Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(12)

***

Harley was still mentally berating herself as she walked up the back steps to the plantation home.

Camille pulled up in the golf cart that she drove from barn to barn. “Good night, girl. Why do you look even tenser than when we talked earlier?”

Harley gave her the best smile she could muster without looking the woman directly in the eyes. “Still working on the mechanics of having fun. That bonfire is next on the list.” It was a dry joke, but Camille smiled anyway. Harley took that as her cue to run for her life, and she did.

After a shower, she called her dad. This was part of her normal routine. He heard the other girls in the background laughing and running from one room to the other.

“Sounds like you are having fun,” her father said.

“It’s Ava and her friends.”

“And they’re not your friends?”

“A bit younger,” she said. Harley was a senior. Ava was just gearing up for her first year in high school, and boys were her only focus—boys and fun. Harley adored her, but they had little to nothing in common. Harley had never known how to just be a kid, was never really allowed to be one.

“Not by much,” her father said with a laugh. “How was today?”

“Better.” Her father knew every skill Harley sought to conquer, knew every challenge with her horse. “He was a bit wild this morning, but Wyatt rode him, worked through that. By the time I got back on him, he was smooth as glass.”

“Good to hear, good to hear. Your mother told me that she feels she has found the perfect trainer here at home.”

After that first summer Harley took Danny Boy home with her, a trainer at the school worked with him through the fall. Danny Boy went backward, threw Harley twice, broke her wrist once. When Danny Boy made it back to Willowhaven, it took Wyatt three months to get him back to where he was. Camille basically told Garrison that she had serious riders and serious horses and she did not care to take one step forward and two back. Danny Boy had been at Willowhaven ever since then.

It was a win and a loss for Harley. The win was that she always had a reason and excuse to go to Willowhaven, a place that had become her heaven, a sweet reward her mother could not logically take away from her. The downside was going without riding Danny Boy for so long. She had a horse at the school her father had purchased for her, and two at her home, but they were not Danny Boy. They didn’t push her, challenge her.

“That was a fail last time.”

“I understand. What you have to understand is that with school and the dates you have committed to, getting to Willowhaven will not be easy over the next few years. I’m trying to make it where you have what you want with you, what you told me you wanted. Camille knows about this. I’m not going to commit to any trainers unless she approves them.”

“When is she supposed to do that?”

“Most, she knows by reputation. She wants to meet the two your mother has found, watch how they work. We’re still working out the dates.”

“I don’t want anyone to hurt him, Daddy.”

The thing about Wyatt riding Danny Boy was that he had patience, he never rushed. He saw horses as living souls. That was what Harley’s horse responded to, what Harley responded to.

Her father laughed. “Harley, I seriously doubt there is an offer I could put before Camille that would persuade her to let Wyatt move to New York and work with your horse and your horse alone.”

There was an offer, at least one that Wyatt would take, and that was Harley—but she kept that to herself.

“They’re the best, Dad.”

“Harley, we’ll take our time with this. You just need to think forward.”

“All right,” she breathed.

“I’ll let you go so you can have your dinner. I plan to be there in a few weeks. I have a heavy schedule, but I told them to find me at least three days. I’ll let you know as soon as I know.”

That made Harley smile and nervous at the same time. Her father was the only ray of light she had outside of Willowhaven. He was older, and she knew her time with him would not be as long as she wanted, but at the same time she knew he was sharp, that sooner or later on one of these visits he would figure out all of Harley’s secrets.

By the time she put on a simple summer dress and sandals and made her way downstairs, the house was quiet, still. Everyone was outside. Honestly, the Dorans never came inside unless they had to. Every one of them thrived outdoors.

Harley lingered by the back door, staring out. In the distance, she saw a massive fire in the field, a silhouette before it. It wasn’t Wyatt, but Easton. She imagined that most would not be able to tell the difference, but she had studied everything there was to know about Wyatt, even something as simple as the way he leaned or held his head. Easton was still as a ghost, seemed to be entranced, lost in some way.

“You’re not afraid of fire, now are ya?” Beckett, Wyatt’s father, said. He was on his way out with a dish full of marinated meat.

“Is he all right?” she asked before she assumed that question made no sense. Around this farm, you never asked if the boys were all right. Even if they weren’t all right, they were told to man up.

“Easton?” Beckett said as he shifted the dish he was holding. “The fire is in his blood.”

Harley looked up curiously. She’d spent the least amount of time around Beckett, so all in all she was still trying to read him.