Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(69)

“How many days has she been at your farm? And you don’t know any of this? She thought you had moved on long ago, and she still found the nerve to go to your place. She may have said it was because it was best for Danny Boy, but that wasn’t it. She wanted to see you, plain and simple. She thought if she did, she could move past it.”

“I never moved on.”

“And from what I hear, your mother and sister have argued that point.”

Do what? What did they have to do with this? What did this guy know about his family? “And what did you say about me?”

“Something like you were angry, take it slow. You have to realize—if you haven’t already—she shuts down with anger. Her mother has said some of the most hateful things in existence over her daughter, threatened her to no end—anger causes Harley to put on a cool expression, might even cause her to say a few harsh words, but all in all she shuts down. On the outside, it looks like she could care less; on the inside, it’s a living hell.”

“What threats?”

“At first that she was going to put you in jail, then she was going to sue your family to the point of bankruptcy. All of that kept Harley locked down until her eighteenth birthday. At that point, the only thing she had to hang over her was that the stress Harley caused by being with you caused her father’s heart to fail. Past that point, when Harley found the nerve, well, she thought you had moved on. Nowadays, her mother is all smiles, but then again, I never let Harley near her alone. The woman is evil. She’s going to fight Harley for her inheritance, at least hold it back as long as she can.”

“Do you people not wait ‘til someone dies before you start to divvy up their stuff?” Wyatt said, as if Collin had lost his mind.

Collin laughed out loud. “Look, man, Harley doesn’t care. She’d live in a stall if she had to. I cared, though. Everything Garrison Tatum has to his name should go to the only woman who has loved him because of who he was, not what he was. I don’t think Harley and I thought this charade would last this long.” He cleared his throat. “I’m going to make it right, though. It might be best it’s happening like this. Maybe Garrison can protect Harley with his will. I plan to tell him that I fear that Claire will hold Harley back any way she can.”

“You and her dad are best buds,” Wyatt said, his tone still unforgiving. Harley had been in a hell. He thought he’d been in one, getting in trouble, feeling the pain, but his girl had been in hell and this rich boy with a manicure was the one that defended her. He was furious with himself.

“I wouldn’t say that, but I still plan to tell the man that if he wants anything to go to Harley, then he needs to find a way to protect her, because the second he leaves this world…Harley is going to fly, she is going to leave this socialite world and never look back. She won’t even try to fight, not because she’s weak, but because she finds wealth in moments, not things.”

“Stolen moments,” Wyatt said under his breath as his gaze moved out across the field to the creek side.

“Right…”

There was an awkward silence as Wyatt did his best to understand this situation, this world Harley was contending with. “I didn’t mean to come at you hard, man.”

“I would have expected nothing less…then again, I kinda thought Harley would have given you a heads up.”

“That’s our business. Not yours. I’m all good with you putting that bitch Claire in her place, but make no mistake, I’m a jealous son of a bitch. There is nothing I would not do for Harley—me and you are legit right now, don’t jack that up, let me find out that you have other intentions.”

“Not an issue. All right, man…tell her to call me so I can tell her about Quinn.”

Wyatt may have said okay; he couldn’t remember or care as he took the stairs two at a time to his room.





Chapter Fifteen



Harley was still under the covers in the center of his bed. He crawled up the edge of the bed, pulled the covers back, pulled her legs apart, and moved his body over hers. She smiled before she opened her eyes as she felt his breath caress her face.

When she opened her eyes, she saw the haunted emotions in his stare, felt her heart pick up a notch or two. She had just had the best night of sleep in her entire life and feared something tragic had happened.

“I’m an ass,” he said softly to her. “I assumed. I never asked.”

Harley furrowed her brow.

“You’re not with Collin.”

She pulled herself up, wondering how he knew that. She’d tried to stop him last night and tell him that, but then everything else happened. Then after, Collin was the furthest thing on her mind; she was in a world all alone with him.

“I was, a long time ago, but that sick feeling you told me about…it was the same for me—maybe worse.”

He stopped her by brushing his lips against hers. “I’m an ass,” he said again. “Everything I read, everything I saw, even the stuff in your truck…I thought it was now. I thought it always had been.”

She shook her head.

“I heard you on the phone with him, telling him how cold it was here, telling him not to come…all of that. I should have had the nerve to say something then.”

Harley’s gaze grew wide. She was sick of them slipping by each other, thinking the other meant something they didn’t. That meant that night they both were in misery, thinking the other had moved on. “You heard me on the phone?”