by Jamie Magee
Collin sat next to her, slid down in the seat. “I got through to my dad; yours cut me off.”
Harley looked sharply back at him, knowing that Conrad may be enough; if he had just told him, that would at least be step one.
Collin shook his head. “He told me he could have dinner with Quinn tonight, but I couldn’t, that I had to meet with your dad, tell him.”
“You told him you were going to marry her?”
“He asked me if I had the ring, and I said no, I gave it away.” Collin let a sheepish grin come to his face. “Then I told him to whom, and that was when he said that he would meet her tonight.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Well, I went to prepare Quinn - she is beyond freaked about this - then I went to meet your dad. Donald told me that I must be mistaken, that he already had dinner plans. I asked to see him anyway, and he said he would call me as soon as his guests leave.”
Harley looked at the clock; it was almost eight. Any guests would leave soon enough; her father was not one to stay up all hours of the night anymore.
At midnight, she stopped her pacing and looked down at Collin. “I’m going to go downstairs and wake him up, tell him all of it. I can’t take this.”
“Harley, we already started this. I told my dad that I met Quinn when we were apart, that I could not mend anything with you because I loved her. You’re wanting to tell your dad something different.”
“The truth.”
“The truth is not what matters right now, not really. He or anyone else does not have to know that we played any part. They just need to know we are still best friends, that we are happy with someone else. It’s going to be fine.”
“What are you going to do if you don’t get a chance before tomorrow to talk to him? You know your mother is going to put you on the spot, if not mine. Are you just going to tell him that story in front of everyone? It’s not a small toast deal. I saw the guest list plan; it’s bigger than we thought.”
“If I have to,” he said as he sent another text on his phone.
“What’s going on with Quinn?”
“I don’t know. She said my father was charming, that she had a pleasant dinner but was turning in and for me to call her after the party tomorrow.”
Harley shook her head. “This is nuts.”
“There will only be, like, twenty people in that room. If anything, one of our mothers will cut me off when they figure out what I’m going to say, and we can have this private conversation. Publicly, I will have admitted that it’s my fault we are only friends; that’s the point I need to make.”
“Collin, my mother nearly shredded me with her ice cold glare because I have a tan and she thought that would clash with my dress. There is not going to be a conversation.”
“Whether we are together or not, she’s not going to say anything cruel to you when I’m around. I’m not leaving your side until you are on your way back to Willowhaven.”
“Yeah, that won’t look weird. ‘I love another girl, but I’m going to be side by side with Harley.’ They’ll figure out the friendship from that alone.”
“Which is a good fall back; better friends than lovers.”
“Truer words,” Harley said under her breath, even daring to smile.
***
It was almost three in the morning before Garrison retired for the night. He had talked to Easton and Memphis like they were lifelong friends, about cars, about the fire department, about farms. It was like the Twilight Zone to Wyatt. He could feel that ring burning a hole in his pocket. Every once in a while, he would linger near the window, gaze at the other windows, and try to see if he could see Harley behind any of them.
He wanted to climb in her window, tell her that he had won what she always wanted: a blessing. That if she said yes, they could wait as long as she wanted. He wanted to prepare her for tomorrow; hell, he just wanted to see her.
When they got to the pool house - which was bigger than Wyatt’s house back home - Easton collapsed on the couch and pulled at his tie like it was a noose.
“I think my face hurts from smiling,” he said as he reached up to move his fingers in circles across his cheeks.
“Smiling is good for you,” Memphis said, sitting down next to him.
“Right, Mr. Smooth,” Easton breathed out. “You all right, man? What the hell? You go to dinner to tell him you love his daughter, then invite us? I thought we were bailing you out of jail or something.”
Wyatt reached in his pocket and opened the box to show his boys, felt the wind leave him when he heard their whistles, then felt the shocked gaze.
“He gave that to you, right? You didn’t jack it?” Easton said, only to get a punch in the arm from Memphis.
“He wants me to ask tomorrow in front of all those people.”
“You want to do this?” Memphis asked.
“I do.”
“Like this?” Easton said.
Wyatt shook his head. “I called my mom, told her about it, even said that. She said it was his daughter, his request. The only thing I needed to worry about was if I wanted to ask, not where.”
“She knew it was coming,” Easton said.
“No doubt,” Wyatt said. He was sure in some way his mother knew exactly what the topic of the conversation was going to be at this dinner. This connection between the families told him that much.
He’d debated the element of surprise with his mother, told her things were tight with him and Harley when she left, that he thought it would be best to call her at least. In Camille’s own way, she told him to honor Garrison’s wishes, stay with the element of surprise, that you should not have to prepare someone to tell them you loved them; they either knew or they didn’t. That Wyatt needed to trust what they had built together.
As far as Harley knew, he was at the fire station at this point, so he knew the lack of calls shouldn’t be bothering her. The most they had said to each other was that she landed safely and they loved each other, through text hours before.
“Why is he in a rush? Why tomorrow?” Easton asked, losing the tie around his neck.
