Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(87)
“We’re not staging a fight in front of him or anything.”
“Exactly what are you doing?” he said as he stepped forward and glared down.
“We’re going to tell them that we had been growing apart spending time away from each other, and in that time apart he fell for Quinn, that he’s going to marry her.” She almost said ‘instead’ at the tail end of that sentence but thought better of it at the last second.
“And this world of yours will think that’s just normal? To be with someone for years, then take a break and say, ‘Never mind, I’m marrying her’?”
“It’s more complicated than that. They don’t know about the break. We never came out and said that, but as soon as we do they’ll figure out that we haven’t been around each other. They will see why we hid that split. Collin is taking a hit with this. It’s a bold move.”
Just hearing his name on her lips boiled his skin, as if this deal was about Collin, him hurting. “Lying to your family and friends is a bold move.”
“It’s not like that. He’s protected me. This way, the fact that he did will be kept secret. He gets Quinn, I get to come back here.”
“You get to come back here?”
Harley felt her stomach flip. That world she came from would never make sense to him, and she knew that. She wanted out of it, was days away from being out, but she had to leave this way. Had to protect those that had protected her.
“You don’t think your dad is going to find this odd? That it happened months after you came back to this farm? The man may be old, but he’s not a fool.”
“I didn’t say he was. This separation story is more for our moms.”
“And where does your mother think you have been?”
“She didn’t ask.”
“So I’m some secret?”
“No. Yes. It’s not like that. We’re going to go to this party, say what we have to before the party, then I’m coming here. Everyone wins that way.”
“No one wins when you lie.” How was that concept lost on her?
Harley sucked in a deep breath, cast her stare to the side, then met his all at once with a firm defiance. “Wyatt, I’m trying to protect my family name. Trying to get Collin out of this without looking like an ass and protect his family name. I swear, it makes sense. When you factor everything in, it makes sense.”
He jerked his glance away. His jaw was clenched, and anger was saturating his visage.
Harley took a breath, then said, “I don’t get why you’re waiting until right now to be mad about Collin. Why it didn’t matter until now.”
“You told me it was your father’s birthday party, that your mother invited Collin. You didn’t say you were going with Collin to do any of this. I thought you were planning to tell your father about us; you wanted to do that alone.”
Shame flooded her then. That was what she should have been doing, needed to do. She was going to tell her father that she was moving in with Wyatt, that she loved him, but the plan was never to let him know she had lied to him this whole time, let everyone believe she and Collin were serious.
“I’m not going with him, I’m going to break up with him.”
“You’re going to go and fake break up with your fake boyfriend.”
“Yeah.”
Wyatt threw his hands in the air as he moved closer to her. “How does this feel right to you, Harley? You’re all about how much you love your father, how much you want to honor and respect him, but you’re lying to the man’s face.”
“I’m ending the lie.”
“Are you? Then why am I not going with you to this party?”
“Wyatt.”
“Don’t ‘Wyatt’ me. I know why. I know I shouldn’t be surprised about this—how f*cked up is that? That I’ve played this game with you for so long that I know it. I know it would cause some scandal, some stress, some something that you don’t want to deal with.”
“I’m not hiding you. I’m enduring this so I can come to you, then go to them with you.”
“In a few years, right? Because we have to play our parts, right? We don’t want anyone to know your mother is a conniving bitch that drove you to alter your entire life. We don’t want anyone to know how twisted all this is. This move, causing this one, then this one.”
“What do you want me to do, Wyatt? Not go?”
He stepped forward. “I want you to have every moment you want with him while you still have it.” She rocked back as the thought of her father ever dying was crippling, and rightly so. “You want him to believe that you have honored him, respected him. Fine. But Harley, listen to me. When he’s gone, you’ll live with this, years down the road, this guilt will eat you. If you think his love has conditions you have an issue. The man deserves honesty from you. Life is too short for bullshit, Harley. How many years did we already waste on this hell?”
“Too many. I’m going to tell him that I love you. That I always have.”
“But you’re not going to tell him this deal with you and monkey suit was a joke.”
“Don’t you dare talk about him like that. He was there for me when I had no one else.”
“He was there because you let him be. One call, Harley, one call to me would have ended this all. Instead, you lied to the man that thinks you are the best thing that has ever happened to him—you put both of us in misery. And according to you, you jacked up Collin’s plans with whatever girl is all game to play this crap out with all of you.”