert at all things female but only from the point of view of a horny young man. He wasn’t even entirely sure he ever wanted a boy to look at Hayley, let alone be her boyfriend. “That will happen when you start your period,” he said with as much confidence as he could muster. He had to remember that whatever his gaps in knowledge, he’d done his research and was entirely comfortable with discussing Hayley’s puberty with her. He was her father, and he should be her first point for information. Well, he or Jack anyway. Just because she had two daddies didn’t mean she was missing out on a mother; they would do their very best to be there for her at all times.

“There’s something else, I email with Logan.”

“Your cousin Logan?” Riley knew she emailed and texted all of Jack’s family, who were now her family. He and Jack hadn’t given in on the whole Facebook thing as yet, but he guessed it wouldn’t be long, a couple of years maybe.

“Yeah, he’s really nice and he doesn’t treat me like a kid, not like he does Lea.”

Riley smiled. “Lea is Logan’s sister and it’s a brother’s job to keep their little sisters little for as long as they can. Look at me and your Aunty Eden.”

“You think one day he could be my boyfriend?”

Riley’s brain froze. Wasn’t there some rule about cousins? No, wait, was that first-generation cousins by blood? Logan was Jack’s nephew, not at all related to Riley except through marriage. And he was only fifteen, jeez, Riley recalled what he was like at fifteen and exactly what he wanted out of anything he had to do with girls. Finally, when his head felt full of all these questions and he realized she was expecting an answer and all he could say when she tilted her head expectantly was the truth.

“Maybe one day.”

There. He hadn’t lied or exaggerated or put her off or demanded she stay in her room forever. He felt quite proud of the simple way he’d handled this. Until she sighed and rested her chin on her hands propped on her knees.

“I think Logan is very pretty,” she said dreamily. “He looks like Harry.”

Riley couldn’t recall a Harry and he asked the first thing that came to mind. “Harry who?” He knew he’d committed some kind of old-person error. Hayley rolled her eyes.

“Harry Styles, Dad, from One Direction.”

“Oh,” Riley said dramatically. “
That
Harry.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t know that,” she said with a sigh and shook her head sadly.

Riley left his daughter texting a friend and thinking he should maybe talk to Josh about Hayley and her crush. Or Jack maybe, he could talk to his brother. It was only when he stood watching Jack helping to push along Thomas on the track that he realized something.

Hayley was growing up.

She hadn’t called him Daddy, she’d called him Dad.

Liam tried his hardest to ignore it, but there was something off about one of the guys who had flown up from Laredo. Liam knew both of them by name. Yuri
Fensin
was the grandson of the owner of the Triple-K, which butted up against the Bar Five. That wasn’t the issue, it was the hand he’d bought with him who kept staring and frowning like he was trying to place Liam but couldn’t quite do so. Vaughn Neilson, hand and wannabe horse whisperer, was built like a brick outhouse and had features carved from granite. In a way he reminded Liam of Hank, and those feelings of fear made him nervous and skittish. If anything, he kept away from Vaughn and stood with Robbie and Yuri. Yuri was a funny guy who seemed to take being the grandson of a ranch owner with a grain of salt.

They’d gone through the horse selection, and Liam was partnered with Vaughn for the part Jack referred to in private as the horse whispering. A lot of ranches paid good money to learn new skills where horses were concerned, and Jack was one of the best in the business now. He not only sold trained horses, but he taught others what to look for in new horses. Liam had to push hard to be able to talk directly to Vaughn, but at least he had the work they needed to do between them. And Robbie wasn’t far away. Yuri had seemed disappointed not to be partnered with Liam, and to be honest Liam had felt the same way. Yuri even appeared to be a little flirtatious, which put an interesting spin on the whole thing. Liam was even a little flattered.

Solo scooted back a little as Vaughn approached her talking nonsense.

“Softer,” Liam said firmly. “You approach a horse all guns blazing, and you’ll never see the parts of the personality you want.” Solo was an easy horse, not at all the kind of hyperactive horse that owners would struggle with. “You won’t see the bright eyes or the sensitive nature if the horse is on the defensive.”

Liam waited for Vaughn to back off and demand how the hell Liam could tell him what to do with horses. He was expecting it. Twenty and talking to a man probably twice his age was enough, let alone telling said man what to do.

“Softly,” Vaughn repeated. He stepped a little closer, then kept on talking, but he tempered his voice, kept it low and Solo’s ears twitched.

“You’ll need to look for a horse that responds to your voice in the right way. Like Solo here will listen to you and trust you after a while.”

“I want one of her foals like you wouldn’t believe,” Vaughn said in the same soft voice as if he was talking to the sorrel mare. He didn’t seem so scary when he was trying to be careful in tone and body positioning. Without conscious decision, Liam found it easy to talk to the big guy.

“Solo is definitely special. I wanted to work with her and Taylor’s Wood from the minute I realized what I wanted to do.”

Vaughn flicked a glance at Liam, but kept his face turned to Solo. “Bar Five,” he said finally. “Little guy. I remember now.”

Liam forced a smile on his face. No one knew why he’d left, and he wondered what people said.

“Yeah,” he offered. He really hoped Vaughn would leave it there.

“Heard you had a run-in with that asshole Hank.” He looked around as he said it as if to check who may hear.

“You did?”

