Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(91)

“It was the last time I saw you, sir.”

“You fear me?” Garrison asked, as if he had never heard such a thing.

“I don’t. I respect you. That morning, I feared that I could not keep my promise to you or Harley.”

Garrison set his dinnerware down. “And what promise was that?”

“To keep her safe.”

Garrison nodded a few times, his piercing stare holding Wyatt’s. “And you didn’t think she was safe with me?”

“With you, yes.”

“Then what was it?”

Wyatt swallowed, not sure how blunt he should be. No one coached him on that point, and honestly they should have—the Dorans were known for their bluntness.

“Harley is a strong woman. She knows what she wants, but sometimes she has a hard time saying that. In most cases, she finds her own way to say or do what she needs to. Her mother, she never really gave Harley the time she needed to come out of this mold she was born into.”

“Is that a fact?” Garrison said.

Wyatt couldn’t read his tone, was confused when he started to eat once more, as if Wyatt had not basically called his wife a controlling bitch.

“And how do you allow Harley to find this voice of hers?”

“Calm…patience…trust.”

“That’s how you are at all times around her?”

Wyatt clenched his jaw. He didn’t fly here to lie to the man, and he didn’t fly here to offend him either. After he counted to three in his mind, he answered, “No, sir. That would make us a fallacy. It would mean that we withheld parts of ourselves from each other. With that being said, we’ve never really fought. If we do, it’s a few sharp words, silence, then us finding a way back, seeing the other’s point of view. Time is too precious to spend it on anger.”

Garrison stared at Wyatt for a long moment, a lingering glint of pride in his stare. “Did you fight a lot growing up? Before you had the chance to figure out how limited time could be at times?”

“From day one, we knew any moment we had was priceless. I don’t recall any real fights. If we did, it was about her keeping her fears to herself, not letting me share them with her.”

“The man that rarely meets fear wanted to share my daughter’s?”

“I did. But the fears we had then were the fears of a teenage heart; they seemed impossible to contend with.”

“The fear of being caught,” Garrison said.

“Fear of being separated. Being caught was not the issue.”

Garrison raised his chin. “And why is that?”

“Because one way or another, at some point in time I knew I would look you in the eye and tell you that I loved your daughter from the moment I laid eyes on her. That I will love her until the day I die.”

Wyatt leaned forward. “Sir, I know what happened a few years ago would look bad to any family. I apologize if I shamed or offended your family or broke any trust, but I assure you there was nothing torrid between Harley and me. We may have been just kids, but we were kids that knew that what was between us was more than a crush or a passing curiosity.”

Garrison went back to his dinner as if Wyatt had not laid out his heart and soul on the table before him. When he was finished with his meal, he sat back in his seat.

“Harley ever tell you what I always strived to teach her?”

“You have taught her many things, sir.”

“One lesson seems to be escaping her, and you.”

“There is a lesson I’ve missed?” Wyatt asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Yes. Bluntness.”

That shocked him. He thought he was more than blunt enough.

“You told me about the past. What about now?”

“Now? Now, if it were possible, I love her even more. Suppose I have you to thank for that, or Mrs. Tatum.” Garrison lifted a brow in question. Wyatt went on. “The separation between Harley and me proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I cannot and will not live without her.”

Garrison waved his hand like he wanted Wyatt to go on, but Wyatt didn’t understand how much clearer he could be with this man. No wonder Harley had so many issues comprehending him.

Then all at once, it hit him. He understood what Garrison wanted. At least he thought he did. But Garrison’s timeline was not adding up, not if as far as he knew Harley had been with Collin, that Harley had only been at Wyatt’s farm for a summer. And though Wyatt had made no bones about the fact that he planned to spend the rest of his life with Harley, it seemed too soon. Then again, it didn’t. He had loved the same girl since he was a boy.

“I want Harley to have my name. I want to spend the rest of my life with her, raising horses, a family.”

“In that order?” Garrison quipped.

“I suppose that would be Harley’s choice.”

“And have you spoken to her about this life plan?”

As Wyatt thought back to all those times he and she had laid under the stars and dreamed side by side, even the moments across this past summer, he said, “More than once.”

“You have no doubt she will tell you yes?”

“If she doesn’t, I will calm any fear she has, wait until she knows she’s ready. I’m not in a hurry.”

“Of course you’re not. You’re a young man, not staring at eighty. You know, at one time I was not in a hurry. That landed me with a two-year-old when I was sixty. I don’t recommend that path, son; it gives you less time with the people that matter the most.”