“Apparently, Collin was supposed to propose to her tomorrow.”
“What?” Memphis and Easton both said at once.
Wyatt shook his head. “It’s a long story. Harley was coming here to break up with her fake boyfriend all the while her mother and his think or are planning for him to propose.”
“Clever bastard,” Memphis said.
“How so?”
“Well, he’s making sure his daughter’s with the man he wants her with, telling her he knew all along this deal with her and Collin was B.S. and telling his wife to shove it at the same time.”
“And using Wyatt as the weapon,” Easton rebutted.
“No,” Memphis said as his dark eyes moved over Wyatt. “He just wanted you to stand up. Nothing more. “
“I think I need to give Harley a heads up,” Wyatt said, doubting Garrison and his own mother’s advice.
Memphis busted out laughing. “A heads up? You got no game. What? You want her to tell your kids that you gave her a ‘heads up’, then she faked a surprise in front of her family and friends?”
“He’s got a point,” Easton said. “There’s already enough bullshit in this game. Play it real, shock the hell out of the girl.”
“The second she sees me, she’s gonna think that I’m about to break redneck up in this joint.”
Memphis and Easton both bellowed a laugh.
The next nine hours were going to be the longest hours of his life; he was sure of it.
Chapter Twenty-One
Harley and Collin were both dressed and downstairs at nine the next morning. Harley had asked to see her father ten times over, and Donald kept telling her that he and Conrad had breakfast guests and that her father said he would see her at lunch.
Her mother had tried to pull her aside three times, no doubt to tell her exactly how to react to Collin when his time to speak came, but Coll
in saved her every time. In a way, they were both protecting each other; his mother couldn’t talk to him either, and she tried to pull him away more than once.
“You keep hovering, and this growing apart thing is going to make no sense,” she said to Collin, easing away from his arm, which was around her waist.
Collin barely noticed; he was on his phone, trying to get Quinn to respond to him. “I’m going to kill my father,” he said under his breath.
“Do you think he’s up to something?”
“I don’t know. I mean, it’s almost a game of who can be more ballsy in our family. He may have something up his sleeve. I’m more worried about Quinn.”
“What could he have said to her that you haven’t?”
“Nothing. I told her every detail. She knows every dark corner, knows what they are expecting today.”
Harley felt her insides fall.
Feeling her tense next to him, Collin whispered, “What?”
“Wyatt didn’t know. I just told him about the break up. Not what they were expecting.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does. You have been with Quinn a year. She knows everything, you tell her everything. Wyatt—I still keep things from him.”
“You just left a detail out; the end result is going to be the same. You told him what you were doing, not what your mother was expecting, semantics.”
Harley looked all around her, at the decorations, the marble floors, the wait staff in their tux uniforms. She felt the cold, the lack of personalization, she felt the weight of words and reputations, things that really didn’t matter on your dying day.
“I’m just going to tell him. If they push us to the last minute, the second you say whatever, I’m going to tell them it would have never worked with us because I’m love with Wyatt, always have been.”
“Harley, just let me take care of this; this one last thing.”
“No,” Harley said with more boldness than she had ever used in her family’s home. “That woman shamed the hell out of me for being tan. This morning she told me I looked exhausted, told me I need a new trainer, that I was too tone, that I needed a tender frame. She has made a career out of belittling me, and I’m going to have the last say.”
“And she will make your life hell.”
“No, she won’t. I will see my father when I want, and when he passes I’m done.”
“You have an inheritance. A family name.”
“I don’t care.”
Before Collin could dispute that, the doors to the sunroom opened. “There they are. We’re gathering your fathers, come now,” Silvia Grant said, leading Collin into the room as she said something to him that he didn’t respond to.
“I see you found the greatest accomplishment and her charming escort. Now where is the guest of honor?” one of the men in the room said. Harley didn’t know his name but was sure he had sat on the same board with her father for years.
The entire room only had twenty or thirty people within it, but there was not a face in that room that Harley’s mother had not strived to shine in front of, a face that she had not competed with.
Everyone had drinks and was mingling around hors d'oeuvre trays. Her father was nowhere in sight and stayed that way for the next half-hour, then all at once he came in from the poolside doors with Conrad at his side, both laughing at something one of them had said, looking as if they had no idea they were almost an hour late - and even if they did, they didn’t care.
Her father stopped as this inner circle all clapped, then like the gentleman he was, he walked around and greeted each one, passing some comment or story that earned a laugh. He saved Collin and Harley for last, and when he reached Harley he put his hand on her shoulders and leaned back as if he wanted to take her all in. “Always so ravishing, isn’t she, dear?” he said to Claire Tatum, who smiled and said, “Absolutely. Of course, we know where her beauty comes from.” That earned a laugh from the crowd.
“Good genes,” Silvia Grant said from Claire’s side. “Good genes are a marker for success, no doubt. Is that not so, Conrad?” He only answered by smiling.
Conrad raised his glass. “To Garrison Tatum, a man who is sure to outlive us all.”
