Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(38)

Before Quinn came along, knowing the pair of them they would have stayed engaged for years, maybe to the point where her father did pass away.

Now it just felt wrong to Harley.

Quinn found what Collin and Harley were doing hilarious, even gave them lines to say now and again. Those lines seemed to do nothing but encourage their family to the point where they had all but insisted that Collin propose.

Their grand plan now was for them to spend time apart, make it seem like they were silently breaking up to those around them. That’s how they became a public couple, so it seemed fitting for them to fall apart that way, to call the friend card out for their family.

This separation was going to come from Harley transporting Danny Boy herself up to New York. Collin had plotted her course, found a friend that she knew every few hours, just over six hours being the most she would have to drive, and that was only for two stretches. Each stop, she was going to lay over for at least a day at a few facilities for a week, in all making the trip almost a month long.

When she did get home, she was going to stay at her family home and ride with a new trainer for two months. Her mother was overseas with Collin’s, so Harley would not have to be at the same address with her.

This plan would carry them right up until a few days before her father’s eightieth birthday celebration.

Collin’s mother told her son that celebration was a virtual world stage, among other hints that said she was all but demanding he propose that day. Collin and Harley thought if they spent this time apart, they could pull the ‘we’re growing apart, we need to rekindle our love affair before we embark on an engagement’ just before the party. Collin was all for rocking his mother’s boat. The only drawback was in not rocking Garrison Tatum’s too hard.

Harley was good with the plan but told him that her mother would tell her that her father deserved to see her settled and happy. She would guilt them into this. She knew she would.

Collin had only smirked and said under his breath, “That is the end goal.”

“Are you sure you don’t want anyone to ride with you?” Collin asked her.

Harley shook her head. The trainer here was in love with Danny Boy, downright ticked that Harley was taking him home. She’d said that Harley was not qualified to haul him, that she should ride with Harley.

Collin made sure Harley’s rig was equipped with every safety measure known to man. She even had cameras to watch Danny Boy. He’d mapped out every place for her to stop and fuel, every detour she could take. Anything and everything was thought of. Harley needed this time, this independence. Collin knew that and had told that trainer to pretty much go to hell.

He was only questioning the point now because every once in a while he would still see the scared little girl he knew as a boy, the one he would try to make laugh when they were both stuck in monkey suits. Those glimpses made her look fragile, and he knew she wasn’t, not deep down. Harley’s only problem was that she always knew what she wanted but never knew how to grasp it. Her hesitation—that was her downfall every time. It allowed doubt to threaten and ultimately overcome her.

In Collin’s eyes, when she looked the strongest and most undefeatable was when she rode. Every horse gave her that outlook, but Danny Boy capitalized it. That horse had nothing but power, and Harley controlled it, made it look it graceful.

“Let’s get the big boy loaded, then,” Collin said as he slid back from the kitchen bar, then gathered the last small bags Harley had set by the door.

Danny Boy hated the trailer, knew that every time he loaded it would be hours before he got off.

“There is nothing Clandestine about that one,” Collin quipped as he reached up and rubbed Danny Boy’s nose through the open side window.

“He’s just spent too many hours of his life being transported,” Harley defended, and that was true.

Collin pulled Harley to him, landed a kiss on her forehead, then led her to the driver’s seat. “Bluetooth and GPS are on. Just relax and drive. Say what you need, and the truck will give you an answer.”

She laughed at that, and he caught the irony. “Okay, so it will tell you what direction to go, answer the phone, and change your music at least.”

“I’ll call you when I stop,” she said, hugging him once more.

She climbed in and pulled away, taking a deep breath. Just about everything she owned was on this rig, at least what she cared to claim. For the first time in her life, at that moment she felt like she had freedom. Freedom to vanish, if only for a moment.

Her first layover was the longest distance in the entire journey, planned that way because she would be the freshest. She stayed a day with her friend, or acquaintance rather, named Anna. She let Danny Boy graze, then pulled out the next day.

Not long after she left, a few hours at most, she had to detour, or at least her GPS had said so. There was some kind of lane blockage on the highway ahead. It irritated her when she figured out the highways it sent her down were taking her three hours out of her way, and that she now had at least an eight hour drive before her. That irritation faded, and panic set in later when she realized how close this jaunt would take her to Willowhaven.

That last flight home from Willowhaven, in her mind, she saw Wyatt pulling Dorcas into his arms, saw him betraying the memory of them. What burned more than anything was seeing those pictures online afterwards, the ones that told her that he had really moved on.