Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Harvey worried his lower lip between his forefinger and thumb as he looked over his schedule for the day. Maru usually scheduled his busy days for Tuesdays or Thursdays when she’d be in, but she’d come down with something over the weekend, so now he was looking at a list of five patients with zero help.

Usually he wouldn’t complain about the business, he loved yearly-physical time for this reason, but Yoba it was going to be a long day.

He rubbed his fingers across his forehead before he checked that his hair was fine and moved around the desk to unlock the door for the day.

Vincent was first. Harvey could already see Jodi walking towards the office with him dutifully at her side, the tight grip on his mom’s hand the only sign that Vincent was nervous. Vincent hated getting his shots.

“Good morning, Vincent, and good morning, Jodi.” Harvey crouched down to be eye level with the boy and held out a fist for him to bump. Vincent smiled uneasily but thudded his fist against Harvey’s.

“Hi, Dr. Harvey,” Vincent said.

“Vincent is ready to be super brave this morning,” Jodi said.

Vincent took a breath and nodded. He was a cute kid. Harvey had been taking care of him for three years now, even had a wall where they marked his measurement with pencil.

“Shall we get to it then?” Harvey asked and motioned them towards the back.

Vincent’s appointment was mostly painless, only two tears shed from the boosters he needed, followed by big high-fives from both Harvey and his mother. He was healthy, no issues, but Harvey told him he better listen to his mom about brushing his teeth every night and morning, or else one day he might need more shots to fix his teeth—those ones in his mouth. This, of course, horrified the boy, who Harvey guessed would not be fighting about oral hygiene for a while.

Vincent took a peach lollipop on his way out.

Caroline was next, and she was chatty—she’s always chatty—telling him this and that about the aerobics group drama, if he thought Emily was finally going to get with the farmer or not, if he thought Jodi was lonely or not. Her appointment was almost ten minutes over, so he was late getting with George, something he would not be letting Harvey forget any time soon.

Their meeting was quick enough; George’s blood pressure was good this week, other levels normal, he needed to spend a little more time outside if he could, even thirty minutes a day under a tree would serve him well.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “See you next week.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Evelyn said and dropped a baggie of cookies in Harvey’s hand before following her husband out. Harvey loved these cookies, in fact, he loved little more in life that these damn cookies. Evelyn still hadn’t given him the recipe, but he figured he had to be close.

To Harvey’s lament, though, he didn’t have time to eat them because the mayor was already strolling in and ready for his physical.

It was standard, and Harvey told him to come back in a couple months for flu shot day, which Mayor Lewis was way too excited to draft a bulletin announcement for. Harvey said whatever he came up with would be just fine and walked him out only to find Maru in the lobby, looking a lot like death, Robin’s arms wrapped around her shoulders.

“Yoba. How you feeling?”

Maru sniffled and shook her head. Her skin had a sort of gray pallor.

“She can hardly talk,” Robin said. “I know she didn’t have an appointment, but can you fit her in? I think it might be strep.”

“Of course,” Harvey said, and spared no longing look at his lunch or Evelyn’s cookies before leading them to the back.

He swabbed Maru’s throat for strep, which came back negative, but the laundry list of symptoms was sounding more like mono to him. He took her blood and sent the vial with Robin so Demetrius could test it just in case, but there wasn’t any medicine he could prescribe to make it go away. He prescribed Tylenol, rest, and Joja Sport (he didn’t want to prescribe it, but the girl needed electrolytes!) and got the pair out the door by the time his lunch break was over.

Easy. Just one more patient, then he would be done.

Harvey looked at the schedule to see who he had and paused when he read who was penciled in. He must not have looked at the schedule, because if he had he would’ve worn something different, maybe he’d have done his hair in a different way, or. . .

The bell rang above the door.

Harvey gulped down some lukewarm coffee before looking up. It was Haley.

+++

When Haley strode into the clinic (strode, of course, because she needed to seem confident), she’d already schooled her face into a perfect look of indifference. She couldn’t let anything bely her nerves—she needed a physical and a new inhaler and that was it. Nothing else from the doctor who looked ridiculously fit all the time but was especially hot standing like that behind the counter.

Harvey was a fashion nightmare with that old cardigan, but Haley could tell he was ripped beneath it. Long-sleeved collared shirts can only hide so much even if they’re a size too big.

“Haley,” Harvey said. Haley couldn’t tell if he was checking her out or not, but she hoped that it was impossible not to with this outfit. It was still cold, especially at night, but it was finally warm enough to wear some of her shorter dresses, and this one fell just about mid-thigh and made her ass look ridiculous.

“Hi, doc,” Haley said, then immediately felt weird about it. Doc? Who said that? How old was she?

“Hi, Haley. Come on back,” Harvey nodded towards the hall, and she met him in the usual exam room. His back was to her as he fiddled with something on a metal tray, and dear god his back was large. Not massive, it wasn’t like Alex’s, but it was broad, pulling at the fabric of his white lab coat. Haley had to clear her throat after nearly choking on her own saliva.

Harvey peered over his shoulder. “Feeling alright?”

“Yeah,” Haley said, and climbed up onto the edge of the exam table. Her skirt rode higher on her thighs, but she didn’t pull it down. It wasn’t, like, indecent, or anything. “Great.”

“Great,” he repeated. “Well, let’s get started.”

They went through the usuals, height, weight, how she’d been feeling. He stepped towards the table to check her ears with his otoscope.

“Where’s Mary?” Haley asked and watched for Harvey’s reaction. The slightest smile in his eyes felt like a victory.

“Very funny,” Harvey said and stepped closer to get a better look in her ear. “Maru is sick.”

“Hm. Something must be going around.”

“Why do you say that?” Harvey’s eyebrows were scrunched together, and the effect was so cute that Haley had to look anywhere else.

“Alex is sick, too,” Haley recalled from their texts the night before. “Thought it might be strep. Not sure how he’d have gotten it from her, though.”

Harvey paused at this news like he was working through some sort of math problem in his brain before smirking at the apparent answer. Haley had never seen him smirk, not really. He was a guileless type, lots of earnest smiling and grinning, seldom a smirk.

“What?” Haley asked.

“Nothing. Look forward.”

Haley looked away from him, her neck hot, and Harvey started checking her ears. His hands were so close to her it felt like his skin could burn her. She was glad she put on foundation this morning because there was no world in which her cheeks were not aflame.

“Ears look normal. Clean, too.”

“I pride myself on my clean ears.” She said and again felt like an idiot. He smiled anyway. Another smirk.

Harvey referred to his clipboard, turning the top page and then the next. “Did you end up using those drops last summer?”

“Yeah, worked great. Not an infection to be had for the whole summer.”

Haley was obviously glad to not have had any ear infections last year (she loved to swim and was exceptionally prone to the water messing up her ears), but it meant she saw Harvey less. That was for the best, too, probably.

“Good, good. Now for your heart,” Harvey unhooked the stethoscope from around his neck and pressed it to her chest. Her heart was no doubt thundering. It was always like this around him, she couldn’t help it.

“Take a breath,” Harvey said, so quiet she almost didn’t hear him. Haley closed her eyes and breathed in slow. Whatever stupid guy shampoo he used smelled amazing, almost fruity. She felt herself calming down.

She took another breath, slower than the first and Harvey moved the stethoscope down a bit. She imagined for a moment his hands wrapping around her breasts, squeezing at her nipples before replacing his fingers with his mouth. This thought did nothing good for her heart rate, so she took another big breath and let it release slowly through her nose, reminding herself that normal people did not have elaborate fantasies about their doctors.

Did they?

Harvey circled behind her and held the stethoscope against her back. She wondered if he could feel that she wasn’t wearing a bra. The dress came with its own.

“Heart sounds good,” Harvey said. “Your lungs, too. How’s your asthma been?”

“Been okay,” Haley said, which was true. She hadn’t had any attacks in over a year, which was a big improvement from when she first started seeing him. “My inhalers just about out, though.”

“I’ll order you a new one,” Harvey said and jotted a couple notes down on his pad. His hands were just. . .Haley had to stop looking at his hands.

Haley looked up to his face instead, which was almost worse. He bit his lower lip as he scribbled on his sheet, his eyebrows pinched together. He looked tired.

She wanted to ask about his day, how many patients he had, what he was doing later, what he was going to eat for dinner? Who was he going to eat with? But that would just giver herself away as another kid thirsting after him in this town.

Haley wasn’t a kid, to be fair, she was twenty-three and just a year younger than Maru, who everyone else seemed to think he should be fucking by now.

He was thirty-two, though, and probably thought Haley was nothing more than a teenager with sensitive ears and asthma.

“Haley?”

“Oh,” Haley hadn’t realized he’d been speaking. “Sorry, what?”

Harvey gave her this smirk (what was happening with all this damn smirking?), one that said even if he was awkward at town parties, he knew exactly what he was doing in private. She had to squeeze her eyes shut to get the thought out of her head.

“I said the new one should be here later this week if you want to come in Friday to pick it up.”

“It’s a date,” Haley said. “Er, not a date. I meant I’ll pick it up then.”

“Great,” Harvey said, then looked back at his clipboard. “Oh, and flu shot day is next month. Don’t forget.”

“Sure,” Haley said. Almost added a whatever just to seem cool but thought better of it.

Harvey walked her to the front where she said goodbye, but before she reached the door, he called her name.

“Yeah?” She turned back to him; way too eager. He was holding a little wicker basket of lollipops.

“You almost forgot.”

Haley grinned, she couldn’t help it, even if it was uncool, and returned to the counter. She surveyed the lollipops before picking up a green apple one.

“Thanks, doc.” She unwrapped the candy and put it on her tongue before she walked into the afternoon.

She’d once again successfully completed her annual physical without throwing herself at the doctor and mauling him with her mouth. A huge success, if she had to say so herself.

+++

Harvey couldn’t lock up quick enough after she left. Practically as soon as the bell was done ringing over the door, he was rushing around the counter to flip the sign, turn the bolt, and go two steps a time up the stairs. He was still starving but there was a much more pressing base need at the moment.

His dick was rock hard tucked beneath his belt and aching. He’d had to adjust himself almost immediately after she walked in, all legs and summer like that—that yellow dress and her yellow hair, she was like a glass of lemonade, and he was parched.

Harvey felt morally conflicted about what he was about to do. He always did. He wouldn’t do it if he could help it if he could just fucking resist the look and smell of her. No woman in the whole damn valley did it for him like Haley—and he’d tried. Even Leah, who was hot as hell and at least kind of close to Harvey’s age didn’t send him into a frenzy like Haley.

Harvey leaned his back against the door between his room and the stairs and undid his belt, pulling his zipper down and taking his cock in hand slowly. He closed his eyes and started stroking.

He tried not to think about her—he was a perverted fuck thinking about his patient just after seeing her, but he couldn’t get her out of his head, he couldn’t help it, he’d tried before. Nothing worked.

When he closed his eyes, he saw her little dress rode up over her ass, the cheeky panties he imagined she wore beneath; probably pink or white, but maybe those were yellow, too. He saw her pretty lips around his cock, imagined tasting her perfect pussy and then sharing it with her while he pushed three fingers into her, getting her ready for him. He imagined it happening in the exam room, in the lobby, on the counter, in his bed—Harvey’s mind was a mess with x-rated images of him and Haley desecrating the whole clinic.

He stroked his cock faster, his back pressed almost painfully against the door, and he imagined holding Haley’s hips as he rocked into her pussy, her ass, wherever she wanted him and—

“Fuck,” Harvey groaned, and came all over his hand.

Panting against the door, having made a complete perverted mess of himself, Harvey wondered what the hell he would do when she came in Friday.

Chapter Text

By the time Friday came, Haley had overthought her outfit to the extent that she decided no matter what she wore he would probably know it was for him. She couldn’t have that. But she couldn’t just walk in dressed like a slob, either.

Haley cursed, looking at the pile of clothes she’d thrown over her chair. She thought about texting Jane because she was always rational about shit like this. But Jane also wouldn’t let Haley hear the end of it and would be thoroughly plotting for weeks to come (as if she didn’t have enough to do on her literal farm that she ran all by herself), which would be embarrassing and exhausting both. Jane’s plotting was no match for how thoroughly uninterested Harvey was in Haley.

Haley went with her usual: blue top, pink skirt. There was a reason she wore this at least once a week, it was a classic because it was comfortable, and she looked hot in it. Haley had great legs and the skirt showed them, she also had terrific shoulders and collarbones and the top showed those too. It would be fine. Everything would be fine.

She tried to remind herself that Harvey probably didn’t spare two thoughts about her clothes. No way he even thought about how she looked.

She put on too much blush, wiped it off, then put on too much again. On the third try it looked serviceable.

“You’re up early,” Emily mused from where she stood by the stove.

“And you’re cooking,” Haley said.

Emily stuck her tongue out at her. “You hungry?”

“God, yes,” Haley sunk down into a kitchen chair. She hadn’t eaten dinner last night. Too nervous. But probably the ungodly noise of her stomach wasn’t going to be particularly charming this morning. “Is that fruit salad?”

Emily spooned two scoops into a bowl and slid it in front of Haley. “Where are you headed this morning?”

“The clinic,” Haley tried to sound casual, like she wasn’t planning the entire interaction, even the very walk there—how long it was going to take, if any people would be out, if she should show up right when he opened or a little bit after.

Emily said nothing, but the smirk on her face said she knew too much. She always just fucking knew; Haley swore that bird told her everyone’s secrets.

