by Jamie Magee
“Always the early riser,” her father said when he came to the phone.
“I missed you last night.”
“I played golf with Conrad yesterday, long day.” Conrad was Collin’s father. Just the idea of those old friends out alone, knowing that Conrad was well aware that his son was ‘cheating’ with Quinn and that Harley’s father knew exactly where Harley was, made her stomach flip.
“Long day in a good way?”
“Just hot. How’s our boy?”
“Good. I think Wyatt is going to bring him out in the ring next week, work with him. It’s going to be a slow process.”
“I’m sure it is. No doubt you’ll need to be there past the summer, maybe longer.”
Harley felt herself smile. Her father wasn’t even going to put her in the position to make an excuse for not coming home.
“Well, someone has a big birthday coming up, so no doubt I will be coming home soon enough.”
“Only thing big about my birthday is the number,” he said with a gruff.
“Have you seen the guest list?”
“No, I haven’t. Why? Do you need to amend it in any way?”
Her smile left with a quickness, and she felt her stomach fall. “Like mother would let anyone amend that list. She’s been planning this since last year.”
“The best laid plans are the ones that crumble the fastest.”
Harley was quiet for a second, had almost gathered the nerve to tell her father that she was in love with Wyatt when he spoke up.
“I see here on the morning mail that there is a sponsorship notification, a lovely name is attached to the end of it: Harley Tatum.” She could hear the smile in his voice.
“I’m helping out with that in my spare time...you never told me.”
“Told you what?”
“That you protected them, that it wasn’t about the clients or reputation; it was about the charities.”
“Those sponsorships had nothing to do with you. Some were established before I even met your mother.”
“Are you serious?”
“Quite. I don’t recall your mother even knowing about them, now that you mention it.”
Harley let out a deep breath. “But you did. You had a right to be angry and take that from them.”
“I don’t recall having a right to be angry either.”
“Dad, I never meant to hurt you with any of that, cause you stress, or let you down.”
Her father was quiet for a moment. “Harley, my heart condition had nothing to do with you. Nothing. You’ve never let me down. All I have ever wanted is for you to find your own footing. Your own passions. Because, Harley, if you do not have passions, life would be listless. Mine has fallen in the world of business…your mother’s… entertainment, I suppose. You have to find your own.”
“I think I have.”
“Seems so.” She heard him shuffling a few things in the background. “Everything was finalized with your rig. The funds are in your trust. You may want to start looking for a replacement, if you can find the time, of course; it does sound like Camille is incorporating you well into Willowhaven Farms.”
A slow smile came to her face. “She is. They all are.”
“Right. Well then, I will let you go; my breakfast is getting cold.”
“Love you, Daddy,” Harley said. She waited for him to say the same back before she hung up and started to get dressed once more.
She was pulling on her tall socks when she heard a sound behind her. Thinking it was the wind, she went on with what she was doing. Before she had managed to pull on her next sock, she heard the window open; right as she turned, Wyatt’s arms went around her, pulled her back to the bed, moved her legs around him.
He was still dressed for work. The scent of fire, earth, leather, and spice drove her mad as her hands rushed across his back and she laughed aloud. He captured that laugh with his lips, then pulled away to lean his forehead to hers.
“You’re in the wrong bed, princess,” he said as he leaned in and took her lips once more, letting out a playful moan as he did.
“Am I, Prince Doran?” she said as he pulled away and she squeezed her legs around his waist.
His hand reached up to caress her face. “After every shift, I cannot get to this farm fast enough, and each time I rush into the house, coffee and breakfast in hand, I find my bed made, empty, cold.”
All she could do was smile as her eyes moved across his addictive image. It was so hard to believe this was real, that any of it was.
“I guess I’m still stuck in secret mode,” she said, quietly tracing her hands across his face. He turned his lips just to kiss the palm of her hand. All at once, he crawled backwards, pulling her legs until she was sitting on the edge of the bed. He knelt before her.
“Harley Adel Tatum, love of my life, will you please move your things into my house?”
He was being playful, almost dramatic about it, but behind his eyes she saw a seriousness there, him preparing for her to say no, to say not yet, slow down.
None of it felt fast to her, though; it felt overdue.
She still teased him, though. “I don’t know, Mr. Doran. You see, I have lessons that I have to teach on the regular now, and currently I can walk to work. The commute may take precious time out of my day.”
His hands moved up her thighs. “That’s not what’s going to take time out of your day,” he said as he leaned up and gave her the deepest, most seductive kiss he could, one that would lead you to think that at any moment there would be nothing between them, but he pulled away all of a sudden.
“Teaching?” he asked with a raised brow.
“Don’t play dumb. I know you said something to your mom.”
His endless stare told her he didn’t.
“You didn’t?”
He almost laughed. “I didn’t…I planned to, I dropped a few hints, complimented how patient you were with the riders. But I thought I might have to talk her into it. With the show season in progress, I knew she wouldn’t want there to be a chance for the riders to lose a trainer.”
