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“Come on,” Mom said, as she laced my arm with hers and I snagged the gravy boat. “Let’s go feed that baby!”
The sound of a vehicle crunching through the freshly fallen snow had me glancing up to see who was headed toward the barn. When I saw who it was, I pulled the horse I’d been exercising to a stop.
Ben parked, climbed out of the truck, and headed my way.
I’d answered his call while driving with Mom, that day the fire broke out. Ben had wanted to make sure we were all okay, since he’d heard about the fire as well. The conversation was short. I’d told him we were all fine, and that I needed to go. The whole conversation lasted maybe a minute.
“This should be interesting,” I softly said.
I walked the horse over to the fence, waiting for him to reach me.
“Beautiful mare,” he said, leaning his arms over the snow-covered wood fence.
“She’s a client’s. What are you doing here, Ben?”
His smile faded some, and he looked around. “I always thought this place was beautiful right after it snowed. The horses in the pastures are like a painting.”
I exhaled softly, not wanting to seem rude, but it wasn’t exactly warm outside, and I’d been leading the mare into the heated barn.
“We were about to head into the barn. What can I help you with?” I asked.
His expression fell further as he nodded and moved to open the gate, so we could walk through it. “I’ll walk over with you.”
That was the last thing I wanted. Maverick was there with my father, working on a rescue horse that had been brought in yesterday. The poor thing had been neglected and left outside in the freezing cold with hardly any food or water. After a neighbor had discovered the horse, they’d given the sheriff a call, who’d in turn called my mother to come get it after getting a warrant to enter the property and seize the animal.
“That’s okay. Whatever you need to say, you can tell me here.”
He frowned. “It’s cold out, Lily.”
“Which is why I’d rather you tell me why you’re here instead of stalling.”
Taking a step away from the gate, he cleared his throat. “Things with Abby didn’t work out.”
I raised my brows. “The baby?”
He shook his head. “Turns out the baby wasn’t mine. She’d been cheating on me. Guess that’s why she was worried about you. Sinceshewas cheating, she assumed I’d do the same.”
My heart dropped a little at his news. “I’m so sorry, Ben.”
Letting out a humorless laugh, he shook his head. “I guess that’s how it was meant to be. She told me right before Thanksgiving. Apparently, the guy she’d been cheating on me with threatened to tell me everything if she didn’t admit the truth.”
“How do you know it’s not yours?”
A look of embarrassment appeared on his face, and he kicked at the snow. “She lied about her due date. She was a bit farther along, and she panicked because it happened when I was out of town those three weeks back in the spring.”
Ben had gone on a once-in-lifetime trip with his parents to Europe.
“Guess they didn’t use protection, so she had a pretty good idea it was this guy’s baby.”
My heart broke for him. He truly seemed upset to find out he wasn’t going to be a father. “I’m sorry to hear things didn’t work out for you and Abby, Ben. I really am. But I have to ask again, why are you here?”
He looked taken aback. “To tell you I wasn’t getting married. I’m not having a baby.”
“And why did you feel the need to rush over and tell me?”
Ben rubbed at the back of his neck. “We used to be best friends, Lily. I told youeverything. I miss our friendship. Don’t you?”
I opened my mouth, then quickly shut it as I gathered my thoughts. It would be better if I got off the horse and spoke to him like an adult, but he’d said some pretty mean things to me before.
