Rio stared at Vaughn, slack-jawed. Neil recoiled as if struck, then growled, "What did you say?"

Closing his eyes, Vaughn replied in a slow, soft voice. "When I was thirteen, I met the prettiest girl I'd ever seen—hair like sunshine, eyes like the wide blue sky, and a laugh that was the Goddess's own music. She was just shy of thirteen at the time, and she took a fancy to me almost as fast as I did to her. We were just kids playing around all that summer. Her family had just moved to our little town, and I was the first friend she made there.

"Well, it may have just been puppy love, but it was still love at first sight for both of us. School started up at the end of summer, and all the boys sat up and took notice of her. But she was my girl, and I made sure they all knew it, too. Things got serious with us pretty quick, and one night shortly after school was out for the summer, about a year after we first met, we both snuck out of our homes to meet somewhere private, and... well, things got a little carried away and we went a lot farther than we should've. Still, even though it was wrong, it just brought us closer together.

"But then, soon afterwards, she found out she was pregnant. As I said, we were just kids—only fourteen. Much too young. I thought her dad was gonna kill me, he was so pissed off. I remember his face turning purple, his eyes bulging... he couldn't even speak. He threw me out of the house—physically, that is, just picked me up and heaved me out the door and onto the grass—and said I was never to see or speak to his daughter again, and that he'd shoot me if he ever caught me hanging around her.

"My folks were furious, too, especially my dad. He kicked me out, said I was worthless, no-good scum, that no son of his would go and knock up a young girl like that. So there I was, fourteen years old and completely on my own—no more family, no more girlfriend, nothing but some clothes and a backpack and a little cash my mother snuck me as I left. I haven't seen or spoken to her or my parents since then. I happened on animal dealer that needed some help, and since I had a knack with animals, he hired me. And that's what I've been doin' ever since."

In the stunned silence that ensued, Rio heard someone ask, using her voice, "What... what was your girlfriend's name?"

"Wendy. Wendy Swanbeck."

**************

Rio stared up her driveway as the dust cloud from the truck and large trailer dispersed, settling on the grass and bushes that lined her drive. She felt tears on her cheeks—hot tears of anger mingled with tears of pain and grief.

The drive back to the village had been incredibly awkward, to put it lightly. After Vaughn had dropped his bombshell, Neil had just gotten up and walked away, dazed and deeply shaken. She had started to follow him, but he'd snapped at her to leave him alone—said he needed some time alone to think. So she just stood and watched as he trudged up the hill and disappeared over the crest of the ridge. Then she slowly walked back towards the shed, ignoring Vaughn, who hadn't moved from his spot in the shade.

She headed on down the slope towards the trees at the lower edge of the pasture. She found a shady spot there and sat with her back against a tree, curled into a little ball of misery—angry, frustrated, and still in shock—and mulled over Vaughn's revelation. Tears trickled down her cheek as she considered that the man she thought she loved, and with whom she'd finally made love only an hour or so ago, might be her ex-boyfriend's son. Violet, then, would be Neil's half-sister... and if they ever were to marry, he'd be her stepfather—birth stepfather, anyway, if that was even a thing—as well as her half-brother. The thought made her head hurt, and she felt as though she was suffocating. She curled up even more tightly, tucking her knees beneath her chin and hugging them hard as her tears splattered on the blades of grass.

After a while, her steadily worsening headache drove her to her feet. It had begun to throb painfully during Vaughn's tale, and had been getting worse with each passing moment. Now she could hardly open her eyes, the bright sunlight hurt so badly. She thought she remembered seeing a bottle of aspirin on a shelf in the shed, so she slowly made her way back up the hill.

Vaughn was still in the same spot, hat down over his eyes as he sat still and silent, and she wondered vaguely if he'd dozed off. The very thought that he could possibly fall asleep just like that, after all he'd said, made her even angrier and more resentful, so in a fit of pique, she slammed the door to the shed behind her as she went in search of some relief.