“Don’t even—”

“I wasn’t!” Emily put her hands up in surrender but was still grinning.

Haley groaned and dropped her head in her hands. “It’s useless.”

“Here,” Emily fussed with something on the counter before she pulled down a travel mug from atop the fridge and filled it with coffee. “Why don’t you bring him this?”

Haley eyed the mug; it was the bright pink one with a shit ton of sparkles (both the sisters’ favorite one). “Will it be weird?”

“It’s his favorite. Just bring it.”

Haley thought on it for a moment while she chewed on a bite of the fruit salad, which was delicious. She took a big gulp of orange juice.

“Fine.” Haley stood and stuck her half-eaten bowl in the fridge.

She messed with her hair in their little mirror one more time before grabbing the to go cup and sending a kiss in the general direction of her sister. They’d had some rough years, but recently had grown close again and as much as Haley hated to admit it, that was nice. She liked having her sister, again.

“Come to the saloon tonight?” Emily asked.

Haley laughed. “Not likely,” she said, because some things had to stay the same.

+++

When the bell above the door chimed, Harvey was organizing and reorganizing the vials of energy tonics on the counter, attempting to look busy. He felt sweaty, and like none of his clothes were fitting right. His hair wasn’t laying correctly after his shower and he’d messed with it too much, so now it was puffy, and he probably trimmed his mustache too much and Haley would definitely notice when she came in. Right?

“Hi, again,” she said before she got to the counter.

She was wearing that blue shirt which was by no means indecent but made Harvey think hideous thoughts about what he wanted to paint across that chest.

Haley slid a bright pink, plastic thing across the counter to Harvey, who looked at the offering, unsure what to do with it.

“Um, it’s coffee,” Haley said. He nodded, like this made sense. It did look like a mug, now, he could see. “Thought you might—you know.”

“Oh,” Harvey picked it up and took a sip; still quite warm and with nothing added. The way he liked. “Thank you, it’s perfect.”

“Sure, yeah. Whatever,” Haley twirled a lock of her yellow hair around her finger before unwinding it and curling it again. She didn’t make eye contact with him, but her neck was flush pink like they’d been when he stood too close to her. If he had to guess, her ears were too.

The quiet drew on a few moments too many until they both spoke at the same time, before cutting off and waiting for the other to jump back in.

Harvey reached under the counter and pulled out a little white bag that was stapled shut. “Haley” was written across the front in his scratchy handwriting that he’d re-written three times before deciding it was going to luck bad no matter what.

“Here’s the inhaler, you know the drill.”

“Yep,” Haley said.

“And, uh,” Harvey scratched the back of his head, “I know you like to spend time around by the river sometimes, but just make sure you have your inhaler when you do. When you go anywhere, really.”

Haley smiled, just barely, and Harvey nearly had an aneurism with how his brain was short-circuiting.

“Worried about me?” Haley said and—was she flirting? There was no way.

“Well—I, uh,” Harvey took another sip from the neon mug, trying to lower his heart rate. “Of course, I am. Yeah.”

Haley blinked, like his answer wasn’t the one she’d been expecting. But what was he supposed to say? No? Of course he was worried about her, much like he worried about any of his patients. He worries about the whole town, it was part of his job to worry about them. He worries about Haley just a bit more and a bit more often.

“I always have it,” Haley promised.

The two watched each other another couple of seconds, long enough for Harvey to feel like he should say something.

He needed to get a hold of this thing, stop the crush in its tracks before the situation grew even more inappropriate on his end. He wouldn’t stop seeing her as a patient, that wouldn’t be fair to her, he was the only doctor in town. It was him who couldn’t control himself after all, not her. She didn’t need to be punished for his attraction.

“Will you be at the festival tomorrow?” Haley asked, pulling him from his self-loathing stupor.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” he said. “Egg salad, potato salad. . . I’m weak to all of it.”

Haley had that spark in her eye that said she was about to tease him or say something otherwise charming that would take him out for the rest of the morning, but the bell above the door chimed above a certain farmer before Haley could.

“Hi, Harv!” The farmer called out, already digging in her backpack for something. Harvey didn’t know how she carried that thing when there was always so much produce and artisanal goods inside. “Oh, and Haley! You’re up early.”

“Hi, Janie,” Haley said at the same time Harvey said, “Morning, Jane.”

Jane stepped up to the counter and dropped a loud friendly kiss on Haley’s bare shoulder while her hands still dug in her huge bag. Jane was affectionate with most everyone, but she and Haley had grown particularly close over the last year since Jane moved to town. It was impossible to resist Jane. Harvey had even watched Shane warm up to her over shared beers and pepper poppers in the saloon, she had the whole town eating farm-goods out of the palm of her hand.

Jane slid two small jars of what looked like mayonnaise in front of both Haley and Harvey.

“I come baring presents.”

“As you so often do,” Haley said.

“It’s my love language,” Jane turned to Harvey. “Also, sorry I forgot to make a physical appointment buuuut can you fit me in now? Oh, unless you’re seeing Haley?”

“He’s not,” Haley said in unison with Harvey’s, “I’m free.”

Jane glanced between the two, spotting the coffee mug and the perscription bag in front of Haley. “Alright.”

“I’ll see you later then, Jane.” Haley stepped backwards away from the counter, new inhaler, and jar of mayo in hand. “Thanks again, doc.”

“Yeah,” Harvey said, a bit breathlessly.

Jane was still ping-ponging her eyes between them until Haley was almost at the door.

“Oh! Haley, I almost forgot to tell you—”

Haley’s hand paused on the door handle.

“I wasn’t going to do anything, but I decided this morning that I want to have a party tonight. In celebration of. . . You know, me moving here a year ago.”

Jane was shit at lying, but Harvey didn’t know to what end this one was about. Haley raised an eyebrow at her friend.

“So you have to come, yeah. To the saloon.”

“Jane, if this is a surprise party, I swear to—”

“Surprise party? Who for? Yoba, no. Surprise party,” Jane laughed way too loud. “I wouldn’t do that to anyone much less you, do you know me at all?”

Haley face said she didn’t buy it for one second.

“And Harvey will be there, too! You can’t miss it.”

This was news to Harvey, but he went to the Saloon some Friday nights, anyway. It wasn’t like he had plans.

Haley stared at her friend for a long moment. “You’re a pitiful liar. Goodbye, Harvey.”

“See you at seven!” Jane called at the door dinged shut behind her.

Harvey blinked, unsure he’d ever heard Haley say his name.

+++

It was a surprise party.

Really, Haley should have guessed when Emily didn’t elaborate on the industrial amount of fruit salad she was making before work.

Usually, her birthday was a low-key thing. Haley’s friends before last year consisted primarily of Alex, Jas (who had a strict 8 o’clock bedtime), and sometimes Leah, who was more of a hook up buddy than a buddy-buddy. But then Jane came to town and was obnoxiously persistent until she nestled her way into the whole town’s hearts, every single one of them, even Linus who warmed up to very few and Haley who was nice to even fewer.

It was like Jane had decided one day that Haley would be her best friend and didn’t give up until it was a reality. It took a few months, but Haley came around.

And now, because of that, Haley was walking into a big surprise party with everyone in town in attendance because nobody, seriously nobody, can say no to Jane. Not when she brings them jam and honey and wine and whatever else she grows over there.

How did she even make money?

When Haley walked in (new dress on, just in case) she made sure she looked adequately surprised and excited and thankful. She thanked everyone for coming and for bringing her favorite foods (Jodi made a pink cake, bless her) and tried not to stare at Harvey all night. He sat at the bar with Elliot and Shane and was wearing a grey button up she’d never seen before. It was tighter than what he usually wore.

“I told you he was built,” Haley thudded Jane’s arm.

“I never said he wasn’t,” Jane defended. Haley glanced towards the bar for maybe the hundredth time. “You need to go talk to him.”

“No.”

“Why not? He’s perfectly nice and you’re torturing yourself.”

“What would I say? I don’t think we have anything in common, literally anything.”

“You might be surprised. And just look, he needs rescuing.”

Haley and Jane glanced over as he, Elliot, and Shane all took another shot, Harvey chasing his with a huge gulp of soda.

“Looks like he’s having a fine time to me.”

Leah came over then and hooked an arm around Haley’s waist before nuzzling into her neck.

“Birthday girl, birthday girl, birthday girl,” she hummed. “You smell good.”

Haley batted Leah’s arm but was blushing just the same. Leah was certifiably the hottest person in town (a truth universally acknowledged, etc.) and there were a few months where she and Haley were hooking up every Monday morning.

If Haley thought too long about the things Haley did to her, she got sweaty. Leah was city educated in a way that Haley knew she could never learn. It was fun, and great—hot, too—but the two of them wouldn’t work out in the long run. Leah was a free spirit. She just wasn’t interested in the things Haley was, not in the same way. They could talk about art, but Leah thought things like clothes and makeup were stupid. She’d never said Haley was stupid for liking those things, but Haley was always nervous about it.

They parted ways friends and still hooked up on rare occasions. Festivals, usually, when they snuck away to Leah’s cabin where no one would hear the absolute inhuman noises that Haley made when Leah did that indescribable thing with her tongue and her fingers.

Haley needed to stop thinking about it.

“Earth to birthday girl,” Jane snapped a couple times. “Nights not getting any younger here.”

“I just need a minute.” Haley grabbed her sweater from the back of the chair that Leah had taken over and nodded towards the door. “I’ll be right back.”

Jane looked like she wanted to protest, or follow her, or call Harvey over herself, but instead she just nodded and squeezed her friend’s hand.

The night air wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t warm either. Haley leaned against the side of the Saloon and let herself breathe a bit. She’d had a couple of shots and a glass of the pomegranate wine Jane made. The wine always made her face bright red, so probably not the best idea. The cool felt nice against her neck which was hot from even the thought of trying to talk to Harvey.

The saloon door opened and shut, and Haley recognized the light steps before Harvey even came into view. It was the shoes, maybe. Or his meandering stroll, which made her think he was always thinking, always a little distracted.

“Shit, Haley,” Harvey said when he rounded the corner. He put his hand to his chest like she scared him. It was dark, but in the yellow light from the closest window, he looked frazzled. Like maybe he’d run his hand through his hair too many times.

“Hi, Doc,” she said, because maybe it was cute at this point.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” he said. “Happy birthday.”

“Did you get me a present?” she asked, and wow maybe she was a bit more drunk than he thought.

Harvey’s mouth floundered open and closed for a moment before Haley laughed and dropped a hand on his arm.

“Harvey, I’m kidding.”

“Right,” he said, and her hand was still on his arm. He stared at it until she pulled it away. “Were you surprised? About the party, I mean.”

“Not in the slightest,” Haley breathed, which made Harvey laugh. She liked his laugh, it was an abrupt sort of sound, higher and louder than anything else that came out of his mouth.

The quiet that followed went on, as their quiets seemed to. Harvey was staring at Haley with his mouth half open like he wanted to tell her something.

“What is it?” Haley asked. She was almost whispering.

“It’s just—” Harvey pushed his hand through his hair, messing it up more. “I like your dress.”

Haley flushed at the heat in his eyes as he looked her up and down. The dress was a dark emerald, and silky, so it hung over her curves and was pulled tight over her chest. It was a fucking stellar dress, and she knew as much.

“Glad you like it,” she said and decided that she was most definitely flirting at this point and had no desire to stop.

“What are you doing to me?”

He was drunk, most definitely drunk, but Haley suddenly couldn’t formulate coherent thoughts with him standing there looking all hungry at her, much less respond.

He stepped closer, leaning an arm next to her head on the Saloon’s brick wall, bringing their faces closer together than they’d ever been in one of her appointments.

“How much have you had to drink?” Haley asked.

“Enough to tell you that you’re the most beautiful woman in this whole town, county, city—further, even.”

“Oh.”

“Yoba you have me so twisted up, Haley,” he said. His eyebrows were bowed towards each other as he spoke.

“I do?” Her voice was a squeak.

“I’m sick for you, Hales. Put me out of my misery, tell me I’m an old man and I need to get lost—that you’d never be with someone like me. Just tell me that, and maybe I’ll stop fucking thinking about you all the time.”

Haley stared up at Harvey for the space of three breaths before she tentatively raised her hand towards his side and held on to the side of his shirt there.

Harvey huffed a breath at the slightest touch. She lifted her other hand, too, this one to his chest, which was firmer than she thought it might be.

“You’re warm,” she said.

“I’m 32, Haley, tell me I’m an old pervert and I’ll leave you alone. Please.” There was real strain in Harvey’s voice, like it hurt for him to say it.

She knew how old he was, of course, and it was laughable that he thought 32 was old. Haley thought, if anything, Harvey would think she was too young; just a kid.

“What?”

“I’m practically geriatric compared to you,” Harvey’s face was so close to Haley’s, she could smell his skin and the alcohol on his breath. She lifted her chin and they’re lips were almost touching, so close she could almost feel it.

“Please,” Harvey practically whimpered. “Tell me to go.”

“Harvey,” Haley started, “kiss me.”

It was all over, then.

It seemed to Haley that any resolve this inebriated Harvey was fighting against had cracked and shattered. His hand slipped around Haley’s waist, and it was as large and warm as she’d fantasized about, but then the rest of him—good God.

