Impulsion: A Station 32 Fire Men Novel (31 page)

“You’re giving him to me?”

“No, my son did, long ago. He just didn’t know that he did.”

“Camille.”

She raised her hand. “I didn’t want the horse back, Harley. I wanted you back. I wanted the peace you brought this farm. When you were here, everyone walked a little straighter, tried a little harder. They may have been simply displaying the respect I all but burned into them, I realize that, but I always thought you brought out the best in those you were around.”

“This place brings out the best in me.”

Camille let a small smile emerge before she turned, then drove the golf cart away, saying they had work to do.

Harley had dinner with Wyatt’s parents and grandparents all alone that night
. Wyatt didn’t join them because he was on duty at the fire department. The days he was there seemed to last forever. The business discussion was the same as the ones she’d heard before, they even asked for her input on a few matters.

Willowhaven Farms hosted several schooling shows a year, along with A shows and Grand Prix. The ones hosted at Willowhaven Farms always had a charity event that each sponsor was asked to donate to. It was also included in the entry and stall fees. Harley asked to take on the responsibility of setting up the communications for the shows that were seasons down the road. She knew it was something that would fill her time when she was not riding, something that her background had made her skilled at.

Camille was hesitant about giving Harley the file of past sponsors, even said she had had plenty of event coordinators. It was Beckett that told her it might be a good idea.

Harley didn’t understand the strained gazes they were giving each other and just assumed that Camille still thought that Harley would vanish from the farm at any moment. Having Beckett stand up for her, that made Harley’s heart hum with approval
. He was usually the one that would crack wry jokes about her.

Camille not only nodded, agreeing that Harley should work with the coordinator, but she also asked Harley if she wanted to take on a few new students and teach afternoon lessons on
a regular basis. Right then, Harley felt like she had been handed a world medal. She could only nod as she thought of Wyatt. She was sure that he had told his mother that was something she wanted to do.

On the days Wyatt was at the fire department, those dinners with his family were part of her routine. It was also the nights she would stay in her room at the main house, have long conversations with her father on the phone, and talk to Collin, something she couldn’t really bring herself to do around Wyatt.

Beyond that one conversation, the one where Wyatt told her that he knew she wasn’t with Collin, his name was never mentioned. It was like the two of them just wanted to forget those years they were apart, and honestly, at times it was hard to imagine they had ever been apart; that was how seamlessly Harley had fallen back into Willowhaven.

When she spoke to Collin, they would go through the play-by-play that was occurring in the world she had left behind.

Harley was due back at her family home soon. The thirty-day stall rest period was almost up, and as far as her mother knew, her slow journey home, where she was staying with friends on her way up from Florida, was due to be over, too.

No one ever mentioned when Harley would or would not be leaving. Every time the topic even looked like it had the chance to develop in a conversation, she would drastically change what was being discussed, if not walk away all together, acting as if she had something she had to get done just then.

Without a doubt, she would have to attend her father’s party, go through that fake separation with Collin, deal with her mother—but that wasn’t until the end of summer, and right then she was in the middle of the best summer of her life.

Being at Willowhaven Farms, not
having to hide how she felt about Wyatt, that was a dream come true, to be sure. They still never touched, had any major open displays of affection in front of his family or the clients, but when they were both at the barn, neither one of them thought twice about disappearing for a moment or two, stealing a kiss when no one was looking their way.

Harley’s issue now, the reason she and Collin were on the phone for hours on the nights Wyatt worked, was that her mother apparently still thought she was ten. Claire Tatum knew Harley’s schedule, that she was supposed to be at home, so she had set up lunches with girls Harley had always known but hated
—and if not lunches, some kind of dinner that she and Collin should or were supposed to go to with other couples. Basically, adult play dates.

All of it was done gracefully; her mother made it seem as if it weren’t plotted by saying she had spoken to someone and they had said they should meet, and her mother only made the plans because she knew Harley was traveling, enjoying the last of her holiday before any ‘major’ events in the fall.

Collin and Harley’s conversations all revolved around their skillfully cancelling these dates and somehow figuring out how to make sure that never got back to her mother. The last thing they wanted her mother to pick up on was the fact that they had been apart. They didn’t want her or anyone to know until right before her father’s party. If they knew beforehand, everyone would be involved in trying to pointlessly reconcile the young couple. Surprise and an audience were what they needed to make this separation final in their world.

Collin was ridiculously clever about cancelling these dates her mother had planned. A few times, he even managed to get the other couples to cancel by saying that another couple would be joining them, and they would cancel because of some rivalry between the couple they were supposed to go out with and the one that Collin pretended to invite out. It was all a game, a sick, cold game, which Harley hated and was grateful that Collin could play like a pro.

Right now, though, only having to deal with these updates, long conversations every third day, was the best it had ever been for Harley. She felt herself slowly disconnecting. She even dared not to answer her mother’s daily emails on a regular basis. Most times, she never opened them unless the subject had something to do with her father. She’d just forward them to Collin.

Harley had stayed on the phone so long with Collin the night before that by the time she called her father, Donald had said he had retired for the night.

That night, of all nights, she really wanted to talk to him. While she was on the phone with Collin, she had opened the file to the sponsors, silent and public ones, that Camille had given her. She’d wanted Collin to help her find even more that she could reach out to. She was determined to show Camille she could be an asset to the family business. When Harley named a few on her screen, Collin laughed. “Harley, four of those you have on that list are your father’s. Two are my dad’s. You already have the world behind you.”

