She turned and looked at me.

“You’re such a f**king dickwad! Why can’t you just leave me alone? I don’t want to be near you, I don’t want you to touch me, and I don’t want you to make love to me. I don’t want you. Holy hell, how many times do I have to say it?”

It was now pouring rain, and I was shaking from head to toe. I knew she didn’t mean what she was saying; the counselor we had gone to had told me that this might happen. I’d kept doing what the counselor said. I’d given Ari the space and time she’d needed, but now, I was done with this bullshit. I wanted my girl back. I wanted the life we were supposed to have-fuck, the life we deserved to have- back.

When I started to walk toward her, she turned away from me to run toward the barn. I took off after her and grabbed her. She started to scream for me to let her go while she fought me with every ounce of energy she had. I wouldn’t let her go. I just held on to her while she hit me with as much force as she could.

Then, she started to cry.

“I hate you! Don’t touch me, Jeff. You can’t touch me. Please just leave me alone.”

She was crying so hard that I could hardly understand her. I just held on to her. She slowly started to sink to the ground, and I went down with her. The pouring rain and loud thunder surrounding us was unreal, but there was no way I was letting her go.

“I lost the baby, Jeff. I lost our baby. Oh my god...I just want to forget it. Why can’t I just forget it?”

For the first time in weeks, she turned and held on to me so tightly that I thought I was going to burst with happiness and sadness at the same time.

“Baby, you didn’t do anything wrong. It just wasn’t meant to be. She’s up in heaven, looking down on us, and she’ll always be a part of us...always, Ari. There will never be a day that goes by that she won’t be with us. She’s our angel watching over us, baby.”

Ari buried her face in my chest. She was crying so hard. I would do anything to take away her pain. As she slowly pulled away from me, the rain mixed with her tears, both just pouring off her face.

She stared into my eyes and said, “Make love to me, Jeff. Please make love to me.”

Oh dear God. I wanted her so much. It had been so long that I just wanted to just rip off her clothes right there in the rain. I picked her up and walked her into the barn to an empty stall. I gradually slide her down my body as I looked into her beautiful eyes. Those eyes were slowly getting life back into them.

Reaching over, I grabbed Stargazer’s blanket. I bent down and laid out the blanket while Ari just watched my every move. As I started to take off her sneaker, she put her hands on my shoulders while she lifted one leg at a time.

Standing up, I captured her mouth with mine. The moan she let out moved through my whole body.

We hadn’t been together in three months. I didn’t want to rush this. I wanted to show her how much I needed her. I wanted to make her forget for just a little bit.

I started to kiss her neck and then slowly moved up to her ear. “Take off your clothes, Ari,” I whispered as I stood back to look at her.

For the first time in months, I saw a fire in my girl’s eyes. Ari stepped back and started to peel off the T-shirt that was plastered to her body. Slowly, she began taking off her white lace bra. My dick was getting harder by the second.

She dropped her bra on top of her shirt, and then she gave me the smile that I’d do anything for. I let my eyes move up and down her beautiful body.

Stepping forward, I hooked my finger on the belt loops of her jean shorts and pulled her to me.

“Take off all your clothes.”

She unbuttoned her shorts slide them down her wet body. I didn’t think I’d ever been as turned on as I was in this very moment. Just the sight of her had me going insane. I love this girl more than anything.

She stepped back and raised her eyebrows at me. “Do you really think it’s romantic to make love on my horse’s blanket?”

I couldn’t pull my eyes away from her lips. “Yes, I think making love to you anywhere would be romantic as long as we are together.”

With a smile, Ari walked up to me and pulled me closer to her. “It’s your turn to strip, you bastard, if you know what’s good for you,” she said with a wink.

I didn’t think that I’d ever taken off soaking wet clothes that fast before in my life. The moment her hands touched my body, I sucked in a breath of air. Fuck, I’ve missed her touch. I was trying so hard to think of anything other than her touch that was driving me crazy.

She started to kiss my chest from one side to the other. Then, she dropped to her knees and took me in her mouth. I swore that almost came on the spot.

“Ari, baby, I don’t think I can hold off if you keep doing that.”

She let out a small moan that just made me combust.

I reached down and pulled her up to me.

“I want to be inside you. Now.”

“Well, who am I to deny that command, Mr. Johnson?”

Ari slowly lowered herself down onto the blanket. I moved over her and started to kiss her face, then her neck and moved down to her chest where I gave each nipple equal attention.

Ari let out moan after moan.

“Oh god, Jeff. I’ve miss you so much.”

“Baby, you don’t know how much I’ve missed you.”

I continued kissing down her stomach to her hips. She grabbed my hair and pulled me back up to her to capture my mouth with hers. The second she bit down on my lip, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer. Inch by inch, I slowly started to enter her body. All the while, I never once stopped showering kisses on her.

