Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(43)
“And they took Danny Boy to his place?”
“Apparently. I just came to a little while ago.”
“And you’re just now calling me?”
“They had to look me over. I talked to Camille, then Dad.”
“What did he say?”
“He knows where I am, tried to pay them for us to board there through the thirty days.”
“Both of you?”
“Yeah, and if I’m reading him right, he’s not going to tell Mother where I am.”
“Okay,” Collin said with a sigh. “What’s that sister’s name?”
“Wyatt’s? Ava.”
“All right. If it comes up, I’ll tell them you’re at your friend Ava’s…I should come there.”
Harley let out a deep breath. “I think that will be bad.”
“Why?”
“First thing his mother asked me was if I was going to marry you.”
“What is it with people all of a sudden? Why is that always the question?”
“I don’t know,” she breathed.
He was quiet for a second. In her mind, she could see him leaning back and taking this all in, plotting his strategy. “You’re fine, Danny Boy is, you have a place to stay. The question is, can you handle it?”
Harley swallowed. “I don’t know. But I know I need to.”
“Right.”
“If Mother ever figures out I’m here and we don’t do that thing…”
“What is the worst that could happen, Harley? I told you before, she cannot hurt you.”
At least Collin was going to do everything in his power to stop that. The worst that could happen would be that Garrison passed away and Claire tried to block Harley’s inheritance.
Harley could not give a damn about the money, but she had four horses to her name. She had to have a way to support them and herself. As far as Collin was concerned, the daughter of Garrison Tatum should never have to worry about having a roof over her head. If worse came to worst, Collin would support Harley and her horses and fight any legal maneuver her mother put before her.
They never talked about any of this. For one, Harley could not stomach the idea of her father passing for long; and two, Collin didn’t even want to give Harley the idea that her mother could do any damage, at the very least force her to give up her horses, give up Danny Boy.
That’s why he had to make this separation his fault when it came to their families. It had to be his fault, and it had to be clean so he would still be hip-to-hip with her and keep her safe, fight her legal battles if they happened to arise.
“I tell myself that, too. I just don’t want to give my dad stress. Mess up,” Harley said after she clearly thought over the same risks that were swimming in Collin’s mind.
“If that man didn’t want you there, he would have said as much. Old age has made him care even less what others think.”
“Right.”
“Harley, I can fix this. I can manage it. I’ll find a way to make it my fault, but I can’t fix that. I can’t stop you from figuring out if it was over for him long ago, or that he is even a different person.”
“I think I need to see that. I think that will help.”
“Harley…” he said in a sincere tone. “You’re different, too. I knew you at seventeen, and I know you now. You’re bolder, in some way you are.”
“Because of you.”
She heard him smile. “Don’t back out of that. Be who you are. Take care of your horse, and we’ll figure out the rest, just like before.”
“That’s the plan.”
“All right, get some sleep.”
She barely whispered a ‘bye’ before she hung up.
When she stretched back on the hospital bed, her mind raced in a million directions. Sometime hours later, a slow smile came to her. She realized that she had just stolen a month of time, a month of time that would give her the chance to set her past right and find a way to move on if that were the case.
She wasn’t counting on Wyatt sweeping her off her feet. After that talk with Camille, she was sure he was furious with her. The fact that he hadn’t come to see her pretty much told her that. But she thought if she saw him in the present, if he emerged out of her past, out of the dreams he haunted each night, she could stop the lingering nostalgia that she lived with every day. She’d see that he had changed, that she had, that what was, was—and maybe from that point, she could find her next step.
Chapter Ten
That entire way to the hospital, Wyatt was sure his heart had stopped. He knew enough about the medical field to assume that Harley was not dying, but he couldn’t see if anything was broken inside, if there was some hidden enemy that was going to steal her life away.
He was pacing the ER not more than three feet from her as they assessed her. He was in the room when they ran every test to make sure her neck and back were not broken, that there was nothing internal hurting her. He wanted her to wake up, and she did a few times. Her stare would drift to where he was standing, she would smile, then close her eyes again.
Memphis, Truman, and Easton showed up at some point during the ordeal, all trying to calm him down, to tell him not to yell at the nurses. They tried to pull him out of her room just so he could get himself together.