Texas Wedding Read Online Free PDF Page B

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