That floored Harley. She never really paid attention to her father’s assets, mainly because money was the last thing ever on Harley’s mind. She rarely spent it. What she did own, her rig, her horses, their equipment, all of that was gifted to her over the years, on birthdays, graduation, or Christmas. The condo she’d stayed in in Florida was owned by Collin’s family. The money Harley used for food or just random needs all came out of the trust that was for her school. At times, she had actually gotten in trouble for not spending money.

To stop that scorning, she withdrew the amounts she was told were reasonable to use and put the money in a different account, one that no one but herself could touch, no fear of it being frozen. So far, she could support herself and her horses for almost two years, hopefully long enough to figure out her next move if the worst came to be.

When Collin and Harley went further down the list, they figured out that in some way, some link, each sponsor was associated with her father.

Harley knew without a doubt that years ago her mother’s threats were not empty, that she could have very well not only hindered the Dorans, but the charities they stood behind. She also knew it was her father that must have defended them, must have made sure that none of the sponsorships halted.

The next morning, she was up at dawn, making sure she spoke to her father before the day got away from her.

“Always the early riser,” her father said when he came to the phone.

“I missed you last night.”

“I played golf with Conrad yesterday, long day.” Conrad was Collin’s father. Just the idea of those old friends out alone, knowing that Conrad was well aware that his son was ‘cheating’ with Quinn and that Harley’s father knew
exactly
where Harley was, made her stomach flip.

“Long day in a good way?”

“Just hot. How’s our boy?”

“Good. I think Wyatt is going to bring him out in the ring next week, work with him. It’s going to be a slow process.”

“I’m sure it is. No doubt you’ll need to be there past the summer, maybe longer.”

Harley felt herself smile. Her father wasn’t even going to put her in the position to make an excuse for not coming home.

“Well, someone has a big birthday coming up, so no doubt I will be coming home soon enough.”

“Only thing big about my birthday is the number,” he said with a gruff.

“Have you seen the guest list?”

“No, I haven’t. Why? Do you need to amend it in any way?”

Her smile left with a quickness, and she felt her stomach fall. “Like mother would let anyone amend that list. She’s been planning this since last year.”

“The best laid plans are the ones that crumble the fastest.”

Harley was quiet for a second, had almost gathered the nerve to tell her father that she was in love with Wyatt when he spoke up.

“I see here on the morning mail that there is a sponsorship notification, a lovely name is attached to the end of it: Harley Tatum.” She could hear the smile in his voice.

“I’m helping out with that in my spare time...you never told me.”

“Told you what?”

“That you protected them, that it wasn’t about the clients or reputation; it was about the charities.”

“Those sponsorships had nothing to do with you. Some were established before I even met your mother.”

“Are you serious?”

“Quite. I don’t recall your mother even knowing about them, now that you mention it.”

Harley let out a deep breath. “But you did. You had a right to be angry and take that from them.”

“I don’t recall having a right to be angry either.”

Harley let silence linger before she spoke again, in that moment she remembered every horrible thing her mother had yelled at her in the very room she was sitting in. Among those words were that she had shamed her father, beyond measure she had betrayed his trust.

“Dad, I never meant to hurt you with any of that, cause you stress, or let you down.”

Her father was quiet for a moment. “Harley, my heart condition had nothing to do with you. Nothing. You’ve never let me down. All I have ever wanted is for you to find your own footing. Your own passions. Because, Harley, if you do not have passions, life would be listless. Mine has fallen in the world of business. Your mother’s—entertainment, I suppose. You have to find your own.”

“I think I have.”

“Seems so.” She heard him shuffling a few things in the background. “Everything was finalized with your rig. The funds are in your trust. You may want to start looking for a replacement, if you can find the time, of course. It does sound like Camille is incorporating you well into Willowhaven Farms.”

A slow smile came to her face. “She is. They all are.”

“Right. Well then, I will let you go. My breakfast is getting cold.”

“Love you, Daddy,” Harley said. She waited for him to say the same back before she hung up and started to get dressed once more.

She was pulling on her tall socks when she heard a sound behind her. Thinking it was the wind, she went on with what she was doing. Before she had managed to pull on her next sock, she heard the window open. Right as she turned, Wyatt’s arms went around her, pulled her back to the bed, moved her legs around him.

He was still dressed for work. The scent of fire, earth, leather, and spice drove her mad as her hands rushed across his back and she laughed aloud. He captured that laugh with his lips, then pulled away to lean his forehead to hers.

“You’re in the wrong bed, princess,” he said as he leaned in and took her lips once more, letting out a playful moan as he did.

“Am I, Prince Doran?” she said as he pulled away and she squeezed her legs around his waist.

His hand reached up to caress her face. “After every shift, I cannot get to this farm fast enough, and each time I rush into the house, coffee and breakfast in hand, I find my bed made, empty and cold.”

All she could do was smile as her eyes moved across his addictive image. It was so hard to believe this was real, that any of it was.

“I guess I’m still stuck in secret mode,” she said, quietly tracing her hands across his face. He turned his lips just to kiss the palm of her hand. All at once, he crawled backward, pulling her legs until she was sitting on the edge of the bed. He knelt before her.

“Harley Adel Tatum, love of my life, will you please move your things into my house?”