Harvey’s lips crashed against Haley’s, softer than she thought they’d be, and more intense. He was drunk, but he wasn’t sloppy. They were both a mess of arms and hands sliding over the other’s body; Harvey held the back of Haley’s neck and Haley’s palms traveled around his torso.

The slide of his tongue on hers tasted like whiskey as his kisses poured into her. She groaned into his mouth and let Harvey grab one of her thighs, sliding it up the outside of his leg and pulling her body flush to his.

“You’re so hot,” Haley said as Harvey’s mouth moved down to her neck, open mouth kisses there that could’ve been leaving first degree burns for all she knew.

For his part, Harvey was letting out low, fevered grunts and moans.

“I’ve wanted you so bad,” Harvey kissed his way back to her mouth and slid his leg further between her thighs. The pressure was heady and Haley’s grinding on his thigh was involuntary.

She whimpered into his open mouth as his hand reached around and squeezed her ass. Harvey smiled at the sound.

“I want to make you feel so good, baby—”

The door to the saloon must’ve opened, because the sound of the tinny bell and the chatter of the town sang through the night. Haley and Harvey froze they stood against the building. They waited for approaching footsteps but saw only Mayor Lewis with Marnie not far behind walking towards his house, talking quietly about something. (That those two were fucking was their worst kept secret, but they’d let the pair believe they were sly for as long as they needed.)

The air was just cold enough to show their heaving breaths around them.

“I should go,” Harvey said, but didn’t move. His hands were still on her, one gripping her waist, the other resting on her ass. “I have to go. Now.”

“Okay,” Haley said, but neither of them moved. She stared at his lips, the way his mouth hung open, his lips swollen instead of pressed into a polite smile. His hair, too, was such a mess, it was making her crazy knowing that she’d done that.

Harvey started to pull away then, slowly removing himself from the tangle of them.

“Harvey,” Haley said when he was just an arm’s length away. She stepped into his space again, moving to her toes to bring her mouth to his ear. “You’re not too old.”

He didn’t respond at first, but then he huffed and dropped a kiss on the side of her forehead before he pulled away and all but ran to his clinic across the square. He didn’t look back when he got to the door and hurried inside.

Haley exhaled and leaned back against the saloon, attempting to get her heart rate in check before going back inside.

Chapter Text

The morning of the egg festival greeted Harvey with an ungodly hangover. There was the pounding in his head, but worse was the aching of his neck and spine and eyes and every muscle in his body—yes, even the little ones in his hands and feet.

He took three aspirin before he stumbled his way into the shower and sat beneath the spray until the medicine started to kick in. He and alcohol didn’t get along, really. At least there had been no vomiting; there was usually vomiting.

He’d been drunk enough to prattle like an idiot to Shane and Elliot and then Haley, he had not been drunk enough to forget a single detail of what happened when he walked out of that bar. He’d been trying to leave before he did anything stupid.

Harvey had wanted to go up to Haley and kiss her on the mouth, her neck, her chest; he wanted to tell her to go home right away because there were perverts there who would look at her and go home and jack off thinking about her and he should know because he was one of them—

And then they were kissing and all he could think about was her lips and her skin, that tongue snaking over his and her round ass . . .

He was hard now (why did just thinking about her make him hard?) and if he didn’t get off, he reasoned it would probably only make the headache worse. Maybe he deserved to have a worse headache, though. Maybe he deserved a little pain for what he’d done—he was a pervert, touching a patient like that. One almost a decade younger than him, at that. It wasn’t right. Right?

It felt right, to be certain.

But that was just his hormones. Had to be.

“Yoba,” Harvey muttered and got to work on his cock. It was better and worse than all the other times he’d done this thinking about her, because now he knew. He knew what the skin on her neck tasted like, how her body felt in his hands, the noises she made into his mouth and ear. It was an exquisite torture remembering. His hand and imagination were a pale comparison to the real thing.

+++

“Nice to see you here, Harvey,” Mayor Lewis said. He had his nice suit on, the one for festivals (and weddings if there ever was one in this town—Harvey still had yet to see one in the valley).

“You, too.”

Mayor Lewis stood quietly next to him before nodding to where a cluster of circular tables had been gathered somewhat together. Around them were Jane, Haley, Emily, Shane, Leah, and Elliot. There was one open seat directly next to Haley (who looked just stupidly hot in her yellow floral dress, to the surprise of no one). The seat probably would have been for Alex if he wasn’t at home still fighting off mono.

“Why not join them?”

“Ah, uh, just digesting. Supposed to do that standing.”

Harvey usually ate enough of the potato salad and tuna sandwiches for two adults, but his stomach was still in knots about last night. Not from the hangover, though that was part of it, but from all the things he’d said to Haley, the things he’d almost said, too.

Five more minutes of that and Harvey would have gone into extreme detail about the various things he wanted to do to her. There’s probably no coming back from telling someone you want to finger their ass while you plow into them from behind—she’d never look at him again.

But, she’d been into it. Harvey swore she was into it. She’d said he was hot, and she was the one who asked him to kiss her, it wasn’t like he forced himself on her.

“They don’t want an old guy like me hanging around.” Never mind Elliot and Shane were about his same age give or take a year or two.

You’re not too old. The words had been on loop through his aching skull all morning. Did she really think so?

“Doesn’t seem that way from here.”

Harvey looked back at the table only to find Jane up from her seat and waving him over. Haley, next to her, looked mortified.

“Harv!” Jane called, then again, louder, as if the whole square couldn’t hear her just fine the first time.

“Excuse me,” Harvey told Lewis before walking towards the table.

Jane pulled out the seat next to Haley, and Harvey sunk into it. Haley was wearing that perfume again, the same one as last night. It made him want to bury his nose into the bend of her neck, the hollow between her collar bones.

“Hey,” he said to the table.

“Where’d you run off to last night?” Elliot asked. “Shane ate your fries.”

Jane grinned into her glass of punch. “Yes, Harv, do tell.”

Harvey froze, his mind stuttering over just where he’d gone, the dress, her hands in his hair. He couldn’t come up with a lie; he couldn’t even think beyond Haley.

“I found him nearly puking in the bushes,” Haley said. “I walked him home.”

Harvey looked at Haley, then. Really looked at her face for the first time today. Her hair was pulled up into a beautiful sort of braid like Leah would do (he wondered absently if Leah did do her hair and was somewhere between jealous and turned on at the thought). She looked terrific.

Harvey knew Haley was blushing because her ears were red, but the rest of her looked normal. Calm and collected. Like she hadn’t just lied about making out with him and almost devolving into an improper public display.

“So generous of you,” Jane said. Harvey could tell she knew. It was in her eyes and smile—Jane always knew things. Everyone told her their secrets.

“And after your own birthday party,” Elliot added.

“I didn’t think you had that much to drink,” Shane said as he stared thoughtfully into his Joja can. “I’d have stopped you if I’d known you were shit with shots.”

Harvey felt Haley’s leg press against his under the table and he tried not to jump right out of his seat in response.

It was a steadying presence, albeit distracting. Maybe that was the point.

“Too many pepper poppers,” Harvey said. “I don’t usually have so much fried food.”

“Alright, we get it you’re a health god!” Jane said.

“Don’t let Alex hear you say that,” Haley said. “He’ll start challenging the good doctor to push up competitions.”

Harvey did not mention that he was almost certain he could crush Alex in a push-up or pull-up competition. Alex was strong and buff, no doubt, that kid was in shape—but Harvey did one hundred push-ups and fifty pull ups every morning and had since starting med school, when he’d been too tired and busy to go to the gym. Plus, he walked at least a couple of miles a day.

“I could take him,” Shane said.

“A decade ago, maybe,” Leah said, to the delight of the whole table. Haley’s leg was still pressed against his beneath the table, so close that it couldn’t be accidental, though he tried to convince himself it must be.

“Yeah, whatever,” Shane pushed himself up from the table. “I need more potato salad.”

“Me, too actually.” Jane stood and pulled Emily up with her. “Leah?”

“Mhm, Elliot?”

“I’m okay, that much cholesterol is—”

One of them, Harvey guessed Leah, kicked Elliot under the table. Incredibly subtle.

“I do, actually,” Elliot said as he stood.

“Right. Haley, Harv, you’ll hold down the table?” Jane planted a loud kiss atop Haley’s head before hurrying after the others to the food table.

Haley took a sip of water and Harvey wished he had a drink, too, for something to do. Was he supposed to say something about last night or should he let her bring it up? If she was really regretting it, maybe he shouldn’t say anything? They could pretend it didn’t happen.

He watched her hands on the side of her cup as her fingers traced lines in the condensation that had formed. Her delicate hands were dizzying. She had pale orange nail polish and wore a vintage-looking silver bracelet on her wrist and Harvey wanted to know everything about it. Who gave it to her, where it was from, where she kept it while she slept and showered, how she toyed with it when she was thinking.

Haley spoke first, breaking him from his musing. “I’m sorry.”

He thought he heard her wrong. “For what?”

“You know,” Haley said. It seemed that she couldn’t make eye contact with him, only stare holes into the table. “If I made you uncomfortable last night—”

Harvey nearly choked.

“No,” Harvey said. “I mean, just, no. You didn’t.”

“Okay.”

“If anyone should be apologizing it’s me, it was completely inappropriate for me to come onto you like that.”

Haley watched Harvey as he rattled on about the ethics of it all, how he had a duty as her doctor and how he placed their safe relationship as patient and doctor at risk by doing what he did last night, and he wished he could blame the alcohol, but he wasn’t that drunk so—

Haley grabbed his wrist and stood before he could deliver more of his monologue. After hauling him behind her, she led him up behind the general. As they rounded the corner, he belatedly hoped nobody saw their speedy exit.

Haley stopped by a stack of wooden pallets that were almost large enough to seclude them from the view of any errent passerby. Harvey remained quiet, letting Haley say whatever she’d pulled him here to say.

She paced a few feet away from Harvey in either direction before stopping directly in front of him. She took a step closer, and then another. She had to crane her neck to meet his eyes this close.

“Do you regret kissing me?” Haley asked. Her voice was quiet, little.

“Yes,” Harvey said, and saw the sting of his words on his face immediately. “No—not like that, I just. . .”

How could Harvey express this without making everything worse? Of course he regretted kissing her. Obviously, it was wrong for all the dozen reasons he mentioned, but further, kissing her didn’t make him want her any less. If anything, it made him even more batshit about her. Now instead of just imagining what she tasted and felt like, he knew and learning this was the worst thing he could have done because now she was going to haunt him even more—for the rest of his life he’d be remembering and judging everyone else to the standard of her.

“You just?” Haley prompted. Her eyes still showed some hurt, but Harvey thought there was hope there, too.

“Not thinking about you was hard enough when I didn’t know—”

How good it felt.

How your skin tastes.

The sound you make when I push my tongue in your mouth.

What it felt like to be truly on fire.

Harvey cleared his throat and forced himself to meet Haley’s eyes. “It was easier to pretend I didn’t want to.”

A corner of her mouth pinched into her cheek as if any of this was amusing, as if she’d just won something. “You want to kiss me again?”

“Haley. . .”

She stepped closer to him, bringing her lips to his ear, her cheek brushing his in the process. He knew she had to be on her toes to reach him like this and imagining what they must look like did something strange to his stomach. The rollercoaster feeling.

“Did you touch yourself thinking about it?” She asked. “Tell me.”

Harvey gulped and squeezed his eyes shut for the count of two shaky breaths. This was hard enough without Haley being unbearably hot about it.

“Yes,” Harvey said, because lying to her felt wrong. “Twice.”

Harvey tensed at the shock of Haley’s fingers skimming the back of his left hand. The gentlest touch and it was nearly enough to undo him completely.

Haley picked up Harvey’s hand and moved it behind her to rest on the pert curve of her ass. He breathed slowly through his nose, smelling her hair with each inhale. It made him lightheaded, like he was 17 being touched for the very first time, not 32 years old.

“I did, too,” she said, and started trailing little kisses down Harvey’s jaw. She was a minx—plain and simple. And she was going to be the death of him.

She moved his other hand hanging limp at his side to her chest where he cupped one of her full tits, the tits he’d been dreaming about for months. She wasn’t wearing a bra, at least not one that he could see, and he had to lean back against the building before his knees went out.

“You’re perfect,” Harvey breathed. The dress was so smooth and cool against his hands which felt like they were on fire. He didn’t realize he was squeezing her ass until he heard Haley’s breath halting at his ear.

“Don’t make me ask this time,” Haley said.

“Haley,” Harvey managed. “I’m your doctor—and anyone could find us here.”

Haley pushed closer, bringing her body flush against his. She fit there perfectly, no part of her out of place. She could no doubt feel his dick, hard between them, and pressed against her stomach.

“You’re everyone’s doctor, the whole town—how are you supposed to find someone with all those rules?”

Was that what this was? Was Harvey feeling Haley up outside of various buildings in town “finding someone”? And what did that mean? Did Haley mean find someone to fuck or find someone to, like, share a life with?

“We shouldn’t,” Harvey said, but there was no heart to it.

Haley pulled her face away from his neck and looked At Harvey, a serious expression over her features.

“Do you want me, Harvey? Yes or no.”

He laughed; he couldn’t help it.

“Of course, I want you. How could you even ask—”

Haley pushed Harvey’s shoulders until his whole back was against the General Store wall. She immediately got to work on his belt, pulling it open before unbuttoning his pants and sliding down the zipper at an astounding pace.