She found the aspirin on the shelf as she remembered, so she swallowed a couple and lay down on the sofa to rest, trying not to let her mind revisit their earlier activities there. She must have nodded off in spite of her anxiety, since next thing she knew, she was waking up. Her headache was a little better, and the sun shining through the one small window had traveled a short ways across the floor.

Glancing up at the clock on the wall, she saw it had been about an hour since she had lain down. She stood up and stretched and wondered if Neil was back yet. Feeling terribly thirsty after so much crying, she went back outside to get a bottle of water from the ice chest.

Vaughn was no longer there where she'd last seen him, and as she opened her bottle and guzzled the cool, refreshing water she stared at the spot he'd vacated, idly wondering where he'd gone to.

"Lookin' for someone?" a soft voice murmured into her ear.

Startled, she let out a small shriek, springing away as she whirled around. Vaughn stood there, hands shoved into his jeans pockets as he looked at her with his eyes twinkling with amusement. "Don't do that! You almost gave me a heart attack!" she snapped, twisting the lid back onto the empty bottle and hurling it to the ground next to the ice chest.

She leaned back against the shed as she tried to quiet her still-pounding heart, and she glared at him. "And no, I was not looking for you. I don't believe this—another child! Who just happens to be my boyfriend! I mean, it's just... I can't... augh! This is a nightmare! Why didn't you tell me about any of this? I mean... you had a child!"

Vaughn sauntered over and leaned his shoulder against the shed near her, looking coolly at her. "Yeah? Like you told Neil about our kid? Hell, like you told me about our kid?"

Rio blushed and stammered, "I—I... but I... it wasn't... we didn't..."

"Uh-huh. Did it occur to you that maybe I didn't tell you for the same reasons you didn't tell him? It hurt too damn much to think about it, even by the time we met. Some wounds just never completely heal, Rio, and I'm not the resilient type, not when it comes to stuff like that, anyway."

"But even so! I mean, it had been a lot longer for you, surely you'd gotten over it enough to tell your lover?"

Vaughn scowled and pushed away from the shed. Tugging off his vest and shirt, he stood before her, bare-chested in the sunlight. "You remember these scars?" he asked her, pointing to his side. "I almost died, Rio. I never told you—never told anyone—just how bad it was. Only my boss knew. The injuries were pretty bad in themselves, but I lost a lot of blood, too. And then there was an infection.... I could have died, and my folks never would have known. Probably wouldn't have cared, either, after all that happened. Point is, no one cared about me. Mirabelle was the first person that gave even one single shit about me as a person, and that's why she and Julia are more family to me than the two people that brought me into this goddessdamned world in the first place.

"And then you came along. I thought I'd been in love with Wendy, but you made me see that was just child's play, nothing but a pale shadow of the real thing. But you—you I loved. And while that scared the shit out of me... I was even more scared that you'd leave if you knew all about my past."

He moved closer to her, and closer still, until she could feel his breath on her face as he leaned down to her. "I will always love you, Rio, no matter what happens. Because in spite of all the stupid things I did, deep down, I'm a one-woman man. And you are that woman."

He planted his hands firmly against the shed wall, on either side of her head, as he leaned down and breathed into her ear, "I dream of you, you know. Oh, I don't mean that kind of dream, though I have plenty of them, too. I mean, I dream that you'll change your mind and take me back, that we'll live out our days here, or in the islands, or wherever your heart desires. I don't care where we go, as long as we're together. I dream that we'll have children—kids as beautiful and wonderful and full of life as their mama—and that we'll give them a real good home, with all the love and affection that I lacked and that I so desperately craved.

"I dream that we have fields of those sunflowers you love, and that you dance in them, with the sun smiling down on you and the wind in your hair and the birds all singing... and I dream that finally... finally I am happy, and I dance with you surrounded by a thousand miniature suns under the wide blue sky."

Then he put his arms around her and pulled her close as he kissed her.

Taken by surprise, caught up in the dream he'd woven so skillfully around her, it took Rio several seconds to rouse herself to respond to his advances. Even then, she didn't react as explosively as she had in the past. She just pulled back and pushed him away.

