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.”

I started to feel the tears building in my eyes again. Shit, I’ve never cried so damn much in my life as I have these last few weeks.

Rose started jumping around a bit. I pulled back on her to get her to settle down.

Ellie turned Big Roy out of the way while I tried to get Rose under control. She seemed to calming down until a huge bolt of lightning hit close by. It scared the shit out of all the horses. When Rose reared up, it took everything out of me to stay on her. The next thing I knew, she was running off. I heard Ellie yell out for me as we headed toward the creek.

Oh fuck, Rose. Don’t jump it.

She jumped it.

All I heard was Ellie and Heather both scream.

Oh shit. I knew I was in trouble the moment I flew off the back of the horse.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

JEFF

I was almost into Austin when my cell phone rang. It was Rebecca. Shit, I hope nothing happened.

“Hey, I’m almost to your place. Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah, they’ve slowed way down, and the doctor said it was just Braxton Hicks again.”

“I thought you said they were painful and coming faster?” I asked, clearly frustrated.

“They were, but now, they’ve settled down.”

Shit. This was another time when I rushed away from Ari, except this time, I had a really strange feeling that I fucked-up more than normal.

“Well shit, Rebecca, I drove all this way. Damn it. Have you eaten today?”

“No, I haven’t had anything since breakfast. I’ve been too nervous, I guess.”

“Want to go grab something then? That way, you can eat, and we can make sure you weren’t feeling the real thing. Then, I have to head back to Mason. I kind of walked out on Ari and a party.”

“Oh no! I’m so, so, sorry Jeff. I know you said to call only if it was important, and I really thought it was important.”

I could almost hear the smile in her voice. Somehow, I figured that I totally just got played here. I thought it was time to have a heart to heart with Rebecca, regardless of the risk of an early birth or not.

***

After I picked up Rebecca, we headed to the restaurant. Along the way, I tried to call Ari five times. Each time, it went straight to voicemail. Shit! Why did my cell phone work out there today but Ari’s isn’t?

“Thank you so much for rushing in Jeff. I’m pretty sure everything is going to be okay. You really don’t have to baby-sit me, you know. Like the doctor said, it’s just Braxton Hicks contractions. I think if I just take it easy, I’ll be able to make it to term with no problem.” Rebecca said with a smile

There was something about her smile that seemed wrong. I was starting to get a strange feeling that maybe this was all just a game with her. As we made our way to the table, I glanced down at her stomach. She really did seem pretty big to have a month and a half left. Then again, what the hell do I know.

Suddenly, the sickest feeling came over me. I reached for my phone and tried to call Ari again. Nothing. I tried Ellie’s cell and then Gunner’s. Something’s wrong. I could feel it.

Just as the waitress was about to take our drink order, Rebecca grabbed the table. “Oh no.”

“What? What is it, Rebecca? What’s wrong?”I jumped up and walked around the table to her.

She looked up at me with a panicked look on her face. “Um, nothing, Jeff. It’s nothing. I guess the baby just kicked really hard. That’s all.”

“Are you sure? Do we need to go the hospital?”

She tried to laugh, but I could see the pain on her face. She was trying to hide it. She shook her head and reached for her phone.

“Who are you calling?”

“I’m gonna call Crysti. I really just want to go and lay down. She can stay with me at my apartment to make sure I’m alright.”

While she started to talk to Crysti, my head started spinning. What the fuck is going on here?

“Rebecca, don’t be crazy. I’ll take you home and stay with you until Crysti gets there. Don’t you think though that you should call the doctor again?”

“No! Jeff, listen to me. I just need to go lie down.” Rebecca looked away from me, returning to the her phone conversation. “Yeah Crysti, I know….I know! It’ll all work out. Just trust me on this, please. Just come to Maudie’s. Yep, the one off of Lake Austin Boulevard.”

Rebecca hung up the phone and tried her best to smile at me.

“Rebecca, I don’t understand. I drove all the way in because you said you didn’t have anyone to be here for you. You said you were having contractions. Now you’re fine, and you just want to go home and lie down. You don’t want me to take you home even though I just drove a few hours to get here. What the fuck is going on? Clearly something is wrong.”

“Jeff, really, I just need to stay calm right now. I sense that you’re upset that you had to leave the party and Ari. You’ve tried calling her a number of times. Really, you should just head back to Mason. I promise I’m okay. Crysti is on her way, so I’ll have someone to stay with me. I can’t go into labor this early. I’m just nerv-v-v.”

She grabbed the table again.

I looked up and noticed the waitress was still standing there. She just kept looking back and forth between us. Then, she took a step back and glanced at Rebecca’s feet.

“Um, can you give us a few minutes? Just two waters for now, please,” I said smiling up at the waitress.

She looked back at Rebecca.

“Listen, I really think you need to go to a doctor now,” the waitress said.

Rebecca gave her a dirty look.

“Um, I really think you need to mind your own goddamn business!” she yelled.

“Rebecca! Holy shit!” Turning to the waitress, I said, “I’m sorry.”