Page 69 of Make Your Shot
A frown tugs on Mia’s lips. “I can’t pretend to know what you’re feeling and I never really knew her, but I think if she loved you, she would want you to be happy.”
Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I slowly nod. “I’m beginning to think that maybe she would too.” I push my own plate forward, extending my arms as I reach for Mia’s hand. “Things are easy with you and I like that. A lot.”
“Good,” she says softly, her eyes shining brightly as she threads her fingers within mine. “That’s how it should be—easy and comfortable, like a safe place where you can rest at the end of a long day.”
Her words tug the edges of my heart. “Things withyou just feel...right and natural. Like it’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
“I never want to be a complication in your life, Caleb,” she says quietly, her eyes slowly searching mine. “If you want me to tell my father, I can.”
“I think it’s something I need to do,” I say, dipping my chin. “I’m the one who is technically in the wrong so I think it would be better if he heard it from me.”
“There’s nothing wrong about any of this,” she retorts, her eyebrows tugging closer together. “We could have never predicted that anything would happen between us.”
“It was beyond either of our control,” I agree, my voice barely above a whisper. My feelings for her—I still refuse to dissect them because of my fear. My fear of just how deep they run and how strong of a grip she has on my heart.
I tried to fight this as long as I could, but my resolve is fractured and Mia Landry has infiltrated my heart. She’s crept into the cracks carved in my heart and dare I say, she’s been slowly putting me back together without me even realizing.
“Some things are just meant to be,” she says. “Sometimes we find people when we aren’t even looking.”
I’ve fallen for her and I’m certain there’s no way I can backtrack now.
I’m too far gone and I’m in too deep.
I stare back at her, her eyes burning into mine.
“And sometimes they become more important to you than you ever expected them to be.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
MIA
“You did so good during your lesson today, T,” I tell Tella as we walk to my car parked beside the barn. I open the back door for Tella and she climbs in, plopping onto her booster seat.
“Can we ride together sometime?” she asks as she pulls the seatbelt across her body. I let her do it herself and double check it after she gets it buckled. “Maybe you can ride one of Miss Magnolia’s horses or something.”
“I would love that,” I tell her, smiling brightly as I linger by the back door. “I can ask her. Or maybe we could go to my friends farm where Hank is and ride there. He has a few horses that would be quiet enough for you to ride.”
“Can we do it soon?”
A laugh bubbles in my throat. “Yes, of course. I’ll ask Noah when we get home and I’ll ask Miss Magnolia when we come for your next lesson.”
“Yay!” Tella claps her hands together with exuberance. “Thank you, Mia! We’re going to have so much fun.”
“You know it, babe.” I smile and wink at her before shutting the door. I quickly walk around the back of my car, heading to the front where I climb in behind the steering wheel. I press the engine button and glance back at Tella once more.
Tella’s humming in the back seat, looking out the window as I pull my car from the parking spot. “Maybe my daddy will ride with us too.”
“Has he ever ridden before?” I ask her as we make our way down the drive, heading in the direction of the road. We’re only about fifteen minutes from their house, so it’s a relatively short trip.
“No,” Tella says with a sigh. “Well, he never did with me.”
I look back at her in the rearview mirror just before I pull out onto the road. “We will have to see if we can change that.”
“Maybe he’s afraid.”
Focusing on the road, I grip the steering wheel and nod in response. “He might be, but you know what? Fear isn’t always real. Sometimes it’s just a thing our brains make up. Fear can be good at times because it keeps us safe, but sometimes it can stop us from doing things that might be scary. Sometimes it can get in the way of living our lives.”
“Are you scared of anything?”