“Haley,” Harvey started but forgot whatever it was he was about to say when her hands reached into his boxers and pulled free his dick. It bobbed in the fresh spring air for a moment before Haley was moving to her knees in front of it.

He tried to grab her shoulders to pull her up, but she gave him a stern look and deliberately moved his hands to her head.

“Unless you tell me you don’t want me to suck your dick, I’m going to do this because you’re fucking hot and I want to—and then it’ll be up to you. I’m never going to beg you to touch me again.”

She waited for a response from Harvey, who could only manage a slight nod before she went to work on him. Haley slid a tongue along the bottom of his cock, making him gasp and twine his fingers through her hair.

“I think I’ve made what I want perfectly clear,” she said before taking his cock between her lips, sucking first just the head, and then more of him. She kept her eyes on his as she did, and Harvey thought he was about to come right then in there. He tried to pull himself together before making a fool of himself—he had to look away from her, she was too fucking hot sucking him like that.

Everyone in the square was still eating and chatting, Harvey could hear them, they weren’t far. The egg hunt hadn’t started yet, but when it did someone might wander back here and get an eye full. They needed to be done before then.

It was so wrong, everything about this, but it felt unbearably good.

Harvey tightened his grip on Haley’s hair and she groaned in what he guessed was approval. Tentatively, he pushed her face foreword, and she gave the slightest nod with her quiet moan.

“You like that?” Harvey asked and Haley looked back up at him with those blue eyes as her face bobbed on his cock.

One of her hands was braced on his leg, but the other was nowhere to be seen, tucked under her somewhere.

“Fuck, Haley, are you touching yourself?”

She nodded again and took him deeper—Harvey let out a groan but pushed the back of his hand to his mouth to keep it quiet.

He doubted anyone could hear them, but it wouldn’t take much noise for probably someone to hear. The wrongness of it made it way more intense—Harvey thought he was a sick fucker for liking this so much, but he couldn’t make himself care just then.

He experimented with more pressure on Haley’s head, fucking her mouth like he’d imagined nearly every time he saw her for the last year, at least. He’d imagined the best, most filthy blowjob of his life; this was better.

Haley’s high little moans picked up pace as he fucked her mouth and he knew whatever she was doing to her clit, she was close.

“Shit, Haley, I’m going to come. Is that—is that okay?” Haley nodded again, not showing any sign of stopping sucking him, moving her hot little tongue around him?

“In—your mouth?”

Haley nodded again, and Yoba, he was not prepared for this fantasy to become a reality right now. He tried to slow his breathing from the panting, but it was no use.

Haley groaned and he knew she was coming, because any coordination around his dick was lost as she rode her fingers beneath him.

“Fuck, you look so—” Seeing her face scrunched up with her pleasure and full of his dick was too much, he held her head and bucked a few last times until he spilled into her mouth.

She didn’t flinch, just slowed, and swallowed, took languid licks from his sensitive head. He was almost embarrassed that he came in her mouth, like he was putting her out by doing that, but she didn’t seem mad about it.

She gave one last lick from the base to the head before releasing his duck with a pop.

Harvey helped pull her to her feet and thank Yoba the dress was long enough to cover her knees which were pink from where they’d pressed into the gravel.

“Hales . . .”

Before he could say anything else, she put her lips to his, and deepened the kiss with the slide of her tongue into his mouth. It was a shock tasting himself in her tongue, and if he hadn’t just come maybe harder than he had in his whole life he might’ve come again.

Haley zipped up Harvey’s pants as they kissed before stepping back and assessing him. He watched her, too. That perfect braid in her hair was totally messed up, big strands falling out from it. She looked so beautiful tousled this way, he wanted to see her like this every day. He wanted to pull her into a hug, lay his head on hers and kiss it and hold her, but this didn’t seem like exactly the time nor the place.

“What is it?” Haley asked.

“I messed up your hair.”

She grinned at this—Harvey’d never seen a smile like this from her, her cheeks and nose scrunched up and she just—

“You’re so cute,” Harvey said.

Haley’s ears were red, as if the compliment was more intimate than what she’d just done to him.

She pulled out a series of hidden pins from her hair and held them between her lips while she shook out the braid until her hair hung wavy all around her shoulders and looked completely intentional. He didn’t think it was normal to look that put together after that.

Haley grabbed Harvey’s hand and brought it palm up between them before depositing the half-dozen hair pins into his hand and closing his fingers around them. She kissed his knuckles, too.

“No pockets,” she said. “You’ll keep them for me?”

“Of course.” She could have asked anything.

“Until tomorrow,” Haley said and started walking backward away from him.

“Tomorrow?”

“My birthday,” Haley said.

She was about to turn the corner around the building. Harvey needed another moment to make his legs move.

“You’ll come over?” Haley asked.

In the Square on the other side of the building, Lewis rang his cowbell to signify the start of the egg hunt. Jane was almost certainly participating.

“I’ll be there.” He wouldn’t overthink it. “Hold on,” he said before Haley could get around the corner. He picked up from the ground two eggs and stepped slowly towards her. Harvey dropped the yellow one in Haley’s hand, keeping the blue one for himself. It really was just like her eyes, that blue.

Sure enough, Jane loped around the corner then, with a wicker basket over her arm. She didn’t miss a beat upon seeing the pair standing too close together, only held out the basket for the eggs, which they deposited without question.

“You’re lucky I came back here before Abigail,” Jane said, already speeding off towards more eggs. “That girl’s even more of a gossip than me!”

Chapter Text

At exactly 3:45 PM, Haley heard a knock on her front door. She waited a few breaths before opening the door so he wouldn’t know that she’d been pacing there like an anxious puppy.

Harvey was on the other side, no lab coat, just the usual white shirt under his green jacket. He was wearing a blue tie that Haley hadn’t seen before, though. He looked nice.

He also held a terra cotta flowerpot on a matching dish, a whole bunch of yellow daffodils blooming from the top.

Haley gasped and took the plant from him before he offered it.

“For me?” She asked, and Harvey nodded, a bit sheepish. “I love presents.”

“Jane may have mentioned as much,” Harvey said. “And I just wanted to bring it. And say happy birthday.”

Haley brought the pot through the living room into Emily’s sewing area where the light was the best. She pulled a box of fabric scraps off a wooden stool and set the plant on top. It fit right in next to Emily’s other plants. It was perfect.

Harvey was leaned against the wall watching Haley when she turned around, and she caught a smile playing over his lips.

“What is it?” She asked.

“You look beautiful,” Harvey said. “I like your dress.”

Haley flushed but did a little twirl so he could get the full effect. It wasn’t a new dress, she’d worn it loads of times before, usually in the summer or to go hook up with Leah because it cinched at the waist in a really flattering way but also wasn’t difficult to get off.

The way Harvey’s eyes were feasting on her as she sashayed back and forth towards him made her think she should wear it more often.

She stepped until she stood just in front of him, close enough that she had to look up to see Harvey peering down at her. He looked amused, less nervous alone with Haley than he was when other people were around. She liked him like this. Alone, he smirked and told her he wanted to make her feel good. Haley guessed it was the other people that made him so stressed.

“I have leftover potato salad here,” Haley said. She didn’t have to speak loudly, his face just above hers. “Hungry?”

“Not currently.” His eyes betrayed him, devouring Haley’s chest and shoulders and neck and face.

Haley was relieved that he wasn’t already trying to tell her that he should be staying away from her. Maybe her stunt yesterday had really worked—she shuddered to think if he’d rejected her after that. The humiliation would have been devastating, but worse is that she would have known she was right and Harvey being in his head was getting in the way of a very good thing.

He hadn’t rejected her, though. And it had been the sexiest, most intense fifteen minutes probably of her entire life. She hoped for a repeat today in some way. A birthday present. But she wouldn’t be the one to ask for it—she’d made herself very clear about that, thankyouverymuch.

Harvey’s eyes lingered at Haley’s lips before he pushed off the wall, his face nearly brushing hers in the process. He went to the bookshelf in the corner and perused the titles. Haley watched his index finger slide across the spines and shuttered at the very thought of him touching her like that.

She wanted to ask.

She wouldn’t.

“I like your house,” Harvey said. “Are these yours?”

“Some of them.” Haley stepped closer but left a good five feet between them. People usually assumed the books were Emily’s. “I like to read. Fantasy, usually. Romance, too.”

“What kind of fantasy? Dragons?” Harvey was smiling but there was no derision in his voice, just interest.

“Sure,” Haley shrugged. “All sorts, really. Wizards and fairies and werewolves, too.”

Alex teased her semi-regularly for her reading choices, even though he borrowed all the sexiest ones and liked them just as well as she did. He was too embarrassed about the things he liked.

Haley peered over Harvey’s shoulder at the book he’d pulled from the shelf. A decent vampire novel Emily bought her last winter. A bit too much drama for Haley’s taste. Not enough kissing.

“Not sexy enough,” Haley said. Harvey looked up with that crease between his eyebrows. She wanted to smooth it with her thumb. “The book.”

“Oh.” He looked back at the cover; there was no half-naked man there, which was an added strike against it. Harvey shelved the book and pulled down another.

“Do you like to read?” She asked, trying to shift the conversation from her ever-distracting libido.

“Yes. I, uh, read about planes. Mostly.”

This tidbit surprised Haley almost as much as if he’d said he read primarily erotica. She didn’t know what he liked—just imagined him in his little apartment reading medicine books, and maybe sci-fi. She’d seen his light on at night a few times, when Emily forgot something or when Haley just needed to get out and walk a bit before bed, and she’d pictured him curled up somewhere with a book. Hard cover, she guessed. She wondered idly what his pajamas looked like, or if he wore any at all.

“What do you like about them?” she asked.

“Ah,” Harvey slid the book back on the shelf and scratched the back of his neck. “Everything, I guess. The innovation of it. Like, people could hardly fathom it, this huge steel machine picking you up, barreling through the sky, and then landing on the ground again in one piece. They’ve always fascinated me.”

Haley studied Harvey’s face as he spoke, reveling in the way his eyes lit up and his cheeks stained pink. She didn’t have even two unique thoughts about airplanes, but she’d listen to him talk about them all day if he was going to be so damn cute and excited about it.

“I wanted to be a pilot so bad when I was a kid. I still have a bunch of model planes,” Harvey admitted.

“Why aren’t you one, then?”

“Wasn’t cut out for it. Bad vision. Heights scare the shit out of me.” He didn’t sound sad about this, just resigned to it. “Wasn’t meant to be.”

Haley hummed an agreement. It was selfish, but she was glad. There was no way in hell he’d have ended up in the valley if he was a pilot. Plus, he looked very good in glasses.

“Can I see them? The planes,” She said. Harvey huffed a laugh through his nose.

“One day, maybe.” And there was that damn smirk again. “I know it’s dorky—”

“No,” Haley cut him off. “I think it’s great that you like something so much. I admire it. Really.”

Harvey looked at Haley for a moment, weighing something in his mind, she couldn’t tell what. They already stood close together, but he inched closer still.

“And what do you like?” he asked. “Books?”

“No,” she said. “Books are good, but I like other things more. Cooking, I guess. Taking pictures. Developing them.”

“Can I see some?”

A smile pulled at Haley’s lips. “One day. Maybe.”

Slowly, he lifted a hand to the side of her face and skimmed a thumb across her cheek. She wanted to lean into his hand, melt into his touch, but she didn’t want to show just how eager she was.

“Is this okay?” His voice was a whisper across her skin.

“Yes,” she breathed. Harvey looked at her lips, then her eyes, nose, the rest of her face. Like how he read her patient notes when she came in for an appointment—studying them.

“I want to kiss you again,” Harvey said. His lips were so close, but Haley wouldn’t close the gap, not this time—it was up to him to do that.

“What’s holding you back?” Haley asked. Harvey ducked his head to her neck, nipping at her throat, every graze of his teeth making her shiver.

“Moral quandary,” Harvey said, then licked a line from the base of her neck to her jaw.

Haley couldn’t help but let a little moan escape, and she couldn’t bring herself to feel embarrassed about it.

“You see, Haley, if I kiss you again, it’s going to be really difficult not to fuck you.”

“I see,” she said. She was desperate to put her hands on him but held back still. “The issue, then?”

Harvey kissed along her jaw, then took her earlobe lightly between his teeth.

“If I fuck you once, I’m going to have a really hard time not doing it again.”

Haley groaned and balled her fists in the sides of her skirt. He was so close to going for it, she just had to wait him out.

Harvey’s other hand came around her waist and slid down her ass before squeezing a whole cheek in his hand. “It’s untoward to even think about all the ways I want you—Haley, you can’t even imagine—”

“Show me, then,” she said, and Harvey’s forehead fell on her shoulder. He was quiet for a moment and Haley started to think that he really would let his doctor-judgment get the better of him. She thought he was going to step away like she’d burned him and rush from the house, leaving her horny and alone on her birthday.

She worried she hadn’t been able to convince him that she meant what she’d said: she wanted him, he wasn’t too old for her.

Harvey took one more breath, a long inhale, before spinning the pair of them around and pushing Haley against the wall by the bookcase. A frame went crooked at the force, but neither of them took notice as Harvey’s mouth devoured hers.

Finally, she let her hands cling to him, tugging on his hair and grabbing at his shirt. Harvey grunted into her mouth as Haley arched her chest to press against his.

His arm was wrapped around her back, his hand snaking under the high hem of her dress, feeling the skin beneath. Haley was surprised to find that he could unhook her bra one-handed so quickly but she didn’t waste any time lifting her arms up so he could peel her dress and bra off.