Harley’s smile fell a little. “I’m not going anywhere, Wyatt.”
“Promise…?” he asked with that same haunted look on his face.
“Well…if you want me to stay at your house, I may have to go to the store, you know, for the little things like lunch.” He laughed at that. “I still need to leave to see my dad now and again.”
“I can handle that,” he said, reaching for her face. “I love your dad.”
“Do you?” she said with a slow smile.
Instead of answering, he kissed her once more, leaned her back, and let his hands move across her. “I’m late,” she said with a giggle as his hands feathered up her sides. “And you have to be exhausted.”
“Never too tired for you…” he said between the lavish kisses he was leaving across her neck.
The only thing that stopped them was the voices they could hear downstairs, his parents and grandparents having breakfast, Ava getting in the shower.
A playful groan left him as he felt her tense. He was on his feet in that instant. “I’m going to pick you up after your last lesson, steal you away. We’re going out tonight.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yep. I keep getting hell for not bringing you out, so tonight we’re going to the pub, hang out with a few friends.”
“Who’s giving you hell?”
“Ava, for starters. Truman is right behind her. All the guys at the hall - Memphis, especially. The town of Willowhaven in general wants to know who stole the oldest Dornan boy’s heart.”
When he saw the worried gaze in her eyes, he amended his words. “I could cancel? Tell them we have grocery shopping to do.”
She laughed aloud. “I’m fine, Wyatt. I just don’t ever remember going out for the hell of it. This is another first for me.”
“Are you serious?”
She nodded.
“I haven’t been treating you right.”
“Are you kidding? You take me to all my favorite places.”
“Haylofts and muddy creek banks?” he said with a lifted brow.
“If it’s here, it’s perfect. If you’re there, it’s paradise.”
He pulled out his phone. “What are you doing?”
“Cancelling. I got a perfect spot to take you to on this farm.”
She took the phone away. “Then take me there tomorrow, or the next day,” she said as she moved her hands up his chest, “or the next…”
He caught her lips once more. They barely held themselves back in that embrace; it was Camille calling Harley’s phone, wondering where she was that stopped it.
That day, Harley walked on cloud nine. She felt invincible as she taught her lessons, and later as she sat in Camille’s office and went over what she had set up in a day’s time with the sponsors.
Even though Wyatt had taken all of her things to his house, she went back to the main house to get ready to go out that night. All she really had with her beyond that one summer dress she’d worn to the creek that night were riding clothes, that and outfits she hated that never seemed to fit her personality in the first place. Ava was more than eager to loan her some clothes.
“I hate you just because you have awesome legs and are making my skirt look better on you,” Ava said as Harley pulled on a pair of her short boots.
At first, Harley was sure this outfit would make her feel even more out of place than the ones of her own that she had opted not to wear. She had never once worn fishnet stockings. She loved the way they felt against her skin, though. Her skirt was tight, but her top was sleeveless and flowed out in a loose vintage style.
Staring at herself, the wave in her long strawberry blonde hair, the freckles on her cheeks the sun had brought out, the glint in her eyes, she figured out that for the first time, maybe ever, she was becoming herself. Figuring out what she liked and what she didn’t, what mattered and what didn’t.
She took a picture of herself and sent it to Collin, just to show him how happy she was. His response was instantaneous. “I’m an engaged man - what are you doing sending me pictures of a hot woman? Breathtaking.”
Harley knew she was right when she read that, that she was glowing from within. Collin had seen her in some of the most elegant dresses that could be imagined. He had always complimented her, but they were the normal things you said to the one you were escorting to an event; that comment was not.
Harley felt like a queen when she walked outside, saw Wyatt and Truman talking to their dad as they leaned up against Wyatt’s truck. When they saw her, they all stopped what they were saying, let their stares linger. Without a doubt, she was ready to have the time of her life that night.
Chapter Sixteen
Truman and Ava rode with Harley and Wyatt into town.
“This is like old times. I feel like begging Wyatt to drop me off at the movies or something,” Ava said from the back seat.
Harley offered Wyatt a sideways glance to see a sinful smile dangling on his lips. At that moment, they were both swimming in that memory of their first time.
“Why am I driving you around still?”
“Because you love me,” she said, reaching over the back seat to hug his broad shoulders.
When Ava had taken Harley to town, she had taken her to all the new centers that had come up on the edge of Willowhaven. Wyatt took her through downtown Willowhaven, which had changed, too; all the buildings had been restored in some way. It almost looked like one of those hidden getaways all those people Harley knew at home would say they stopped at on some adventure they had gone on to buy the perfect piece for their homes, or something of that nature.
“There’s the house,” Wyatt said as he slowed down in front of his fire hall. The guys outside all hollered his name.
“Station thirty two is the reason single women all over this side of the county start fires for the hell of it,” Ava taunted from the back seat.
“Oh yeah?” Truman said, lifting his chin in his kid sister’s direction. “And who are you looking at in our house?”
“Even if I was looking at someone, the fact that I have two brothers there tells me that no one is going to be asking for my number.”
