“Being alone with me again?”
Oh, please. “Not even a little bit.”
“Then let me saddle her up and go out with you.”
I huff. “Why? We don’t even really like each other.”
“I think we disproved that last night. Or, at least, Ishowed you that I don’t dislike you at all,” he admits. “I like you a lot. Ilike you more than I should and I came here to stop thinking about how much Ifucking like you and then I find you here.”
Why do I like that? Why does his admission make me want tokiss him? Because I’m a nincompoop. That’s why.
“If you know me at all, it’s not hard to figure out I’meither here or I’m at work,” I try to sound blasé about it, not wanting him tosee how much I like that he found me.
I like that our lives are entwined again in some way.
And also wanting to fight against the like. “I’m leavingnow. If you catch up, I guess we’ll ride together.”
I grab the bridle, give Max a stern look that saysdonot ruin my dramatic exit, and hop up, leaving Cayden behind and hoping hefollows.
Chapter Seven
CAYDEN
I don’t saddle Sadie. There’s no need, I can ride barebackbetter than saddled anyway. There are four possible trails Hadley could’vetaken, and I have no clue which one she would go on. My gut says follow theharder one, because she would want me to not think she went that way, but thenI wonder if she wouldn’t take the beginner one, thinking I would think she ison the advanced one.
Then, there are the two in the middle.
I adjust my balance, holding Sadie’s mane. “Which way girl?Where did she go? Show me the way.”
I give her the reins and she goes to the path in the middle.Neither of those are what I would’ve chosen.
But as we move through the trees, I see Hadley, her backstraight, head lifted toward the sky, and hands out to the side—not evenholding Max’s reins as he walks along.
The trust between those two is fucking breathtaking.
I know it well. My horse Superman and I were that way. I didn’teven have to think, he would just move the way I needed.
Sadie is a great mare, but nothing like the bond I had withmy first horse.
I move carefully, not wanting to spook her or Max while shedoesn’t have control. I clear my throat and pull Sadie back a little. Hadleyturns, her eyes flashing with surprise and then her head falls back.
I grin and make my way toward her. “Found you, Cowgirl.”
“I am not a cowgirl.”
I shrug. “It’s what my stepdad calls my mom, guess it stuck.”
“That’s what he calls her?”
“It’s his nickname for her. My mom was a cowgirl through andthrough.”
“I guess growing up in Tennessee would do that.”
I laugh. “She barrel raced, can rope better than most ranchhands, and helps on our farm.”
“My mother never wanted to run a farm, but Arrowood Farmskind of negated her hopes there,” Hadley smiles and my chest tightens. “I loveit. I loved getting up in the morning, helping with the chores, and then atnight I got to ride.”
When she’s like this, unguarded and open, it’s hard tobreathe. If she knew half of what she does to me, she’d own my world and Ican’t have that. Not when I need her to concede on the case so I have a worldleft.