As soon as the fabric was over her head, leaving her in only panties, she tried to return to kissing him. Harvey had fallen still, though, gaping openly at her mostly naked body in front of her.

Haley flushed hot at his gaze. “What is it?”

“You’ve ruined me,” he said. “I’m utterly fucking ruined for anyone else.”

Haley grinned at the admission and leaned just her upper back against the wall. Both of Harvey’s hands still spanned her lower back as she posed for him.

“Show me,” she repeated.

After another shaky breath, his mouth was back on hers. He grunted when she sucked on his tongue, which felt to Haley a massive victory. Harvey lifted her under her ass, and she wrapped her legs around his waist.

“Bed or couch,” Harvey demanded.

“Couch,” she answered in stride, and was deposited onto the red sofa within the next breath. Harvey stared at her tits like he was about to devour them.

“Take off your shirt,” Haley said before he could. “Please.”

Harvey hesitated but sat back on his heels and got to work tugging loose his tie and unbuttoning the white button-up shirt. Haley brushed her fingers over her nipples as he did, pinched them into peaks.

“Fuck,” Harvey said, and replaced her fingers on one with his mouth. Haley gasped as his tongue lapped around her nipple. She couldn’t see his pants, but she heard him pulling at his leather belt and undoing his zipper while he sucked on one nipple and then the other.

“I have to taste you,” he said. “Say yes.”

“Okay,” Haley breathed, because she wasn’t about to start being shy now, not when he was kneeling in front of her mostly naked and very eager. His torso was thick, like she thought, and built, too. He wasn’t as defined as Alex, but he was bigger, hotter. Harvey’s shoulders were broad and she wanted to bite him there and everywhere else on his chest—she wanted to mark him and leave hickeys so that when he went home later he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to feel bad about fucking a patient, not when it felt so good.

Harvey stood and kicked off his pants before kneeling at the edge of the couch and pulling Haley’s legs open in front of him. She maneuvered almost to sitting and watched as Harvey pressed his nose to her pussy, not even removing her underwear first. She’d worn silky yellow ones, just in case. She was glad she had.

“I love these,” he said, and rubbed Haley’s clit through the fabric. She writhed beneath his touch, but Harvey’s other hand came to rest on her stomach, keeping her in place.

He slipped the panties down over her legs, getting them all the way off her ankles before balling them up and tucking them away into his pants pocket.

“Memento?” Haley giggled. “Where will you keep it?”

Harvey squeezed the top of her right thigh and brought his mouth so close to her cunt she could feel his breath on her sensitive skin.

“Under my pillow,” Harvey said, and took a long lick from the center of her to her clit. “Or maybe with the model planes.”

She wanted to keep up any banter with him (it was just so fun to talk with Harvey), but Haley couldn’t do much more than let out little moans with her see-sawing breath as he got to work in earnest on her clit.

He was a menace with that tongue, lapping at her eagerly, swirling around her before sucking the nub into his mouth. It was so good, so ridiculously good, and then he added one thick finger. Haley groaned at the intrusion of it sliding into her, and reveled at him adding a second.

Harvey was deliberate in eating her out, watching and listening for what she reacted to most and readjusting his strategy likewise. His fingers pushing into her and massaging her g-spot were making her feel wild—it was dizzying how good he felt on her.

She was building to a summit, wiggling under the hand firmly holding her in place when she felt Harvey’s thumb press circles over her asshole. Between his relentless licking, the slide of his fingers, and that delicious new pressure, Haley was defenseless against her orgasm and cried out as she came—probably loud enough for Jodi to hear next door. She couldn’t bring herself to care as she rode his hand and mouth, Harvey not pausing his work on her, even moving his other hand to grip one of her breasts and roll a nipple between his fingers.

He didn’t stop, even as she came down, only slowed as he delivered agonizing lick after lick on her sensitive clit.

“Okay,” she breathed. “You can stop.”

Harvey’s eyebrows pressed toward each other as he kept lightly licking, only stopping to say, “Be good for me and come one more time.”

Haley wasn’t one to argue with a request like that, so she tried to calm her breathing and sunk further into the couch.

“Good,” Harvey said, and added another finger.

+++

By the time Haley came under Harvey’s mouth for a second time, his dick was painfully hard pushing at the fabric of his underwear.

Haley was like Jell-O beneath him, and he held her gaze as he pressed his fingers into his mouth before leaning down to kiss her slowly.

“Can you taste that?” he asked before kissing her deeper. “You taste like a fucking dream. I’m nice to share.”

Haley’s hands roamed down his body towards his waistband, leaving a fiery trail in their path. If she touched his dick right now he would most certainly come (likely immediately) and that would be both embarrassing and devastating because he wouldn’t get to feel that hot pussy around him. Harvey grabbed Haley’s hands to keep her from exploring further southward and pushed them on the couch above her head.

“Let me touch you,” she whined.

“I won’t last a second with your hands on me, Haley.”

He kissed her more, one hand holding both of Haley’s wrists over her head while his other worked his boxers down until they were both completely naked, splayed out on her and Emily’s red couch.

“Do you think you can come one more time?” Harvey asked. Her face didn’t look so sure, but when he slicked his fingers over her folds again she groaned. “Good.”

“Fuck me,” she cursed.

“Not until you’re close,” Harvey teased, rubbing rough and quick circles on her clit. She grinned and arched her back from the couch. “I’m going to let go of your hands so you can touch yourself while I put on a condom. Okay?”

“Okay,” Haley’s sex voice nearly made his vision tilt it was so hot, higher than he expected it to be, and desperate, too.

Harvey did as he said, letting go of her wrists and crawling off her so that he could fumble for his pants pocket where he had a condom (it was there just in case, he didn’t know that they were going to need it, it was twisted wishful thinking).

As he sat back on his heels, Haley went to work on her clit, the pads of her fingers moving in tight circles. He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, the sight almost enough to do him in.

“Harvey,” Haley said on a breath. “Please.”

“Fuck, baby.” Harvey tore the packet open and slid the condom over his dick, which was harder even than it had been with Haley’s mouth wrapped around it yesterday.

He sat up on his knees and scooted towards the edge of the couch. Haley sat facing him with her legs spread open, her pussy at just the height for him to slide right in.

He had to take a long breath through his nose before pressing the tip to her center. Her fingers paused their work as he slid in at an excruciatingly slow pace. Both held their breath until he was fully seated inside her. The heat and pressure around him made his head spin, but he withdrew an inch, then another, before plunging forward again.

They both groaned at the feel of it.

Harvey repeated the motion, slow at first and then a bit faster, all the while trying to keep himself from finishing this so soon. It felt so good, Yoba, had it ever felt so good? Was this normal? Was sex supposed to feel like this? This good?

“Holy shit,” Haley said.

Harvey grunted, “I know.”

She’d picked up her pace massaging herself and the view of her tits bouncing as Harvey rocked into her was nearly too much, but he closed his eyes and kept going because this sort of good was probably abnormal, a once in a lifetime situation so he ought to savor it.

The frantic whimpering noises from Haley told Harvey she was right there, and he picked up his pace, rutting into her harder until he felt her clenching around his dick as she cried out and he gave himself permission to take what he needed, too.

His hips moved erratically as he pushed himself into her and he buried his face in Haley’s neck as he finally came harder than he had since he was a teenager.

His heart was galloping as he tried to regain his breath and with his ear to Haley’s chest, he could hear that hers was, too.

“Holy shit,” Haley said again.

“Yeah,” Harvey agreed. “My thoughts exactly.”

+++

After Harvey and Haley got cleaned up, he’d slipped his boxers back on while Haley sported a cotton nightdress. If he wasn’t so spent, the sight of the white fabric pulled over her pink nipples might have sent him off again. As it was, though, they were both hungry, and Haley dished up potato salad and chicken salad sandwiches on croissants which they ate with their knees bumping under the kitchen table.

“Should I put more clothes on? In case your sister—”

“No, she’ll be out until past midnight.” Haley took another big bite of her sandwich. She spoke around her mouth full of food, “Will you stay? We could watch a movie.”

Harvey was struck by how adorable she was like this, her hair pulled into a loose bun, and that uncharacteristic beam of light in her eyes instead of the disinterested mask. How many people saw her like this? Emily, probably, and surely Jane? Who else?

“Something on my face?” Haley asked when Harvey didn’t say anything. Instead of speaking, he just smiled and leaned over the table to drop a soft kiss on her lips.

“Movie sounds great,” he said and kissed her again.

Chapter Text

Haley needed birth control. She knew that it was presumptuous to think that Harvey was going to want to keep having sex with her, but she felt confident enough to investigate contraceptives.

After lunch on her birthday, they’d fallen asleep in the middle of the afternoon, curled up in Haley’s twin bed watching The Miracle at Coldstar Ranch (she was of the opinion that it was never too early for a Winter Star movie) on her old laptop. They’d woken to the sound of Jane knocking on Haley’s bedroom window, because her best friend had no boundaries.

Harvey had flown out of the bed like he’d been shot, but he didn’t try to hide, so Haley figured he must not be too nervous to be seen with her. Jane crawled through the window without being invited and absolutely laughed her ass off at the sight of a half-dressed Harvey standing with Haley’s pink throw blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

“What if we were having sex?” Haley said.

“Then I would’ve gotten an eye-full,” Jane said when she’d finally gotten her laughing under control enough to look (barely) chastened. “Get dressed you two. I brought dinner.”

Though off to a surprising start, the night was completely great as the three of them sat around the kitchen table drinking homemade wine and a baked fish Jane caught earlier that day.

Jane left after pink cake to “walk Emily home” (which Haley knew was code for make out with Emily in the storage room before actually walking her home and making out with her in Emily’s room until the farmer really and truly could stay up no later if she wanted to have any semblance of a productive day tomorrow), and Harvey had to leave too so he could get ready for work himself.

He’d kissed Haley before he left, an intense, consuming kiss with both of his hands firmly planted on her ass. He pulled away only to be drawn to her again, kissing her senseless before kissing her one more time for good measure.

“Tomorrow?” Haley asked, breathless.

“I couldn’t say no.” Harvey planted one more kiss on her head before successfully leaving.

Now, the next morning, she decided she needed birth control, and there was only one place in town she could get it. Conveniently, that was exactly the place she wanted to go.

Haley skipped her usual Monday morning routine and slipped into a short blue dress and wedges. No underwear, which made her feel both stressed and like a sex goddess.

Emily was still asleep in her room when Haley was ready to leave, so she scribbled a note saying that she’d be back later and left it on the kitchen table.

The clinic had been open for just ten minutes when she showed up, and Harvey’s jaw fell slightly open when he saw her. He’d been mid-sip from her and Emily’s pink mug, which he’d yet to return, and put it down hastily on the counter.

“Haley,” Harvey cleared his throat. “Good morning.”

“Hi.” Haley walked up to the counter and leaves on it, hopefully displaying a healthy amount of cleavage in the process. “Nice mug.”

“I was going to return it—at some point.”

“I like that you’re using it,” Haley said. “You look cute with it.”

Harvey blushed but took another sip before leaning on his elbows next to her, bringing their faces close.

“I’m happy to see you,” he said.

“Me too. When’s your first appointment?”

“10:30.”

“Oh good.” They had just over an hour. “Can you squeeze me in?”

“Of course. What for?” Harvey looked serious; all signs of flintiness put away.

Haley had plans, but she figured she ought to get the actual medical need out of the way, first.

“I want to get on birth control,” Haley said. She tried not to be nervous about asking—it felt so intimate after everything. She wanted to show him she wouldn’t be weird about the doctor thing, though. None of this had to be weird.

“Alright,” Harvey didn’t flush or even blink at the request. “Let’s talk about some options, then.”

They spoke in the empty front room about the different contraceptive options available to her, some that he could order monthly, others that he already stocked for others in town. She decided on the option he already carried since the side effects were minimal compared to others and she could start taking it that day or the next depending on what time she decided to set her alarm. It took in total about twenty minutes and Harvey was pleasant and professional for the whole exchange, no hint that he’d been fucking her senseless on her couch the afternoon before.

“Great.” Haley tucked the prescription baggie into the purse she carried today and resumed her earlier position of (hopefully) sexy leaning on the counter. “I think I need you to look at something for me. In an exam room, preferably.”

Harvey still didn’t blanch—presumably believing that she actually did have a medical concern for him to look after.

“Alright.” He inclined his head towards the back, and she met him in the hall in front of their usual exam room, the little one with the high table. It would work just fine.

Haley climbed up into the table, not unlike she’d done just a week before when she had her physical. She’d been nervous then, like she was now, but for an entirely different reason. She started unbuttoning the row of little green buttons on the front of the dress as Harvey was distracted with the computer.

“Harv,” Haley said as he hit various keys, bringing up Haley’s file. He wouldn’t be needing it for what she had in mind.

“Hm?” He glanced her direction, then did a double take when he saw the top half of her dress gaping open. “Oh.”

To his credit, he still tried to compose himself, even as Haley trailed her fingertips lightly down her cleavage, over the sheer, lace bra she’d worn just for him.

“I’m having a bit of a problem,” Haley said. She slid her skirt further up her thigh, and Harvey watched the path of her fingers as they slowly moved.

“Oh?”

“I’ve been a bit distracted.”

“Distracted how?” Harvey asked, though his voice was strained.