Harley glanced back to Ava just to see how serious she was. Ava mouthed the word ‘later’ to her, meaning she was only halfway joking.
“Are we picking up someone else?” Harley asked as they parked in front of a gorgeous blue frame house with white trim just down from the main street.
“It’s easier to park at Memphis’ house and walk,” Wyatt said.
“Memphis?”
Wyatt nodded. “His grandmother gave it to him. His daddy left him enough money to buy a house, but he wanted one that was right by the fire station, by everything. None were for sale around here then.”
“What do you mean his dad left him money?” Harley asked.
She felt the mood in the cab of the truck dim instantly.
“He passed; accident on the track.”
“When?”
“Few years back,” Wyatt said just as he stepped out and walked around.
Memphis walked out of his front door on his cell phone and took one look at Harley and said, “Mercy, you could kill a man with those legs…” getting a playful slug from Wyatt, simply because it was clear from his tone that even though he was complimenting Harley, he was only playing around at the same time.
“No, I’m not checking out girls,” Memphis said into his phone. “I was telling Wyatt’s woman that she looked beautiful tonight.” He paused. “Yes, Wyatt has a girl. I told you Station thirty two had more than bachelors...” Another pause. “Okay, so Wyatt is only, like, the second one after the chief. Stop trying to change the subject. It sounds like you’re in a lull with work; that means you’re coming home to me, right…?”
Wyatt had laced his fingers through Harley’s, held her back from the others as they walked down the sidewalk, simply because he felt like he hadn’t had a moment alone with her in two days.
“Is he talking to his girlfriend?” Harley asked, half-amused at the banter that Memphis was enduring.
“Memphis? Ha! In high school, he traveled with his dad too much to keep up with a solid relationship. Now, he works too much. That’s his sister.”
“He has a sister? How did I not know that?” It seemed like every kid within a five-year range had hung out at Willowhaven Farms when they were all growing up.
Wyatt nodded. “Georgia. She stayed with her mother back then, travels a lot now. He calls her every day, they’re tight. Way closer than Ava and me.”
Harley lifted her brow at that. She was pretty sure Wyatt was close with all of his family. “Bachelor fire house, huh?” Harley teased as she squeezed his fingers with hers.
He shook his head, trying to hide a shy smile, the kind of smile that he only gave her when he was trying to hide guilt, meaning he was well aware of how some in this town saw his house.
“Willowhaven had grown so much that there had to be more stations. Most of the guys with families wanted to be on the side of town with all the neighborhoods. When it was shuffled out, almost everyone at Station thirty-two was young, single. We get taunted about that a lot. It worked out, though; because of the moves, Memphis was one of the youngest this county has ever promoted. He keeps us in line, runs a tight house. Chief loves him. He thinks because we all grew up together that we had an instant brotherhood, that because of that we will always keep each other safe on and off shift.”
She leaned into him and tried to keep her mind off dark thoughts, the ones that worried about him when he was on shift. Weeks back, she asked him to send her a text when he was going out and coming back in. She told him that was so she wouldn’t call when he was busy, when really she wanted to know just so she could hold her breath a little tighter.
“Is Easton meeting us tonight?” she asked, knowing without a doubt he was part of the brotherhood on and off shift in Wyatt’s life.
“If he does, it will be later on. He’s always a homebody right after a shift.”
Feeling way behind on where everyone was now, she started to ask him about his cousins, their friends she could remember. It was a good thing she did; as soon as they walked in the pub, she heard his and her name hollered from every direction.
After wayward hugs from those she knew, she followed Wyatt and Memphis back to a corner booth. All the while, Harley’s eyes were wide, looking from one flat screen TV to the next, taking in the randomness on the walls, the music in the background, the band that was setting up on stage. Stimulation. Overload.
“You all right?” Wyatt whispered near her ear. The sensation of his warm breath sliding down her neck was only building the excitement she felt pulsing inside of her.
Her entire life, she had either been at functions, school, or barns. That and the random cookouts at the Dorans’. She had never once been in a place like this. She could just feel the energy soaring through the room. Everyone was there because they wanted to be, not because they had to be. None of them was walking as if they might shatter at any moment or damage their dress or make up. They were all in their own world with one goal in mind: to have fun.
“This is… I’ve never been anywhere like this.”
“Not even in school?” Wyatt asked, somewhat surprised. Her mother might have been a tight ass, but her father wasn’t. Wyatt had seen him settle right in at his father’s barn with a long neck in hand. And honestly, what college kid would not make their way to a bar now and again?
“Sheltered,” Harley said, so quietly that he barely heard her. And that was the truth. At her all girls high school, she’d heard more than a few friends talk about going out; at college, too. Not being in a place like this before had nothing to do with the class of her family, but how insane her mother was. She kept Harley so close and so pure that you’d swear she was planning for her to run for office one day, either that or be married to someone who would.
Right then, Ava walked over to Harley and handed her a long neck. When Harley took it in her hand, she seemed to study it as if she had never seen one before.