Then she looked up... and standing at the crest of the hill above was Neil, watching them. He turned his back to them and walked down the far side and vanished from sight without so much as a word, while she stood frozen, feeling like a deer caught in the headlights.

A few minutes later, he reappeared at the bottom of the hill and went straight to his shed. He emerged a moment later holding a bell in his hand. "We're leaving," he said, flatly, not looking her in the eyes. Then he began to ring the bell, and her animals began to gather around him as they followed the sound.

She pushed her way through her livestock to where he was standing, still ringing the bell. "Neil, I—" she began, but he cut her off.

"Not now, Rio. You can explain to me later why you were making out with the man who claims to be my father. But right now, I don't want to hear it. I've had all I can take for one day," he said in a harsh tone, then turned away from her.

In silence, the three of them herded the livestock into the trailer. Rio grabbed the ice chest and the milk and food from the refrigerator, then they climbed up into the truck and set out for home. It was a long, uncomfortable drive, with Rio seated between the two men, drawing away from both of them and into herself, making herself as small as she could to avoid contact with either.

When they reached her farm, they unloaded the animals, again in silence. Then Neil climbed back up into his truck and left, without so much as a kiss or even a word to her, leaving her standing on her driveway, watching him drive away as tears spilled from her eyes.

"Well, he sure handled that with grace. Guess he takes after his old man after all."

She whirled around to face him, almost blinded by her grief-stricken fury. "Shut the hell up!" she spat. "I don't know what you were thinking, but I don't much appreciate you trying to ruin my life—again!"

He raised an eyebrow as he looked calmly at her. "Don't know what you mean, Rio. I was only speaking the truth. And I'm not just referring to Neil's parentage."

"No, you were not 'only speaking the truth'. You can't be certain Neil's your son—maybe they really are his parents, and Wendy really is his sister. You weren't there, so you couldn't possibly know for sure. If you'd really cared about honesty, you'd have done some research first, to make sure you were right. And speaking of honesty, do you really expect me to believe that the timing of all this was purely coincidental? You practically walked in on us in that shed, then less than an hour later you were claiming to be his father! And then almost as soon as you'd scared him off, you tried to make a move on me!"

Straightening up, Vaughn walked up to her. He reached a hand out and gently stroked her cheek with the back of his finger. "You want to know what I was thinking, huh? Well, I'll tell you. I was thinking the same thing I'm always thinking. It's like a refrain that plays over and over in my head. Rio, Rio, Rio—all the livelong day, into the night, throughout my dreams. How much I love you, how badly I miss you. I miss everything about you—your soft skin, your silky hair, your laugh, your smile, the way you'd pout whenever I was late getting home. How sweet you always smelled—like hay and sunshine and fresh-cut grass and wildflowers. The way you'd yelp and giggle when I'd come up behind you and kiss your neck while you were cooking. The long, steamy showers we took together. Watching sunsets on the beach with you, and the way the sun would shine in through the window each morning and light up your face while you slept. Your body—your long legs and your curves and your neck and that little spot on your shoulder where I used to kiss you in the morning when we were still spooned up together in bed. The way you loved to keep busy, and how you looked when you were out working in your fields, your hair tied back and your shirt damp and clinging and the sweat trickling down your face. How you danced—with me or by yourself, as if you couldn't help it, you were so full of life and joy. Looking into your eyes, as blue as a field of cornflowers. And the sex... oh goddess, the sex...." he groaned, sliding his hand to the back of her head and running his fingers through her hair, his eyes full of an exquisite agony.

She stared at him as he spoke, dumbfounded—she'd never heard him speak like that before. However...

Knocking his hand away, she turned and stalked into her house. She returned a moment later and threw a wad of cash at him. In a low, shaky voice, she said, "There's your pay. Now go. Just... just leave. Go on home to the islands. Get it through your head, Vaughn—I'm not coming back to you. Not today, not tomorrow—never. Go ruin someone else's life. I never want to see you again." Then she turned and fled back into her house, slamming the door behind her. He heard the deadbolt slam into place, followed by loud sobbing. After standing stock-still for several minutes, he finally stooped and picked up the cash she'd thrown at him and slowly headed to the barn.