I gently moved in and out of her warm body. “Are you okay, baby? Am I hurting you at all?”

“Please don’t stop, Jeff. You feel so good. I’m so sorry that I’ve been pushing you away. Please just love me.”

I brushed my lips against hers, and then I kissed her deeply. I pulled away to look into her beautiful green eyes. “I love you so much, Arianna. I hope you know how much I love you.”

“Jeff...”

I rolled us over, letting her take control. She’d never felt so good like she did this at this very moment. I never wanted this to end. Ari smiled at me, and the next thing I knew, she took us both to heaven and back.

***

I wasn’t sure how long we lay there in that stall, listening to the rain, before one of us spoke.

“I’m sorry that I’ve been so out of sorts, Jeff. It’s just.”

“Baby, you don’t have to explain anything to me. I love you, Ari. I’ll never leave you...ever.”

Turning on her side to look at me, Ari smiled. “I’m gonna hold your ass to that. I want to get married.”

“I’m pretty sure I already asked you that, and you said yes.” I lifted up her hand and kissed her ring.

Ari laughed and hit me in the stomach. “No, I mean, I want to get married now, like right away. Let’s just go somewhere and get married. We don’t need a big production. You and me, babe. How does that sound?”

“Considering your father has already told me that he wants his baby girl to have the wedding of her dreams, I’m going to have to take his side on this one, baby.”

Sitting up, Ari pulled her legs to her chest and gave me that wicked smile of hers.

“You talked to my father about the wedding? When?”

“About three weeks ago. When they came out to visit, he came down to the barn and we had what he called… ‘a nice little chat about making my little girl happy forever or you will pay dearly for the rest of your life’.”

“I love it! Okay, so deep down, I knew we wouldn’t be able to get away with running off and getting hitched. So when do you want to get married?”

I had to laugh. I love this girl. “As soon as possible,” I said. Leaning up, I grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her toward me. When I grabbed nipped her lower lip, she let out a soft moan that brought my dick back to attention.

“December? Can you wait until December to get married?” Ari asked, moving to sit on me. She raised her eyebrows and smiled at me as she started to impatiently circle her h*ps on top of me.

“Well, I see there’s one thing you can’t wait for.”

***

We spent the rest of the morning making love and just talking in that stall. For the first time in months, I actually felt like we were on the right road to happiness. Ari was smiling, laughing, and talking about our future together, and I had never in my life felt so f**king happy as I did with her in that barn. I was getting my girl back.

Before we started to make our way back out into the rain to head up to the house, I found another blanket and wrapped it around Ari. Ellie was sure to be heading over to get Ari soon.

Ari stopped and reached out for my arm. I turned and looked at her. Her eyes were holding back tears. Fuck me.

“Can I ask you something?” she asked.

“Of course you can, baby always.”

“Can we try for another baby? I mean, I haven’t been taking my pills, and we just...well, I mean what just happened was so wonderful.”

I placed my hand on the side of her face and smiled at her. She was breathtaking; the sight of her standing in the rain, asking me if we could try for another baby, had me just about falling on my knees.

“I want nothing more than to have children with you, Ari. I’m ready, baby, whenever you are.”

She gave me that smile, and my heart dropped to my stomach.

“Do you want a boy or a girl?” she asked me with a wink.

“I want a healthy baby, but I won’t argue if that healthy baby happens to be a boy,” I said with a small laugh.

“I don’t care if we have a boy or a girl. I’m thankful that I’m not a carrier of the Fragile X gene, but I’ll love whatever God decides to give us. Earlier, Jeff, when you were talking about the baby, you said she’ll always be with us. Do you think it was a girl?”

“I don’t know. The moment I found out you were carrying our baby, even just for those few seconds, I that I was so happy. Something told me it was a girl. It’s stupid, I know. I guess I’ve just always thought of the baby as a girl.”

Ari smiled slightly and reached up to kiss me. When she pulled away, her smile grew.

“The second I found out I was pregnant, I knew it was a girl. I felt it.”

“Well, here’s hoping we both feel the next one is a boy. I seriously want him to kick ass on the football field.”

Ari laughed as we started to make our way to the house. When she turned and stared at me with that look, I knew what she was about to do.

She winked at me and started to run toward the house.

“Last one there has to muck out the stalls tomorrow!”

I smiled and took off after her while she laughed the whole way back to the house.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

ARI

I’d never felt so alive as I did right at this moment. Jeff’s touch alone seemed to snap me out of the funk I had been in for the last few months. After we were back in the house, we got into the shower, and he made love to me again. This was probably one of the best mornings of my life.