“Well, sometimes I can’t focus. My skin gets hot,” Haley pushed a sleeve down her shoulder. “Elevated heart rate.”

He stepped towards her like she was an animal that was about the run at any moment. When he was in her reach, Haley grabbed his tie and tugged him closer.

“Any lightheadedness or dizziness at all?” He asked.

“Mhm,” Haley sat up and brought her lips to his neck. She sucked on his skin lightly, not enough to leave a mark. “And some aching.”

“Where?”

Haley moved Harvey’s hand up her leg until he was at the apex of her thighs.

He gasped at the feel, the lack of underwear, and Haley couldn’t help but moan as he pressed his fingers into to her already soaked folds. She palmed his dick through the outside of his pants.

“Haley. . .”

“Just a quick one,” she said before he could think too hard about it. “You’re a good doctor. Take a fifteen-minute break.”

If Haley had her way, it would be much longer than fifteen minutes of exploring each other, but he had patients and she respected that. They could be fast.

Apparently, she didn’t have to convince him of this further because he gave a tense nod before claiming her mouth with his and working on getting his dress pants unbuttoned.

Haley kissed him back with equal intensity and started stroking him as soon as his boxers were pulled down enough that she could grab him.

“Been half hard all day thinking about you,” Harvey said. “I thought I was going to have to go upstairs and jack off on my lunch break.”

Haley positioned the head of his cock to her cult and started moving it in small circles there where his precum slid alongside her wetness.

“Condom,” Harvey said before she could get any crazy ideas. He pulled one in his pants pocket and Haley took it and deftly slid it over him.

When he was fully covered, she guided the head back to her entrance.

“You’re a greedy little thing,” he said, but she could tell the need was just as urgent for him. His dick slid into her, and this time there was no slow inching back and forth, he pushed fully inside her immediately, filling her up with a groan at her ear.

His hands framed either side of Haley’s hips as he thrust into her and it was even better for her than yesterday—in his office like this, ramming right into her at this angle.

He brought one hand between them and started rubbing circles on her clit, just like she’d done the day before. He’d taken note of what she liked.

“It’s way too good,” Harvey said. “Didn’t know it could feel this good.”

Haley felt much the same. She’d had great sex with of course Leah, but only one man before Harvey, and it was Alex. He was good at it, and fit, too, but they were better off as friends for many reasons, their lack of sexual chemistry among them.

Nothing had felt like this.

Haley leaned all the way back onto the table and Harvey grabbed her thighs to bring her closer to him. She wrapped one leg around his hip and brought the other straight up to rest on his shoulder, letting him fuck her even deeper.

“Baby—”


“More,” Haley whined. “More of you.”

Harvey picked up his pace, thrusting into her faster while he kept rubbing circles onto her clit that were making her delirious. She was already so close, had walked into his office close, and his breathy grunts and moans and nonsensical murmuring about her body,Yoba, her body, her—it was so much.

The orgasm surprised Haley, her legs and pussy tightening around Harvey. She grabbed his big forearm and squeezed tight as he pumped harder into her, fucking her through it relentlessly until he was coming too, groaning her name again and again.

When their breathing slowed and Haley felt like she somewhat had her balance back, she sat up. Harvey ran his deft fingers up her arms, across her collar bones, her neck, the tops of her breasts, her jaw—taking stock of each, before holding her face between each hand and kissing her tenderly.

“Where in the world did you come from?” He asked, and kissed her again.

“I’ve always been here,” Haley said.

+++

Haley had way too much energy to go home after leaving Harvey’s clinic, so she slid on her blue sunglasses and walked the short distance to Jane’s farm.

Jane wasn’t in the fields, or in front of either the coop or the barn, but Haley found her in the greenhouse, looking at some of the blueberry plants she’d been growing. They looked good, as far as Haley could tell. Lush and green with little white bulbs in clusters on every stem.

Jane was so focused on the plant that she didn’t hear Haley walk in and jumped when Haley said “Hey.”

“Holy shit, Haley.” Jane caught her breath with a hand on her chest, ever the one for the theatrics. “Why do you look so hot?”

“I always look hot,” Haley said, and dropped down onto the lid of one of the wood bins Jane kept seeds and fertilizer in. “But if you must know, I did go to see a certain good doctor.”

“I knew it!” Jane waggled her eyebrows. “Did you have sex again? Did you see his apartment? Did you see the planes?”

“You’ve seen the planes and you didn’t tell me about them?”

“Wanted it to be a surprise,” she said. “Now tell me about the sex. Hot?”

Haley was no stranger to telling Jane everything about her sex life. She’d texted Jane as soon as Harvey left the night before—if she hadn’t, Jane would’ve whined forever about the power of their friendship and how it was fueled on transparency and telling secrets (Jane was Very Nosy). Haley liked having a friend she was comfortable enough to share everything with, though, it was a new feeling.

Haley dropped her face in her hands before peeking up at Jane and nodding. “Hot hot.”

Jane abandoned the plant and strode to sit right next to Haley. “How big?”

“Jane.”

“Blink twice if he’s bigger than Alex.”

Haley rolled her eyes but blinked twice anyway, and Jane jostled Haley with her “I just knew it!” and “I have a sense about me.”

“Stop making a big deal about it, I’m cool. We’re cool,” Haley didn’t know who she was trying to convince. “How are my sunflowers?”

Jane was sharp and extremely perceptive—she had to know what Haley was aiming for a diversion away from the topic of Harvey’s penis—but if there was anything she liked talking about more than sex and gossip it was her plants.

She showed Haley where they were still growing in a corner of the green house, the stalks getting taller every day, and gave a lot of details about the new fertilizer recipe she was trying out. Haley kept up just fine, asking the right questions to keep Jane talking about the flowers and the other plants, too—the trees she’d planted last year, the fields of strawberries she’d already planted outside.

It helped Haley clear her mind of the doctor, if even for thirty minutes. Obsessing wasn’t good so early on, she figured. It hadn’t even been a week since their first kiss—just a few days. Haley was the one overthinking it. Harvey wasn’t thinking about her, probably. At least not as much as she was him.

“When are you going to build a stable? Then you can get a horse,” Haley said. “I really want you to have a horse.”

“Summer, maybe. I have to sell all these strawberries first.”

Haley followed Jane around the farm for the rest of the morning, sometimes helping, but mostly just listening to Jane talk about things and feeling the spring sun on her arms.

Haley decided that she could be cool. She would be. She just needed to figure out a way to convince the doctor that it was cool, too.

Chapter Text

The day inched by for Harvey, who was busy doing what he was best at: worrying.

He’d drafted eighteen different texts to the number Haley programmed into his phone the night before, the best of which a cordial greeting asking about her day, the worst of them an ode to her ass. He’d just decided not to send the “What are u up to tonight?” text when a message from her popped onto the screen.

He dropped the phone to the counter with a clatter, then picked it up again slowly like it might break.

I can see when you’re typing, you know.

Harvey balled a fist and pressed it against his forehead with his eyes closed for a few moments before looking back at his phone to formulate a response.

I was trying to decide which vague emoji I should send to let you know that I want to see you tonight, he replied, and then sent another, I heard that was better than forthright questions with punctuation and proper spelling.

LOL. was all Haley said, but the three dots showed up on the screen, so he knew she was typing. Entering your “kids these days” era, I see.

Harvey laughed aloud, but before he could come up with a response there was another text from Haley.

Please, wise grandpappy, tell me about the days of your youth, she wrote. And then another, What emojis did you have in mind?

He hadn’t realized how slow of a texter he was until he had to scroll through the pages of emojis (since when were there so many of them?) until he found a takeout container, a candle, and a bed.

He deleted the bed one, instead adding the couch, but then he remembered just what they’d done on her couch yesterday and deleted that too. He settled on the emoji of two people holding hands and pressed send.

Haley took less than a minute to respond: I wish, but alas. I’m sleeping over at Jane’s tonight because she has about a million strawberries, parsnips, and garlic to harvest tomorrow and I said I’d help her because I’m a good friend.

She added a few angel emojis.

Very generous of you, Harvey said. How about I bring you both dinner, so you’re fueled up for tomorrow?

Very generous of YOU, Dr. Harvey. We accept. Jane will provide a salad and I will provide my excellent company.

Harvey grinned at his phone before stowing it in his pocket and going to lock up the clinic.

+++

Around 9 PM, Haley, Jane, and Harvey had shared a pizza from the saloon, a terrific spring salad, and one bottle of Jane’s wine. They’d have opened another if Jane thought Haley could have more and still wake up early tomorrow.

After dinner, Haley had ruffled around drawers in the kitchen until she found a deck of cards for the three of them to play with, which is how Harvey found out that she was intensely invested in card games. Haley’s face lit up as they played round after round of some game where you must race to lose your cards—most of which she won, but even when she lost, she was just as enthusiastic about it. They sat on a rug in front of the fireplace, the orange cat sleeping next to Jane as they played.

When Jane finally wanted to go to bed after Haley’s fifth “one more game” plea, Haley fell backwards on the carpet with a flourish, even sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth and closing her eyes.

“You’ve killed me, Janie,” Haley said. “A mortal wound.”

Harvey stared at Haley, an entirely new person from the one he’d imagined for so long—she was better and sweeter and goofier than his mind could have ever come up with.

“I will not keep enabling this addiction!” Jane said. “Enough is enough. I’m throwing the cards into the fire.”

“I can’t hear you over the sound of being dead,” Haley said, and they were all laughing. Jane wrapped an old rubber band around the deck, twice, then three times, and stowed them in a little box on the mantle.

Harvey, sure it was his cue to leave, started to move as if to stand, but Haley’s hand caught his arm before he could. He studied her face, her cheeks pink from the wine and lit up by the fireplace. She smiled easily back at him.

“I’m going to bed,” Jane said, already halfway to her bedroom. “Dr. Harvey, I trust you won’t let her stay up too late past her bedtime.”

Haley took a break from staring at Harvey (from making him positively melt under her soft gaze) to stick her tongue out at Jane. Harvey knew how sweet that tongue was; if he thought too much about it, he would most certainly get a boner, and this was not the most opportune time for that.

“Of course,” Harvey said, attempting to school his voice into a tone much more casual than he felt. “She’ll need her energy for picking all those strawberries.”

“Exactly.” Jane smooched the air in the general direction of Haley before pulling the door to her room shut behind her.

As soon as Jane’s steps retreated, it was not lost on Harvey that they were once again alone together. Before he came over, Haley had changed into a pair of tiny, plaid pajama shorts and one of Jane’s oversized tee-shirts, not a bra to be seen. He wanted to skate his fingertips up her bare legs and reach under the hem of the thin fabric until he felt her tits in his palm. His mouth went dry at the image, Haley splayed out on the red carpet, those soft legs wrapped around his waist as he—

“Are you hungry?” She asked.

“No,” Harvey whispered.

She propped herself up on her elbows. “You look like you’re going to devour me.”

Harvey laughed, but it was more of a breath.

Harvey leaned towards Haley until their faces were just inches apart, so slow, like he might go off if he moved too fast. He could smell her breath—the wine and the berries they’d had for dessert. He did want to devour her, he wanted to ravish her and put his mouth to every part of her body and make her come apart under him again and again until they both were too tired to stay awake, and then he wanted to wake up with her arm across his chest as she drooled onto her pillow. She would be perfect like that, too.

“I like you, Haley,” Harvey said, his breath on her lips. “So very much.”

“You do?” She asked, all teasing gone from her voice.

“Of course,” Harvey brought his hand up to her neck, where he cradled the side of her face and brushed the pad of his thumb over her cheek. “You’re radiant. This ball of goodness. And you’re funny, and sweet, sexy, loyal, kind—”

“I don’t know how many people in this town would call me kind,” Haley said. “Or even nice for that matter.”

“They don’t know, then,” Harvey stared into her eyes, so perfectly blue. “They have no idea.”

“And you do?”

Harvey pulled her the last of the distance to him and dropped his lips on hers. It wasn’t frantic or intense like it had been that morning or the days before, it was gentle and unrushed. It was his tongue sliding over hers, hers pushing at his likewise, and Harvey’s hand moving from Haley’s neck to her chest, her hips, her thigh, then beneath her shirt like he’d hoped.

It was a slow sort of seduction, the hot skin of her belly and her little hand bunching in his hair. It left him breathless, and every part of him ached to be closer to her, to bring her into his arms, his lap, to nestle himself where he knew she felt so warm and tight.

He wanted to taste her moans and used his fingers to tease them out of her as he slid two between her folds. Haley broke their kiss, only to press her mouth next to his ear where her quiet breaths and sounds were for him alone.

She reached for the front of his pants, where his penis strained against the material, but he intercepted her hand and put it back in his hair.

“Just you tonight,” he said. “I couldn’t be quiet if I tried.”

She lightly groaned at the news, but quickly forgot her protestations and arched her back, pushing herself fully against his chest as he pressed his thumb to her clit.

“You have to be quiet, baby, can you be quiet?”

Harvey watched as Haley bit her lower lip. She closed her eyes at the pleasure, then nodded.

“Good.”

He kissed her again, matching the movement of his tongue with the pace of his fingers. She wasn’t even grinding against him, yet he thought he might be able to come like this, both of them trying to be silent in the living room of this old farmhouse, Haley’s best friend next door.