Harley clasped her father’s arm. “I have to talk to you.”
He looked down at her, somewhat in shock, then tilted his head and gave her a warm smile, the kind of smile he would give her when she was little and crossed some major threshold.
Harley stepped back, asking him to come. Her mother reached for Harley. “Dear, we have guests,” she said with a bite in her near silent tone.
“They can wait,” Harley said, not bothering even to acknowledge the hold her mother thought she had over her.
All at once, Conrad said something, drawing her mother’s attention away from Garrison and giving Harley the vaguest chance of having this conversation with her father without an audience. Gently pulling his arm, she guided him behind the crowd to the far side of the room. She was aiming to take him outside, but he slowed his walk, urging her to do the same.
She turned, and even though her father stood before her, she could see Collin right behind him, his stare cautioning her as his own mother said something in his ear, clearly urging him to say or do something to turn the attention in the room to him.
“Are you all right, Harley?” Garrison said, furrowing his brow slightly.
Breaths were coming quick and short to Harley, and she heard every one of them leave her body, felt her heart thundering, that sensation of being in trouble drowning her.
“Daddy, I have to tell you something, and it’s not going to make you proud, and I’m sorry. I really am. I thought it was the best answer at the time, but I was wrong.”
Garrison reached for his daughter’s shoulder, leaned down so his eyes met hers. “I know you cheated, Harley…that is something you can overcome, though. This experience will never let you forget where you belong.”
“That’s just it, I didn’t cheat—”
Garrison lifted his hand on her shoulder to stop her words. “We could argue semantics all night, dear. And in the end, the fact will be that, at the very least, you cheated yourself out of time.” He lowered his arm to his side and stood up straighter. “You feel you have committed an infraction against me, which is false, but if you see fit to appease that, then all I ask is that you waste no more time. Never doubt your certainty. Never surrender in a fight for something you love. Need.”
Her eyes searched his, wondering what he knew and what he didn’t, if he truly understood what she was saying or if he was telling her that with Collin was where she was supposed to be. Under either of those possibilities, she sensed a test, him asking her to prove her emotions with actions.
Right then, Claire Tatum managed to break whatever focus Conrad had on the crowd and bring it back to Garrison. “Dear, you were already tragically late. I’m sure you and Harley will have several chances to speak tonight,” she said, putting a glass of wine in Garrison’s hand. “I do believe that Collin had a toast for you before we joined our other guests.”
The crowd began to shift, all facing Harley and her father. Collin cleared his throat as he took the few steps between him and Harley.
“Is that a fact?” Garrison said with a glance to Harley, who had squeezed his arm as if she had just witnessed a tragedy and needed her father to protect her.
In Harley’s mind, there was no telling which way this was going to go. Her stare was begging Collin just to blow this off, make up some speech wishing her father a happy birthday, not even to try to take the blame for any of this. Without a doubt, Harley’s father knew she had been ‘cheating,’ or rather had been with Wyatt. There was no reason for Collin to take this hit when the blame was already squarely on Harley’s shoulders.
If Collin could just blow this off, alone with their family, Harley could take the blame for all of this, tell them all she loved Wyatt from first sight, that she and Collin never had a chance, that they w
ere meant to be friends. Her mother’s reaction would be colder, more fierce in that small setting, but Harley didn’t care. She didn’t give a damn what she thought or did; Harley was going home the first chance she had, far from here.
Harley knew, though, what kind of man her father was. That he admired boldness; he would never doubt how she felt about Wyatt if she confessed that before everyone. If she confessed what would be a sin in the eyes of her mother’s inner circle.
That was it. That was the answer from day one: tell the truth. To state it with enough conviction that no one would be bold enough to doubt your words or even dare to cross them.
“Garrison. I assure you that my words will steal your attention,” Collin said. “You see, one of the first things I remember about meeting you was when you introduced me to Harley and you said, ‘I’d like you to meet my greatest accomplishment.’” People in the room started to laugh politely, as if they all had heard that at some point.
“Those words stayed with me. As Harley and I grew up, almost side by side at every event our mothers could think to take us to, a friendship was born.”
“A friendship that Collin was a saint in,” Harley said quickly, as if the words had been jerked out of her. “Always the gentleman. Always caring how I felt, wanting to know what I needed.”
“I was only repaying the same courtesy,” Collin said. “The public eye saw that friendship for more than it was.”
“Which is why Collin tried to make it work, but—”
“We are getting off track, Harley,” Collin said, raising his glass toward Garrison. “Harley is your greatest accomplishment because she was the one that taught you how to love unconditionally. This family, the Tatums, made me strive to feel that for myself, which is why—”
“Why I told Collin—” Harley said over him.
“Harley—” Collin said over her, and he wasn’t alone; her mother said her name, too, nearly forgot to use her kind, public tone.
“Are the two of you giving Harley the floor?” Garrison asked with a wry smile, making light of the fact that Harley’s name was echoing through the pair of them.
