Rio hurried through her chores as fast as she could, not wanting to leave Neil and Vaughn alone in her house any longer than necessary. She hurriedly pulled off Flash's saddle and bridle and stowed them in the barn, gave him a quick brushing and wipe-down, then turned him out with her cows and her grey mare, Sahara, to graze. Then she returned to the barn, grabbed an armload of hay, and tossed it into the manger before moving on to her spacious coop. The hens were already outside, scratching around, so she tossed some more corn into their feeder and gathered the eggs from the nesting boxes.

When she walked through her front door, she found Neil in the kitchen, leaning with his back against her refrigerator and glaring at Vaughn, who stood with his arms crossed over his chest, leaning against the end of the counter. She noticed neither of them had any refreshments, and she had a definite sense of walking into the middle of a hostile stare-down. Ignoring them, she walked into the kitchen, nudging Neil out of the way so she could unload the day's milk and eggs, along with the herbs, peaches, and mangoes she'd kept from the morning's harvest—the first fruits of summer. In silence, she turned to look at the two men, who had ceased glaring at each other and instead watched her every move.

Sighing, she opened the refrigerator door again. "Iced tea?" she offered, pulling a tall glass pitcher out.

"Sure, thanks," Neil replied, his gaze still fixed on her.

"Yeah, okay," Vaughn likewise accepted, glancing with a scowl at Neil before turning to watch Rio again.

She began to feel ill at ease from the sheer intensity of their stares. Looking up at the clock as she poured glasses of tea, she saw it was midday already. So she threw together some sandwiches, too, and cut up some of the fresh peaches, then carried it all to the table.

Waving the two men to opposite seats, she sat down and took a long drink of the cold tea. Then she looked at the men and said, "Well. I'm going to assume from the stony silence when I walked through the door that you haven't introduced yourselves yet. So... Neil, this is Vaughn. We used to... ah, date each other."

"Is that all you'd call it? Just... dating?" Vaughn interrupted with a scowl. "I thought it was hell of a lot more than that. I thought I meant more than that to you."

"Hold your horses, cowboy. First things first. Vaughn, this is my boyfriend, Neil."

The two men stared at each other, the glares intensifying along with the charged atmosphere. Before either of them could erupt, though, she continued.

"So why are you here, Vaughn?"

He scowled at her, angry, annoyed, frustrated—but also baffled why she'd ask such an obvious question. "To find you, of course. You just... disappeared. I left on the early boat that Wednesday, same as usual, and when I returned the following Monday... you were gone. No one knew where, or why. Just that you'd sold your farm and everything to Mark and left. The only message you left was that scribbled note you gave to Mirabelle. And that was cryptic enough—but I think I figured it out, eventually." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a battered leather wallet. He opened it and found a well-worn scrap of paper out. He unfolded it and set it on the table before him. "You wrote, 'Her name is Rio, she don't need to understand,' then below that, you wrote, 'I'll take my chance, 'cause luck is on my side.'" Looking at her as he put the paper away, he said, "I finally found out that those were quotes—song lyrics, actually. From a few decades ago. And at the end of the song, the singer says he might be able to find the girl if he looks hard enough. So... that's what I set out to do: look for you until I found you. I want to know why—why you left me like that. I want you to look me in the eyes and explain it to me."

Neil leaned back in his chair, looking from one to the other of them. He admitted to himself that he wanted to hear what she had to say, too—though he was sure there was more to it than this Vaughn guy implied.

Rio sat and just... looked at Vaughn for some time. Finally, she said, "You really don't have any idea at all? Isn't there something—anything—weighing heavy on your conscience? Something that maybe might have driven me away?"

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about," he said, flushing slightly under her steady gaze.

"Mmm-hmmm. Well, I'll tell you. That last Wednesday when you left, I ran after you, trying to catch you before the boat left. I got there just as it pulled away from the dock, leaving a few day-trippers behind. As I stood watching it head towards the mainland, I suddenly caught a fragment of conversation among a small group of young women standing on the beach nearby. One of them was asking who that silver haired guy with the cowboy hat that her friend had waved to was, and the friend replied that he was someone she'd met a couple of weeks ago at a bar. Then she giggled and started to detail a... rather intimate encounter with him. I felt sick, listening to them, but I walked over and faked a smile. I said that the person they were talking about sounded familiar, and asked what his name was. Imagine my feelings when she gave your name! I somehow managed to smile again, said that yes, that was the same guy, and left.

