Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(70)
He didn’t answer, just went on. “I should have never stopped trying to get to you. When you landed back here, I should have told you how I felt when I picked you up…I think we all thought that slow was better, that rushing you would push you away, but you and me have been taking things slow for too long.”
He looked away as she sat up next to him. “I answered your phone this morning. I was prepared to tell Collin he was going to have to fight me to get you…”
“You did what?” she gasped as she moved her hand through her hair, trying to ground herself. She knew them both well; they were both fierce in their own right—they just had different methods. She had to wonder what daggers were thrown while she slept this morning.
“He told me everything, all of it.”
“You’re not mad?”
“Mad that you survived the best you could?”
That was the last thing she expected. She assumed when he figured out her mother was plotting for her to marry Collin, he would come unglued, never see the point. Maybe even think she and Collin did have something going on.
Her eyes rushed over him. “I could have fought harder. I was weak, didn’t use my voice.”
“Harley, you have never been weak, you just care…even if that woman had put me in jail, I would have gotten out. She could have sued the hell out of my family, we would have survived…you were trying to protect me.”
What in the hell did Collin say to him that made Wyatt so calm about this? “I was a coward later. I was even a coward here. I thought you were sleeping with that blonde. I didn’t ask, just assumed. ”
Wyatt’s eyes went wide in shock. Harley raised her hand to halt whatever he was going to say. “If I was half as bold as you, we would have been here long ago.”
“This is where you want to be?” he asked with a trace of disbelief.
“Wyatt, I’ve never wanted to be anywhere else. I love you so much it hurts.”
A gasping smile left his lips. “I will always keep you safe, Harley. I swear to you, I will give you everything you ever want and more.”
Her eyes moved across his face, she reached to brush her fingertips across his strong jawline. “I only want you…”
They never left that room all day. While listening to the rain, they lost themselves in fits of passion, would drift to sleep, only to awaken then find a new way to explore each other.
If Wyatt had ever thought to put more than a few snacks here and there in his house, they would have stayed in all night. But when his father called and asked if he was coming to dinner, they dared to venture out.
They walked in his parents’ house hand in hand. He pulled out her chair, sat next to her. Even squeezed her knee a time or two when he noticed that she was flushing, not making eye contact with everyone.
The dinner was lively. Ava and Truman were there; Memphis came by, too. No one said a thing about the pair of them, but Harley could swear she saw the curiosity in everyone’s eyes, the lingering smiles, even caught the hard jokes about how some thought rain meant you didn’t have to show up.
After dinner, Harley didn’t take all of her things to Wyatt’s, but she grabbed a small bag, the clothes she would need for the next day, and walked hand in hand with him through the stables, lingering near Danny Boy, spoiling him with apples and mints.
Wyatt was up with the sun the next day. Harley opened her eyes to see him dressing for work.
“This is going to be the longest day,” she said with almost a playful pout.
He pulled her legs to the edge of the bed, then her up into his arms. “I can handle a day as long as I know when I call, you’ll answer; as long as I know as soon as I’m off, I can see this beautiful face…anything past that…not possible, not anymore.”
***
Harley had just finished wrapping Danny Boy’s legs after his morning hand walk when Camille appeared before his stall.
“You need me to ride?” For the past few weeks, it had been hit or miss with that question. She either needed her to ride or train, but the training was few and far between. Most of the time, Harley just helped her with the lessons she already had set up.
“No, I need you to come with me,” Camille said as she walked past the stall.
Harley felt her heart pick up a notch. This thing between her and Wyatt, now that it was out in the open, it was sure to change her and Camille’s relationship in some way. So far, they had been acting like they had in the past, teacher and student, neither acknowledging the obvious.
Camille was close to her son, really close. Harley couldn’t read her, didn’t know if Camille had said the things she said before because she wanted him happy and Harley was just the source of that happiness, if in truth she couldn’t care less about Harley, or if it was the opposite, if Camille saw Harley as more than another rider.
She found Camille in a golf cart just outside. Camille didn’t say a word as they drove off, and Harley had no idea what to think when she started down the path that would lead to Wyatt’s home. Camille turned off, though, down a path that led between the paddocks.
Harley knew they were heading right toward the broodmare barn and assumed that Camille was just showing her the foals everyone kept talking about at dinner. She stopped the cart, leaned back in her seat, never said a word.
They hadn’t made it all the way to that broodmare barn, but the one next to it that had the yearlings, those that Wyatt and Truman, along with others, rode to break, teaching them everything from handling a saddle on them to whatever role they had in their horse world. The horses in that barn were ones that would become jumpers.