“I’m—”

“Go ahead, baby,” Harvey said over her mouth, and reveled as she clenched around his fingers and her body writhed. She was quiet, hardly a sound, but her fingers dug into his shoulder, and she bit down on her lower lip. It was impressive; he wanted to moan just watching her and it was an effort to hold back.

He wished it was his cock making her come like this, but he also loved feeling how unbelievably wet she was, positively dripping on him.

She leaned her forehead against his as she came down, their heavy breaths mingling in front of them.

“I like you too,” Haley said. “To be clear.”

Harvey used the hand that wasn’t still covered in her to brush a stray hair behind her ear and kissed first the tips of her cheeks, then her nose, her closed eyelids before finally, her lips.

“Good,” he said and kissed her again.

+++

Haley realized quickly that harvesting crops was not for the faint of heart. Jane woke her up just before 8 AM, already dressed and dirty, and said she’d already checked in on the animals so they could focus on harvesting all morning. She’d made breakfast, too, and whatever it was smelled amazing.

Haley groaned and rolled over in Jane’s bed, not hungover, but feeling a bit of a headache.

“Here.” Jane held out two pills and a jar of orange juice. Haley squinted at her friend but propped herself up to take both. “Let’s eat and then try to get everything picked before lunch.”

“Why did I agree to this?”

“Because you love me. And you needed something to do other than masturbate to the mental replay of being dicked down by Harvey,” Jane said, and patted a pile of farm clothes she’d left out for Haley to wear. “Get dressed.”

Haley was grateful that Jane made her eat such a big breakfast because the work was intense. Her ankles, knees, and back were all aching by lunch time when they had harvested all the outside crops. It was miraculous to Haley who at first wasn’t sure they’d be done before dinner. It was hard work, but Haley felt surprisingly terrific, her muscles were sore, and she was very sweaty in this farmer-chic ensemble (she had definitely never owned a pair of overalls), but she felt strong. The work on the farm was both a physical and mental push, but couldn’t deny she felt awesome, like she’d just finished a super satisfying work out. No wonder Jane was so happy all the time.

There was still a bit more work on the farm to be done before Jane could call it a day, so Haley went inside to put together a salad and some strawberry lemonade. By the time it was ready, Jane was just finishing up in the greenhouse and was ready to eat on the porch.

“Thank you for doing this,” Jane said over a big bite of salad. “I’d be working until seven without you here.”

“I actually kind of loved it,” Haley admitted. “I get why you’re so into it.”

“I’m looking to hire someone part-time if you want to apply,” Jane said, but sarcastically, as if Haley wouldn’t in a million years consider applying.

“What would they do? The farmhands.”

“Be farmhands,” Jane shrugged. “I especially need help with the wine and the animals. . . And the crops now that I think about it. A little bit of everything.”

Haley chewed on a bite of salad, then took a long sip of lemonade. A job wouldn’t be the worst thing. She didn’t have to work; the house was long since taken care of and her and Emily’s parents had left more than enough to cover other expenses. She’d have less time for photography if she got a job, but how many days a week did she just stand around or read, not really working on photography at all?

It might be nice to have some extra money, too. Money that was just hers, that she’d earned.

“I’ll apply,” Haley said. “But my résumé is pretty sad.”

Haley speared a strawberry with her fork and Jane assessed her.

“Really,” Haley said. “I’d like to.”

Jane set her bowl down on the wooden step next to her and looked out over the farm. Haley did too. Jane had built something quite impressive all on her own, fields of crops and a slew of happy animals, beehives, and even a whole barn for making wine. Haley figured she could do even more if she had someone helping, even just a few hours a week.

“When can you start?” Jane said.

Haley looked at her friend, then back out at the field. “Tomorrow, if you’ll have me.”

Chapter Text

The next week went by in a blur for Harvey, between the mostly empty days at the clinic, and the perfect, wholly intoxicating evenings with Haley. She finished her work at the farm just after lunch and by the time Harvey got to her house in the afternoon, she smelled fresh and her hair was damp from the shower.

They’d watched movies, cooked together, had loads of sex almost everywhere in Haley’s house, and even read quietly a couple of nights until Haley fell asleep with her head on Harvey’s chest.

He still hadn’t slept over, though he wanted to. Seeing her eyes grow heavy, her blinks becoming less frequent and her breath slowing, she was so perfect like that. She was adorable and vulnerable, and he wanted to wake up next to her and kiss her eyelids until she blinked awake, and then he wanted to walk her to Jane’s just after sunrise before going to work himself.

He couldn’t, though.

Those were all boyfriend things, things that someone who was madly in love with Haley would want to do. He, of course, was madly in love—he wouldn’t delude himself to thinking he wasn’t—but he didn’t know how he was supposed to act. Haley was so much younger than him, cooler and hotter, too. She was smart and silly, and he was. . . Well, he was Harvey.

Harvey had always been shy; even at events where he knew everyone, he preferred to blend into the background, or better yet, to not be there at all. He liked being around people, he really did, but it was just so draining sometimes trying to be normal in a big group. It felt easy when it was just him and Haley, even with Jane around it felt simple, but what was to say he’d be able to act even relatively cool at the next festival?

He managed, somehow, to get through his Monday somewhat normally. He took his usual walk, did his usual worrying, and then saw George and Evelyn, grateful for the distraction. The distraction was short-lived, though, because Haley was waiting in the lobby after George’s appointment, studying a medical catalog on the counter. When she saw Harvey and the old couple, she shut the magazine and grinned.

“Haley!” Evelyn said, and Haley stepped into her arms for a hug. “Oh, it’s great to see you, sweetheart.”

George grunted, some sort of agreement, and Haley patted him on the shoulder.

“I expect you two are in perfect health,” Haley said as she rifled in what looked like Jane’s old backpack for something.

“Something like that,” George muttered.

Haley withdrew a few stalks of leeks from the bag, held together with string. George’s face lit up at the offering, and if Harvey had known that a few leeks were all it took to get George’s affection, he’d have been foraging around for them a long time ago.

“Why don’t you come over tonight and we’ll cook something up with these?” Evelyn offered.

Haley put on a show of being sad that she couldn’t—said she had a bit more work on Jane’s farm in the evening, which Harvey suspected wasn’t true.

“Why don’t you tell Alex to invite Maru, though,” Haley said. “She loves leeks.”

Evelyn looked unsure at the idea but nodded along at Haley’s enthusiasm before pushing George the rest of the way to the door. Haley ran over, holding it for them as they passed through, and when they were finally fully gone, dashed back to the counter.

He still could hardly believe how cute she looked in the baggy overalls and old grid ball tee-shirt she’d been sporting since starting at Jane’s. Her hair, too, was pulled back in a messy braid, and instead of sandals, she wore little blue sneakers, stained brown in some places. He was pretty sure that a month ago she never would have left the house like this, but here she was, her skin gold from the days in the sun, her eyes brighter than ever.

“I have to tell you something,” Haley said, brimming with something.

“Good afternoon to you, too, Haley. You’re looking nice. And yes, I’ve had a great morning so far, thanks for asking.”

Haley rolled her eyes but pressed up on her toes to give him a kiss anyway. Harvey went in for two more.

“Enough smooching,” Haley said but kissed him again before pulling away. “I learned a secret.”

“What kind?”

“A big one, a townsperson secret, a hot, hot piece of gossip.”

“Who about?”

“Alex,” Haley said.

“Oh?” Harvey knew those two had been close, but he hadn’t seen them together in some time. Not since she and Harvey started seeing each other at least.

“Jane and I went to the bathhouse after lunch today and saw Alex, which—no big deal, he’s there sometimes. But he didn’t see us, and when we finally got changed and headed into the bath, he was there.”

“Okay. . .” Harvey tried to draw the salacious conclusion she seemed to have.

“He was there with Maru! Your assistant!”

“I know Maru, yes,” Harvey laughed.

“They were kissing! On the mouth! So much kissing they didn’t even hear us walk in,” Haley’s eyes were wide. She definitely expected this to be huge news to Harvey who didn’t know how to school his face in proper surprise.

“Why aren’t you freaking out? Maru and Alex are a thing—I didn’t even think they talked to each other much less made out in bathhouses together.”

Harvey rubbed the back of his neck. “I figured it out a few weeks ago,” he said.

Haley blinked at the admission. “How?”

Harvey thought about the mono. “Strange sort of. . . Coincidence.”

Haley gasped. “Why didn’t you tell me!”

“Patient confidentiality.”

“Well patient confidentiality doesn’t apply to your girlfriend, surely,” Haley said, then halted in her laughing at the word.

They both paused, looking at each other, and Harvey tried to formulate words in his brain that was short-circuiting on girlfriend, girlfriend, girlfriend, girlfriend.

“Sorry, I—” Haley started, but Harvey cut her off with the wave of his hand.

“Don’t be,” he said.

“I, well,” Haley took a big breath, “am I? Your girlfriend, I mean.”

Harvey chewed on the inside of his bottom lip and, needing just an inch of space to regain his grip on the English language, paced past Haley to behind the counter. She looked on, uneasy.

“I’d like you to be,” he said finally. “I just—”

Haley’s eyebrows gathered in the middle of her forehead.

“Are you sure?” Harvey asked. “That you’d want to be with me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, if you were worried, or something,” Harvey started, “about what people might think.”

“What people?”

Harvey lifted his shoulders. “Everyone?”

She processed this, working out some equation in her mind before speaking again. “Are you worried?”

Harvey didn’t know how to say that yes, in fact, he was worried about what people might think about them. If Alex and Maru were an odd pair, he and Haley were stranger. At least Alex and Maru were roughly the same age, nobody would bat an eye about them.

“Why are you worried?” Haley said, his silence answer enough.

“It’s my job, Hales—I was your doctor before we were anything else, how does that look? Are they going to think I’m predatory? Will they even trust me?”

“Predatory? Harvey, I turned 25 last week, I’m not some seventeen-year-old falling for my creepy doctor—”

“I know that, but—”

“Obviously you don’t!” Haley said. “You want to end up like Lewis and Marnie? He won’t tell anyone because he’s worried about his place in this town—worried about people respecting him, but everybody knows! All he’s doing is making Marnie miserable, keeping her a secret, is that what you want?”

Haley steadied her breath in the quiet that fell, eventually settling her gaze on the counter between them. Harvey didn’t respond, because obviously he didn’t want that, but things were getting royally fucked with every word that came out of his mouth, and he didn’t know what to say to fix it.

“Harvey, I’ve,” Haley paused, taking another breath before meeting his eyes. “I’ve spent enough time distancing myself from this town. You’re not some secret I want to keep.”

Harvey wanted to say that neither was she! How could he want to hide how he felt about her when how he felt about her was practically all he thought about? It was consuming him—of course he wanted to tell everyone, he wanted to marry her in a strange little ceremony in the middle of the square with Mayor Lewis in his fancy suit and then he wanted to have little golden-haired babies with her; but how could he say this? How could he say any of this?

“Haley—”

“I can’t do this right now,” Haley put her hands up in front of her, inching away from Harvey towards the door. “Figure your shit out and then come talk to me.”

The bell over the door reverberated in the quiet space long after Haley had gone. Harvey scrubbed his hands down his face.

“Shit.”

Chapter Text

Haley didn’t want to work. She didn’t want to do anything, in fact, she wanted to lie on her bed for forty-two hours and mope. It was her right.

But Jane had a lot to do before the flower dance, and Haley had already promised to help with the animals, so the next day she pulled on a pair of old jeans and made her way to the farm, walking down by Marnie’s place so that she wouldn’t be tempted to knock on the clinic door until Harvey came down, sleep-mussed and adorable, so that she could yell at him and kiss him and make him love her.

Ugh.

She’d texted Jane a spark notes of the events as soon as she got home the night before but said she didn’t want to discuss it past that. When she showed up on Jane’s farm, she maintained that there would be no doctor talk until work was over.

Jane just nodded and handed Haley a toasted and buttered bagel before they got to work.

Haley pushed herself harder than usual, fully mucking out the whole of the barn before moving on to the coop. It took until lunch, when she and Jane took up their usual seats on the porch stairs, quietly eating leftover stew. Jane didn’t push, just talked about what else she wanted to get done before the festival tomorrow, thanking her profusely for the help all the while.

“Here,” Jane reached into her backpack and withdrew a bottle of sunscreen that she dropped in Haley’s lap. “I don’t want you to get a burn before tomorrow.”

Haley considered the bottle before squeezing a pool of it on her palm and rubbing it over her grimy face, neck, and arms. She smelled horrible, as she did most days after working in the farm, but she was growing to not mind it so much.

“I don’t know about tomorrow.” Haley replaced the sun hat on her head. “Alex is going to dance with Maru and—”

Haley stopped short, still not wanting to talk about Harvey.

“I’ll dance with you,” Jane said through a mouthful of sandwich. “I love dancing.”

“You have to dance with my sister,” Haley said.

“Shane will dance with Emily. It’s what they’ve always done. You have to come; I won’t let you miss it.”

“But—”

“It’s your favorite festival, babe. You’re not missing it.”

Haley chewed on a carrot stick as she looked out over the farm. The flower festival had always been her favorite; there was something so romantic and novel about meeting in that field, the dresses, the dance. It was magical, really.

“I want to dance with him,” Haley admitted.

“I know,” Jane said. They sat quietly, finishing their meals and lemonades. The cat meowed before circling once and settling next to Jane on the porch, purring.

Jane took Haley’s plate and stacked their cups. “Give him time,” she said.

Haley gave a semblance of a nod, though she wasn’t sure any amount of time could change Harvey’s mind.

