Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(66)
Out of breath, they had glided to the floor of the tub. Wyatt reached to turn the shower off and stopped the drain. She was now lying just before him. Steam was still coming off the water, and he was gliding the water over her chest, fascinated with each and every rivulet that traced down her body.
Harley never wanted to leave that house, that bathroom, the cage of his arms. A sudden spark of an old fear came to her, one that made her recognize they would have to part. That urged her to plan their next escape, caused her to look up at him. “You have to work today?”
It was past one in the morning when she had gotten into the shower. So much had happened since then; for all she knew, it was nearly dawn, he’d have to leave, and she’d have to go a day before she saw him again.
A laugh came from deep in his chest. “I’m praying for rain. I think the weatherman is on my side,” he said as his fingertips traced her jaw.
“No fire department?”
“Most cases, that’s twenty-four on, forty-eight off.”
She eased to the side just so she could look back at him but still feel his arms and legs around her. “I can remember that night you said you wanted to be a fireman, the way Easton was looking at that fire, Memphis, how Truman had that awe in his eyes.”
A heart-stopping grin spread across Wyatt’s face. “Truman still looks like that if the fire is big enough. He hasn’t been on long, still learning.”
“None of it scares you?”
His glance moved to trace the burn on her cheek, to the mark on her hair line that was healing rapidly, then back to her eyes. “Normally, it’s a rush. Someone needs help, and I want to help them.”
“Easton has really been with you this whole time?”
He didn’t answer at first. He was captivated by the water he was sluicing over her once more. “Always side by side. When we came back, Memphis was not only already on the fire department but kicking ass and taking names. They just made him a lieutenant. Easton and I didn’t even discuss it really. It just seemed to always be the plan. We all found our way to the same house.”
“You see them every day?” She said with a smile, realizing how perfect that was, those boys were so close, true best friends.
“Most. Sometimes things move around a bit.”
“Fireman, and Ava’s going to be a nurse. She said Trey was trying to be a vet.”
“Trying is a good word. The boy needs to figure out that you have to go to class to get a degree. If he doesn’t turn it around, he’s going to find himself in that apartment with Truman.”
“He’ll figure it out. Sometimes you just need a break from whatever plan you have.”
Wyatt’s smile fell a little, but Harley never saw it; she was tracing his hand with hers.
He had to wonder if he was her break, if she was going to go back to him. He wanted to ask, it was killing him not to, but the threat of killing the bliss of this night caused him to hedge his words.
“Harley, the business law student.”
She pursed her lips. “A degree I don’t want to use or care to finish…I even tried to major in lit instead.” She raised her chin a bit. “I was told I needed depth, something that said I could do more than read.”
“What did you want to do? What do you want to do?”
She gazed at the ceiling. “I just want to be…just ‘be.’ I want to ride my horse, take in the senses of the Earth, feel the shifts of the seasons brush across the wind. I don’t want to fit in any world. I want a world of my own. I even taught for a bit at school, watched the scared new riders find their seat. That was the only time I felt grounded at school, or when I would go to whatever barn Danny Boy was at.”
His father was right. Everything she wanted, he could give her; he knew that. She just had to be brave enough to take it, to take it and not fear leaving her life behind. Even if there wasn’t this Collin guy, the guy that had been with her from the second they parted, he knew Harley would not leave that world behind easily.
She loved her father. They had an odd bond, one where he always seemed to be striving to make her more independent, stronger, and all she wanted was to make him proud. Harley never saw it that way, at least not the way Wyatt was sure her father wanted her to see it. Instead, Harley did what she could to make him proud, to honor his legacy.
Wyatt could still remember the first conversations he had with the man. Wyatt had just dismounted a horse called Chopper.
“Name seems fitting,” he’d said to Wyatt. “You held on like you know a thing or two about holding on to power. You got a bike, son?”
“Not yet,” Wyatt had said. At the time, Harley had only been at his farm for all of three weeks. He was already in love with her, but they had barely spoken more than a few words. Harley had kept to herself, though he’d still managed to make her laugh a time or two.
Garrison Tatum looked Wyatt right in the eye as if he heard the unspoken truth in Wyatt’s young fifteen-year-old voice, heard Wyatt say he was going to make Harley his.
Garrison raised his chin a bit. “I was too busy building an empire to have a mid-life crisis, get a Harley of my own…so when my greatest accomplishment took her first breath, I knew the perfect name for her.” He chuckled. “Claire dared to fight me on that name.” He let out a deep breath as his stare moved over the boy Wyatt was. “I found it fitting. Raw power that only a few can understand is within my daughter. I’ve raised my daughter to understand reverence, passion. To never ask for what belongs to her.” Garrison glanced around the farm he was standing on, then back to Wyatt. “I expect you to make sure that no matter what, she feels safe here. That she is taught to not fear a challenge, yet not rush into one without thought. I expect you to be the man I see in your eyes.”