"That was the last straw for me, Vaughn. I couldn't take anymore. So I went to Mark and asked if he'd like to take over the farm. I didn't sell it to him, by the way. I let him have the use of it, on the condition that he also take over restoring Sunny Island. I said that after he completed that task, I'd sign over the deed to him. But until then, it's still mine in name.

"Anyway, he was thrilled by my offer, though he was surprised and sad that I was leaving, especially on such short notice. But I had to—I had to get out of there, get away.... I went to Taro and made the necessary arrangements, then I packed a few things in my backpack and went around to say goodbye to everyone.

"Mirabelle was distraught, I think partly on your account. I didn't tell her anything about why I was leaving, just that I needed to leave right away and wouldn't be coming back. She asked if I wanted to at least leave you a message, but when I gave it to her, she looked confused and asked me to write it down, so you'd be sure to get the right message.

"Then I boarded the night boat and left the Sunshine Islands for good."

Vaughn stared at her, ignoring Neil's infuriated glare. "I... I... You mean, you just up and left, because you thought I'd hooked up with some trampy blonde? You didn't even wait to ask me about it, you just... vanished!"

Rio sipped her tea slowly, looking at him with narrowed eyes over the top of her glass. "There's more to it than that. And as for thinking you might have cheated on me... I didn't mention her hair color. I think you've pretty much just confirmed her story."

Vaughn turned red as his slip-up sunk in. Then he looked at her, hostility fading into regret in his eyes, and said, "All right, fine. It's true that I slept with her. I'm sorry for upsetting you like that—I never imagined you'd find out. But in my defense, I wasn't really 'cheating' on you, you know. And besides, it's... well, it's partly your fault, anyway."

Rio slammed her glass down, her face white with anger. "In what way was that not cheating on me? And are you seriously sitting here telling me that it's my fault you cheated on me?"

"Partly your fault," he corrected her, then seeing the livid expression on her face, he hurried on. "You see, we weren't really in any kind of formal relationship. Yeah, I thought of you as my girlfriend, but since we'd never come right out and said anything about being exclusive, and it wasn't like we were married or even engaged or something...."

"You prick!" Rio seethed, "Not any kind of formal relationship? You practically lived with me!"

"Only two days a week, though...." Vaughn's voice faded to silence at the look in her eyes.

"I provided you with a home, food, a warm bed, and... and me, whenever you wanted! And you tell me that we weren't in a relationship? That you really thought it was perfectly fine to have it off with other girls? And just how is that supposed to be my fault, anyway?"

"It's just that I... I missed you so damn much when I was away. I couldn't stand it. I tried to resist, because I didn't want to hurt you. But you never left the islands, and it just got to be too much—the need for you was more than I could take. It was getting so that by Monday, I was ready to grab you and throw you down wherever I happened to find you, because I couldn't wait another moment. I didn't like feeling that way, didn't want to take out my frustration on  you because I cared about you. So...."

"So you somehow thought that having sex with random women was the right solution?" Rio asked, incredulously.

"I know, when you put it like that... but I guess it just got to be too hard to resist other women when I was away from you all week. Sorry, Rio. I honestly didn't think you'd ever find out, and that it would just be a harmless secret. I should have known when I saw that girl...."

"Well, I'm glad I ran into her. I was at the end of my rope, and that gave me the push I needed to finally just cut my losses and go."

"I still don't understand... if it wasn't just because of that girl, then....?"

"It's like I told you, Vaughn. You came to me every Monday morning, and left again every Wednesday morning—very early, and without even saying goodbye. You got free room and board and plenty of sex. You might have been happy with that arrangement, but I sure as hell wasn't. I wanted more from you—I wanted you to stay with me and not leave me alone most of the time, to be a part of my life. I didn't want to be nothing more than your part-time lover, I wanted some commitment from you. And you didn't have any interest in that. As long as things were good for you, you didn't want to change anything. And then...."

Vaughn had just sat there, wide-eyed and slack-jawed in astonishment as he listened to Rio's tirade. When she hesitated, he shook his head a little, as if to clear it, then prompted her. "Yeah? And then?"

Lifting her head a little higher, she stared into his eyes. "And then I found out I was pregnant."