“Word was he made your life miserable. I’m close to Hank’s younger brother, Darren, and he was mostly honest with me, though I guess he left a lot out.”

“Darren is a good man.”

Vaughn nodded. “Yeah, he is.” There was sadness in his voice, and Liam wondered at the story that might be in those three words. “You want to watch Yuri. He came back from college and got into it with Hank a few times, all piss and vinegar, and now he’s all over the
Castille
family like a rash. Darren doesn’t much like him.”

“Thank you,” Liam said. Maybe looks were deceptive. Could the mild-looking Yuri be the one to avoid? Was Vaughn just yanking his chain? Liam put a lot of store in how a man was with the horses. Vaughn had a connection with Solo, and Liam had a feeling he’d misjudged Vaughn as brawn over brain.

The rest of the afternoon passed pretty uneventfully, and dinner was with Robbie and Eli. Jack made a brief appearance but the virus he was fighting left him looking exhausted and as pale as death. He left after a bit of handshaking, and the remaining men fell to talking horses. Now his instinctive distrust of Vaughn had passed, and with Yuri this pale version of a cowboy, Liam felt safe and secure. He also thought it was a good time to finally make his excuses and leave the house. Marcus was visiting later tonight, and Liam wanted more kissing and maybe even a progression to a hand job or a blow job. He was falling under Marcus’s charms, and he kind of liked it.

“We need to go in ten,” Yuri said to Vaughn, who nodded his understanding. Yuri stepped out for a smoke, and Liam stood to leave.

“You going?” Robbie asked.

“Marcus is due in thirty and I just want to check in on Solo.”

“Thanks for your work today,” Robbie said. “I’ll pass on everything to Jack.” He winked and Liam cracked a grin. Liam passed Yuri and they exchanged easy smiles. Liam could do this. He doubted he could handle someone from the Bar Five, but Vaughn saying he understood and with Yuri not even recognizing him, Liam finally relaxed for the first time in years.

“You love these horses, eh?” Yuri said from behind him. He had followed Liam out to the barn and was leaning against the barn door. He straightened to saunter toward Taylor’s Wood.

“Yes, sir,” Liam answered with a smile.

“You certainly have a way with them.”

“Thank you.” Liam concentrated on checking Solo’s front left hoof. She’d been favoring the leg a little, but it didn’t seem there was too much to worry about. Stroking her from mane to tail, he turned to go and came face to face with Yuri, who had quietly moved into his space. For a second Liam smiled at the man, but then he realized two things at once. Yuri didn’t move out of his way, which meant Liam was caught between horse and man, and Yuri had a wicked-looking steak knife in his hands that Liam recognized as from Robbie’s table. It wasn’t big, but fuck it was sharp.

“Seems to me Hank was right,” Yuri said with a smirk. Liam moved his head back as the smoky breath of the other man reached his face.

“Let me pass,” Liam snapped. There was no way he was going to be cowed by this asshole.

“He told me you were a skinny fucker, but that you were tight. Said I could deliver his hello personally, and that you wouldn’t say a fucking thing to anyone ’cause you’re chicken shit.”

“Robbie!” Liam shouted loudly. Yuri placed a hand over his mouth and gripped his face hard. He pushed Liam back and away from Solo until his back was against the wood of the stall. Solo snorted her disapproval.

“What you think you doing, whore?” Yuri snapped. He placed the steel, cold and hard, against Liam’s throat. “Message is, you owe Hank some more fucking time, and he’ll come collect everything you owe soon.” Liam struggled against the hold and the prick of the knife was the only thing that stopped him from wrenching away. Where had calm business-like Yuri gone? The man who talked about horses and ranching like that was what mattered to him? Yuri pushed back and Liam could feel him hard against his thigh. Fuck, Yuri was really getting off on this. Liam wriggled and pushed to get away, but that did nothing. Yuri released the hold on Liam’s mouth, and Liam took a deep breath of fresh air. At the first sign of any space between them, Liam kneed the other man in the balls. He didn’t quite make enough contact, but whatever he did was enough to anger Yuri.

“Fucker,” Yuri spat. The first punch he threw at Liam was directly into the softest part of his lower stomach, the second to his groin, and the third forced him down on the floor, the knife clattering next to him. Blindly he reached for the knife and closed his hand firmly around the hilt. Above him, Yuri laughed and there was madness in the noise.

“See, officer,” he said with a touch of glee, “see the kid came at me with a knife. Self-defense. I had to protect myself.” Yuri kicked out with a heavy boot and the force of it connecting to Liam’s chest caused all the air to leave his lungs in one big exhalation of pain. Liam dropped the knife and crawled backward to the wall.

“What the hell? Liam!” Marcus’s voice was a shout of fear.

Liam forced words out through the spasm of pain in his chest. “Run.”

“Liam?” Marcus shouted again.

Please. Run.

Liam attempted to force himself up, but he couldn’t stand. The pain in his chest was crippling, and he only got as far as leaning on his knees. He saw Yuri turn to face Marcus. Even from the side Liam could see Yuri looked pissed and a little scared, probably at the fact his self-defense story was being fucked over by a witness.

“Fag came at me with a knife,” Yuri spat. “We need to get the cops in here.” Liam knew Yuri was testing the water to see how much Marcus had heard. Would Yuri lose it? Would he attack them both?