Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(71)

All at once, Harley heard the gallop of powerful hoofs, looked to see a golden gelding charging across the largest paddock on this side of the farm. Harley had seen him at a distance before, when she was either making her way to or from Wyatt’s. It was the only horse near his home; the others were kept closer in.

He was massive for a young horse. You could just feel the power vibrating off him.

The only marks on him were his white face, and that color was almost topaz. The sun seemed to bring forth a glow.

“He’s gorgeous,” Harley breathed.

There was rarely a horse she had not found majestic, even the ones that were rescues that this farm brought back to life. In her mind, a horse was royalty, so much power, heart, something that could never really be tamed but called you to want to live your life with the same grace.

The only other horse that had taken her breath away like this was Danny Boy, when she was just a girl and the trainer at her school showed her a clip of him. That trainer told Harley that if she worked hard, if she really wanted to commit to this sport and challenge herself, that was the horse she needed to strive to build to.

Before that point, Harley had mastered the basics, mastered the horses that did their job so well that the rider was almost a decoration. That trainer never let anyone settle. Harley always thought that she was the one that told her father about Willowhaven Farms, suggested them, because when she told that trainer where she was going, that she had the mount she always wanted, all that trainer did was smile and say, “This is about to get real for you. Don’t go there unless you’re prepared for your entire life to change. You will never be the same.”

She was beyond right about that, for more than one reason.

Camille was still staring at the gelding, not bothering to agree or not. Just like with her riders, she rarely showed clear favoritism.

“Was he bred here?”

One nod.

“He’s young. Has he been broken?”

“In the process.”

“Which mare?” Willowhaven had stallions, but breeding was the smallest part of their business, and if Harley had been paying attention at the dinner-slash-business meetings, she knew that they had not used a stallion of theirs on the property until recently, too recently for this gelding to have been bred.

Camille glanced to her side, keeping her body in its character-rigid position. “Stolen Heart.”

A slow smile came to Harley. She loved that mare, she really did. This farm had rescued her mother, and Stolen Heart was dropped a few months later. That was the first birth Harley had witnessed, just days after she arrived at Willowhaven for the first time. They thought they were going to lose the filly a few times, her mother had little to no milk, but Harley, Ava, others all took shifts in feeding her goat’s milk. Stolen Heart grew strong fast.

She was hard to break. Wyatt had gotten her to where she could be ridden, but it seemed her job all in all would be to become a buddy for the rescue barn. She seemed to calm the other horses that were recovering, taught them to trust again by showing them how.

The gelding had stopped his gallop and was slowly walking to the water trough. When he got there, he drank his fill then lifted his lip, showing his teeth, then glided his head back and forth over the water. Harley’s shocked gaze moved to Camille.

“Same sire,” Camille said.

“Danny Boy’s?”

Camille nodded slowly, even laughed as the gelding scared itself with the water and darted away, only to buck through the field.

“Wyatt was a natural the day he went pro. His first win, he paid the stud fee.” Camille kept her stare on the field. “He told me he was sorry I lost Danny Boy, that this was all he could do.” Camille moved her head from side to side. “I told him it wasn’t…told him it wasn’t the same.”

She rolled her shoulders against the seat. “I always say what I mean, but what I mean is not always heard. My son thought this horse would replace Danny Boy, maybe the memories of my first horse. He was telling me he was sorry for all the hell he put me through…what he didn’t hear, what I tried to tell him, was that he could cover up his past any way he wanted. He might find some joy in it, but it would not be the same.

“In this world, some say it’s all about breeding, that the power is in the blood. If this world has taught me anything, it is that there are no absolutes, no real endings or beginnings, just a cycle of life.”

Camille looked to her side at Harley. “Harley, my father was a lot like yours, hard to understand. In the way that you are sure that his words had an insane depth that your humbled youth could not possibly fathom. My dad and me had a falling out here and there…always about breeding. And after our biggest fight, he told me that all I ever had to do was tell him what I wanted, needed.”

Harley looked away, hearing the similarities, and also knowing that she had gone so far down this road with Collin that there was no way to get out of it without telling her father she had lied to him for years. He’d never understand that she lied to keep the peace, that she lied because she found someone that could and would deal with her mother for her, that after all his silent lessons she was still a coward when it came to her mother. She never wanted her father to feel that disappointment, which was why Collin’s plan, this fake separation deal, seemed so inviting. It also felt wrong, though; it really did.

“Life is a cycle, Harley. You can’t be terrified to say what you feel. You need to say it while you can, say it before you can only wish you took the chance.” Camille leaned forward and grabbed an envelope that was on the dash of the golf cart.