+++

Because Haley was nice (and Jane had annoyed her until she said yes), all the young women in town were invited to get ready for the flower festival at her house. Haley helped everyone with their makeup, Emily provided flowers for their hair, and Leah did intricate braids for each of them. It was quite the operation, but after a few hours, they all looked perfect in their white dresses, different colors of flowers adorning each of their heads.

“Your dress. . .” Leah came up behind Haley as she applied a final sweep of lipstick in front of her vanity. The other girls were in the living room eating fruit salad from mismatched bowls.

“You like it?”

“Yes,” Leah sighed. “You’re just hot as fuck, per usual.”

Haley rolled her eyes, but she knew Leah could see the blush creeping up her neck.

“Oh, Haley. We could be so sexy together.”

“We are the two best-looking people in the valley,” Haley said, but her heart wasn’t in it. Leah didn’t mean what she said, not really. The two of them were good for hookups, but not compatible on a larger scale. And even if they were, Haley still felt like she had a big bleeding gash in her chest where Harvey had been nesting.

Leah placed a hand on Haley’s lower back, just above her ass. “Dance with me today,” she said. “And then I’ll make whatever hurt you have go away, even just for a while.”

Haley considered the offer. This day last year they’d snuck away to Haley’s cabin to have hours of sex, split up by watching movies and eating leftovers from the festival. It had been nice.

“No,” Haley said. She met Leah’s eyes through the mirror. “But thanks. I appreciate it.”

Leah took a moment but then nodded, dropping a light kiss on Haley’s bare shoulder before leaving the room.

Haley took one last look in the mirror, inhaling deeply through her nose before she grabbed her camera and left to join the others.

+++

Harvey wasn’t going to the flower dance. He had the blue suit on, but he wasn’t going to go. He couldn’t. He paced back and forth the length of his apartment thinking about just how much he could not go.

It would be a disaster.

If he went and he saw her there, he didn’t know what would happen. Or rather, he did know; he would beg her to forgive him, resorting to kneeling on the ground if he had to—and then she’d probably reject him, because she was better than someone’s secret, and then not only would everyone know he was obsessed with her, they’d know she didn’t reciprocate, or if she had, she didn’t anymore.

She’d been right about the town, he could see this now—Lewis and Marnie were miserable, and for what? Nobody would blink if those two got married. There had to be a chance that they’d accept them, too.

Pierre might make a wisecrack or two about it (he was the very, very worst), but Haley was an adult, and so was he. They could be trusted to make smart decisions.

His skin still crawled at the thought of marching down there. The festivities had already begun. He’d be late, but not late enough to miss the dance if he hurried.

And, really, what was the alternative? Staying here in his little apartment with his planes and his books and his microwave meals and he never tell her how he feels about her? How he’d do anything, anything, to be with her and be good for her.

Harvey took one more sidelong look at his clock before grabbing his key.

+++

Haley fell into a happy rhythm at the flower dance, taking photos of the townspeople having a great time with each other. Her whole torso was still aching at Harvey’s obvious absence, but it was impossible to be entirely sad at the flower dance. It was too lovely and joyful, the last taste of spring before summer started seeping in.

Haley snapped a few photos of Shane and Jas, then some posed and candid of Abigail, Alex, Penny, and Sebastian. Maru and Alex, too, who were holding hands and talking beneath a tree. And of course, Jane, who was bouncing from group to group, pulling Haley along behind her and forcing people to smile for the camera. Nobody could say no to Jane.

Alex had messaged Haley the evening before to say sorry, but he couldn’t dance with her this year—it was nothing personal, but he was going to dance with someone else. She said she understood.

But now that it was almost time to dance, the ache in her chest was expanding, leaving a heavy weight on her limbs. She almost wished Alex was still going to dance with her, if only for a sense of normalcy.

“I want to sit out,” Haley whispered to Jane as they approached the lines.

“I won’t let you.” Jane gave Haley’s hand a final squeeze before taking her spot in line across from her. The whole town looked on at the two rows of young people, soft smiles on their faces for the tradition. Haley looked down at her feet before setting her shoulders—she’d take two big breaths and then she’d be okay. She wouldn’t think of him.

Haley took her two breaths and looked up at Jane as the song was starting. Jane, though, was not looking at Haley—she was looking past Haley, and grinning like a fool. Jane stepped out of her place taking Shane’s spot instead, and just as the music started to play, Harvey was there. He was out of breath, in his blue suit, the tie crooked tied around his neck and his hair out of place like he’d been running his fingers through it too much. Shane, for his part, looks thrilled to be able to melt off the dance floor to dance on the sidelines with Jas.

Haley didn’t breathe as Harvey stood across from her in line and bowed in time with the others. It took her a moment to process it, but she’d done the dance so many times she managed to make her way through the routine without pause, eyes on Harvey’s all the while. He didn’t look away, not as they stepped together, and then apart, not as they circled each other, his sleeve just brushing her bare arm, and not as the song ended, the final notes playing from Lewis’s old speaker.

The cheering and applause of the rest of the town pulled Haley from her reverie, and she finally broke their gaze, belatedly joining the clapping.

Most joined the group on the makeshift dance floor, already dancing to the next song, but Harvey grabbed Haley’s hand from where it hung limply at her side and dragged her to the edge of the woods. It was quieter, though they could still hear the music and laughter. No doubt everyone could see them, and many were probably watching, but Haley just watched as Harvey dropped her hand and paced a few steps back and forth in front of her.

She didn’t speak, didn’t know what to say. “You came” didn’t feel right, and “Please kiss me right now” would be coming on way too strong. Haley figured that he didn’t need strong right now. He looked skittish, like a stressed animal. So, she said nothing and waited.

He stopped pacing and propped his hands on his hips under his suit coat.

“I was stupid,” Harvey said. His voice was surprising and familiar—she hadn’t realized she’d missed it. “I don’t ever want to keep you a secret, Haley, you don’t deserve that.”

She kept her mouth shut still because she was afraid if she spoke, she’d tell him she’d be a secret as long as he needed, forever even, if he’d just kiss her and brush his thumbs over her cheeks and tell her how pretty she was in this dress.

“I love you,” Harvey said. He dropped his hands from his hips and moved closer to Haley. “Absurdly so, I think about you constantly, I have for months, but before I got to know you I didn’t know you would be so—”


Harvey waved his hands between them.

“I didn’t know you would be so you.”

Haley exhaled the breath she’d been holding, startled by his omission but not quite sure how to take what he’d just said.

“You’re unexpected, I think you surprise me every day. And your laugh, fuck, it’s my favorite sound. I don’t know how I can get any work done with you around because when you are I just want to talk with you and make you smile and make you orgasm a dozen times, and when you’re not around I’m just trying to figure out a way to get back to where you are.”

Harvey stood closer, but didn’t touch her—God, why wouldn’t he touch her? He still had that intense look in his eyes, the one that make Haley think he might sprint away from her at any moment.

“I love you in a big scary way and I was so scared that people might think I felt anything less for you, Haley. And I know I’m supposed to say it’s okay if you don’t feel the same, but I don’t want to even consider a world where you don’t love me back—it sounds like the most miserable reality. I want you to choose me and forgive me and I think I’d do anything short of murder to make you see that—”

“Okay,” Haley said finally, her voice barely a whisper. Harvey stopped babbling and shut his mouth. Haley watched a muscle in his jaw work as she thought about what she was going to say. She’d never heard so many words from him, there was a lot to work through there. Much to unpack.

She decided to save her words, instead closing the space between them, and pressing to her toes to bring their lips together. She kissed him once, a long gentle kiss with her hand steadying her on his shoulder. When she pulled away, Harvey watched her through those thick lenses.

“I do,” she said. “I love you.”

Harvey studied her face for a moment longer before pulling her to him, crushing her in a kiss his lips traveling over hers, his teeth nipping at her bottom lip. Whistling and clapping from the field stopped them short, but he kept her in a tight embrace as they looked out at the dance floor where most of the town was watching the spectacle that was Haley and Harvey practically making out a few yards away. Harvey flushed crimson but held her to him anyway.

“Say it again,” Harvey said.

“I love you,” Haley said, and even speaking the words made her heart race.

“Good,” he said, and kissed her again, this time dipping her backward, to the delight of everyone.

+++


Emily slept over at Jane’s after the flower dance, walking with Harvey and Haley until the southern entrance to the farm before parting ways telling them to be safe and not to do anything Jane wouldn’t do. Harvey blushed at the insinuation, but then again, he’d been blushing most of the evening.

Everyone was thrilled about the development, congratulating them, some saying they’d been suspicious something had been going on between them. Harvey tried not to be too awkward for the most part, but he was thrilled when the night was over, and they could retreat to their own private cocoon away from everyone.

Haley’s house was dark when the pair got inside, and they didn’t bother turning on any lights. Haley led Harvey to her bedroom where the white moonlight shone in through the thin curtains.

Without speaking, Harvey helped Haley pluck the flowers and pins from her hair and deposited them on her vanity. He ran his fingers through the blonde waves, loosening them before unbuttoning the row of pearl white buttons down her back. When he reached the bottom, he pushed the straps down her shoulders and she stepped out of the skirt, leaving her in only cotton panties and a thin bralette. He draped the dress over the back of the chair before she got to work on his clothes, first his suit coat, then the tie, the button-up, the belt, his zipper, then his glasses, leaving soft lines around much of the room. They stood before each other in the still quiet.

“I want you to kiss me now,” Haley said, and Harvey obeyed. He’d have done any single thing she asked, proposed, even, if she wanted. That was premature, he knew. The town was not without its traditions; there would first be the bouquet (sunflowers provided by Jane) then the rest from there. They’d take it as it came, and it would be wonderful at every step.

He moved his mouth from hers and traveled down her jaw, then neck, pausing his path downwards at each of her breasts, pulling aside the thin fabric and pulling her nipples one at a time into his mouth. Haley’s legs wobbled as he did, but he braced her from behind, holding around her waist to keep her up.

“I missed you,” he said.

“It’s been two days,” Haley muttered, but she’d held on to him all day like she wouldn’t let him out of her sight for a year, so he knew she didn’t mean it.

“I love you,” he said, finally dropping to her knees and sliding the white underwear off her. He gripped one calf and slowly lifted her leg over his shoulder, kissing the soft inside of her thigh towards her center.

“Mm,” Haley snaked her fingers through his hair. “Again.”

Harvey slid his tongue up her center before focusing on her clit while one hand massaged her ass. “I love you,” he said, and he sucked and licked and groped, drawing out little gasps from her throat.

Haley’s leg tightened around him for support as he drew an orgasm out of her, holding her up as she quaked under his mouth. Her little moans were going straight to his dick, throbbing in his boxers. He could get high off that noise alone.

When her desperate sounds slowed, Harvey took a final lick before kissing his way back up her body. When she regained her balance, Haley put her hands on his chest, halting their make-out to crawl onto her bed. She perched on hands and knees and peered over her shoulder beckoning him forward while pushing her bare ass towards him.

Harvey couldn’t get his boxers off fast enough, nearly tripping over them as he approached the side of the bed and let his hands coast over her thighs, her ass, her bare back. He pushed a finger into her entrance and had to practice some deep breathing for the noise she made. He’d come immediately if he didn’t get himself under control.

“Tell me how much you want this dick, baby,” Harvey said.

“Please,” she said. Then again, quieter, “Please.”

Harvey stood right behind her, the head of his cock at her entrance where he rubbed it up and down her slit, circling it around her clit a few times until she was groaning his name, begging him.

“Say you love me,” he said.

“I love you.” Her voice was a whimper. “I love you, I love you, please—”

Harvey gripped her hips and thrust into her, pulling that perfect pussy around his cock and seating himself fully inside. They both moaned at the beyond-perfect feel of it, the fullness, the tightness, the wet and soft and warm of the moment. When Harvey didn’t make a motion to pull out, Haley’s hips started moving as she fucked herself on his dick like this on her knees in front of him.

“Holy shit,” he breathed, and she kept going, varying her pace and the length of strokes.

“When you can’t take it anymore, you take over,” Haley said, milking his cock like that. From where he stood, he could just see her tits swinging beneath her, and the sight just about gave him an aneurism. He kept his hips in place, but let his hands explore around Haley’s ass as she worked him over so well. He pressed his thumb on her tight hole and groaned as she sped up.

“You love when I play with your ass, don’t you?”

Haley didn’t speak, just moaned in response, pushing herself back against him and then swiveling her hips before rocking forward again. He was close to his limit, his hips nearly bucking on their own, but it was so good he wanted it to go on a little longer. He took some deep breaths through his nose and pressed the tip of his finger slowly into Haley’s hole, just past the rim, and her movements went erratic, moving on his dick with abandon as she came again.

Haley’s pussy clamping down on him was too much, and his hips rutted into her, fucking her hard as their sounds filled her dark room until he was coming too, releasing inside of her.

His hips slowed, as both of them caught their breath.

“I love you, too,” Harvey said and bent over to kiss the back of her neck.

+++

They lay together after they got cleaned up, cuddled under her sheets. Haley’s eyes were heavy, but she didn’t want to fall asleep just yet.

“You’ll stay?” she asked.

Harvey rubbed his palm up the arm across his chest and kissed her forehead.

“You couldn’t get me to leave.”

Haley smiled and pressed her lips to his chest before finally slipping to sleep, already looking forward to waking up next to him tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.