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“Really?”
Emma nodded, but at that moment, her world tipped on its side—or maybe it was the horse doing that. Something slithered across the trail, causing the horse to rear up and then bolt in the opposite direction than they’d been heading. Emma let out a scream and held onto the reins as tight as she could.
4
Caleb
“You know me. I’m not going to just chase some girl I don’t even know.”
“But you said she was beautiful,” Mateo prodded. “And I haven’t seen you smile like that in a long time.” His knowing grin was more infuriating than anything else. He shook his head as he cinched the saddle around his horse.
Caleb brushed off Mateo’s comment, opting to focus on saddling his own steed. “It doesn’t matter if she’s beautiful. For all intents and purposes, she’s a stranger. She could even be a criminal.”
Mateo laughed. “A criminal? You can’t be serious. You don’t even know her.”
“Exactly. Why should I waste my time trying to figure out if her morals align with mine when she could be the exact opposite of what I’m looking for? It’s like you with these dogsyou’re training. People come to you knowing that you will give them exactly what they want, and they don’t have to worry about getting a lemon.”
Mateo laughed again. “So, what you’re saying is that you’d rather be set up by a matchmaker.”
“No, I’msayingthat why should any of us be willing to put ourselves out there when we have no idea what’s waiting? You could get lucky, or you could end up with someone who is capable of faking their death and blaming you for it.”
His friend continued to find humor in what Caleb was saying despite the fact that he spoke the truth. There were plenty of people who wouldn’t bat an eye over ruining a person’s life.
Mateo ran his hand over the animal’s neck and chuckled again. “If you keep looking at life in that way, you’re going to miss out on a lot of opportunities. What if this woman is your soul mate?”
Caleb snorted. “Soul mates don’t exist in the way you think they do.”
“Are you sure about that? Think about it. When someone special comes into your life, whether by chance or when you’re introduced through friends, it was meant to happen one way or another. And if you ignore it, you’re basically ignoring what the man above has planned for you. You owe it to yourself to check it out. Have you thought about why you bumped into that girl in the first place?”
“Yeah, we weren’t paying attention. That’s not the man above telling me that I needed to meet her. That was the man above telling me I need to pay attention to where I’m going.”
Mateo grabbed ahold of the saddle horn and hoisted himself up. “Suit yourself, but I’m telling you that it’s a bad idea to ignore fate.”
“And what do you know about fate?”
It was at that moment that Mateo gave Caleb a side-eye. There was something he wasn’t telling him, but then why would he? They’d only recently started working together. Mateo didn’t owe Caleb anything, evidenced by the way he urged his horse forward. “Just take my word for it. Sometimes you need to throw caution to the wind and do something that scares you. Otherwise, you might miss out on the best life you could’ve had.”
Caleb huffed, climbing onto his own horse. “Seeing as you’re not hitched yet, I find it hard to believe you’re on board with throwing caution to the wind. If anything, you seem a little skittish when it comes to settling down. I’ve seen the way you flirt with girls but never ask them out.”
Mateo glanced at him once more. “It’s true. I’ve been burned before. I’m careful about who I let get close to me. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t lose out on something great.”
“Okay,” Caleb drawled, “but if that were true, then you’d be more open to finding love. Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re wrong.”
Caleb let out a sharp laugh. “Prove it. You sit here preaching to me about how important it is to let people earn my trust, and yet you won’t do the same thing. Either you’re the most hypocritical person I have ever met, or?—”
“Or I have scars and regrets.” Mateo’s happy demeanor shifted to something a little darker. He didn’t meet Caleb’s eyes as he said, “Just because I don’t want to share those stories with you doesn’t mean they didn’t happen. All you have to know is that one day, someone will come into your life who makes you feel like you can conquer the world. And there might be a chance that they hurt you. But there’s just as much of a chance that they will make you feel like…” His voice trailed off, and he shook his head. “Just don’t make the same mistakes that I’ve made.”
“But how am I supposed to know if I’m making the same mistakes as you if you won’t tell me?—”
Mateo dug his heels into his horse and rocketed down a trail, followed by two dogs that seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Caleb charged after them, unable to push aside the questions that continued to swirl in his mind. Mateo was always in such a good mood. He could be stern with his dogs, but that was to be expected.
To think that he’d been hurt by someone so bad that he’d let another love slip through his fingers didn’t give Caleb much hope for himself. If someone as nice as Mateo could be betrayed, then anyone could end up like him.
He shoved down that depressing thought and focused instead on watching how Mateo communicated, not only with his horse but also with the dogs that had come along for the ride. One was bred for sheep and cattle herding, while the other was more like a hunting dog.
Both creatures were majestic in their own right. The more they rode, the easier it became to forget about Mateo’s past experiences and Caleb’s nonexistent ones. Their friendship was still new, but Caleb could see himself getting close enough to Mateo to consider him like another brother.
