“Matthew, sweetheart, come on back with me. Emma just bought a new mop,” my mom said.

Matt just about screamed because he was so happy.

“I want to mop!”

I watched as my mom and Matt walked out of the barn toward the house. Taking a deep breath, and turned to face Jeff. Taking me by surprise, he grabbed me and kissed me so passionately that my legs almost went out from under me.

“Arianna, I love you so much.”

I smiled as I looked up into his beautiful green eyes. “I love you, too, Jefferson…so very much.”

As he kissed me again, I almost wanted talk him into making love to me right here and now, so I could lose myself in his love.

Knowing I had to do this though, I pulled away just a little.

“Um, Jeff, I really need to talk to you,” I said, looking up at him.

He smiled as he took my hand and walked me over to a hay bale.

“Alright, baby….talk away.”

“Well, um….I’m not even sure how to tell you this, but.”

His cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, looking at the display, he frowned. He shoved it back into his pocket and looked at me.

“Don’t stop, Ari. Keep going.”

“Okay, well, when I went to the doctor on Monday, I um, I found out.”

“You got the results back already? Ari, why didn’t you tell me, baby? What did they say? Are you a carrier of the gene?”

Wait…what? Oh god. My head was spinning.

“No, I won’t get the results back until after another week or so.”

“Shit, Ari, I thought you had been holding this in for the last two days.”

I let out a small laugh. “Ah, no, but I did find out something else.”

Just then, his phone rang again. Of all the fuck-ass times, why is he getting a signal now? He looked at it and then back at me.

“Give me just two seconds.”

I sat there, stunned. It had to be Rebecca.

“Hey, Rebecca. I thought I asked you to not….what? Are you okay?”

I’m going to hell for the thought that just crossed my mind.

“Yeah, I’ll leave right now.

Jeff jumped up and started to walk away from me.

What the fuck?

“Jeff!” I yelled.

He turned around to look at me.

“Oh shit, Ari! I’m sorry, baby. Rebecca is having contractions. They’re pretty far apart, but she’s freaking out.”

“Wait, Jeff, I really need to talk to you. Can she not wait just a few extra minutes for you?” I said, almost pleading with him.

“Ari, baby, is this really that important?”

Tears started to build in my eyes. Oh my god. He was picking her over me. I felt like I was going to throw up.

“Ari! I need to go! Is this something that can wait until later tonight or tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow? Are you planning on staying with her tonight?”

“Well, no, of course not. But what if she needs to go to the hospital or something?”

When his phone rang again, he lifted it up to answer it, but I grabbed it from him, sending the call to voice mail.

“Ari, what the fuck? Give me the phone.”

Now, I was just plain pissed off.

“No, I have to talk to you about something, and I need to talk to you about it now, Jeff. It's very important, and it involves our future. So, no, I won’t wait until tonight or tomorrow.”

The fucking phone rang again, and Jeff grabbed it out of my hand. Of all the times for him to have cell coverage, this is the worst!

“Did you call them? Okay, good. No, its fine. Just calm down. We don’t want you going into labor early, Rebecca. I’ll be there soon. Yep...bye.” Jeff hung up the phone and turned back to me.

“Ari, I promise you that I’ll be back tonight. We’ll talk then, baby, but I have got to go now.”

He leaned down to kiss me, but I stepped back away from him.

“Ari, please don’t do this to me.”

“It’s me or her.”

“What?”

“I said…it’s me or her. You decide right now, Jeff. If you walk away from me, you are deciding on Rebecca and this baby that you don’t even know if it’s yours, or you stay here with me and our future.”

He just stared at me.

“Ari, you can’t do this to me. I love you, but if this baby is mine and I just walked away from him…do you know what you’re asking me to do?”

“It’s me or her.”

“Oh fuck, Ari. I don’t have time for this bullshit game. I’ll be back tonight, and we’ll talk then.”

He turned and walked away from me.

The moment he rounded the corner, I fell to my knees and started crying. Oh. My. God. He left me.

He left. I put my hand to my stomach and cried so hard that I could hardly breathe.

He left…us.

***

I slowly started to walk out of the barn. Heading back up toward the house, I could see a few people dancing on the dance floor that Gunner, Josh and Jeff had made. Taylor Swift’s song, “The Moment I Knew,” was playing. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, what a perfect song to play right now.

My head was spinning. I knew he would pick her over me. I knew it.

I looked out to the dance floor and saw Josh and Lynda dancing together. I looked over at Heather and I saw a tear run down her face. Oh hell no. She was not going to fall apart in front of him.

Rushing over, I grabbed Heather’s hand and pulled her up.

“Fuck no, you don’t! You will not cry over that fucker!” I practically shouted at Heather.

Heather took one look at me and sucked in a breath of air. “Oh my god, Ari, you’ve been crying.”

While I led her toward the barn, Heather kept trying to get me to stop walking. By the time we got there, she yanked her hand from mine and came to a dead stop.

“Ari, what the hell is going on?” I looked at her and lost it. She ran over to me and pulled me into her arms.

“It’s okay, sweets. It’s okay.” Heather just kept repeating herself it over and over again.

“Heather? Ari? What’s wrong?”

Ellie’s voice just sent me into another fit. Oh my god. I felt Heather moving down with me to the ground.

Ellie ran over and fell to her knees. She grabbed my face to look at her.

“What happened?”

“He left.”

“Who left?” Heather and Ellie said at the same time.

“Jeff. I was just about to tell him about the baby, and he got a call from Rebecca. When he hung up, he just turned away and started walking out. He wasn’t even going to say good-bye until I yelled out his name.”

“Wait…I’m confused, Ari. What happened to Rebecca to make Jeff just leave like that?” Ellie said, wiping tears off my face.

“She, um…I don’t know. She was having contractions or something like that. I’m telling you that she is further along than she says, and he won’t believe me!” I shouted.

Then, I stood up. I need to ride.

I walked over and grabbed a saddle and made my way over to Rose’s stall.

“Ari, are you going for a ride now?” Ellie asked as she walked over to help me.

“I think I’ll go also. I need to get away from the Josh-and-Lynda show,” Heather said.

“Oh Jesus, I guess that means I’m going, too. Um, should I go tell Gunner that we’re heading out?” Ellie asked as she watched me saddle up Rose.

Rose is still acting feisty as hell.

“If you want,” I said.

“Just a quick ride, right? It actually looks like a storm is about to come in. Emma is in a panic, and I don’t want to leave her to long.” Ellie said while she made her way over to saddle up Big Roy.

After we all got our horses saddled up, the three of us headed out.

Ellie noticed right away that Rose was acting up a bit.

“Ari, are you sure you want to ride Rose? She seems to be spooked about something. Maybe the storm coming in?”

I rolled my eyes at her. “Ells, I’ve been riding horses long enough to know when I shouldn’t be on one.”

***

We rode for a good thirty minutes in complete silence.

When we started back, Ellie broke the silence.

“Ari, you have to know that Jeff wasn’t thinking clearly. I mean, there is a chance this baby could be his, and he’s just trying to do what’s best for the baby.”