Page 12 of Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss

Nash leaned against Tilly’s flank, letting the heat from her fur soak into his cheek. The mare must have been able to sense something was up because she let him lean there without a snort of protest despite her bad mood.

So, what now?

He couldn’t turn Meg away. She was here for a job, and his future depended on her doing that job. Trying to turn her away, to get her to leave, would only make things a million times worse. He could be overly nice to her? Pretend like nothing at all had happened and be friendly? But the look on her face… She didn’t seem like she was all that open to friendly banter. He would keep it professional; that was the best strategy he could come up with at such short notice. If they had to interact, hewould be polite and to the point. The rest of the time, he would just avoid her as best as he could. Was it cowardly? Sure. But it was the best-looking option out of a million really terrible options.

Feeling kind of sick, reality still not quite sinking in, Nash made his way back to the house before he could change his mind. He strode down the hall and knocked on the bedroom door, resisting the urge to run back outside. Meg opened it, looking up at him with a stony expression. If looks could kill, he would have dropped dead.

“Food’s in the kitchen,” he said.

“Yeah, that’s usually where it is,” she said dryly, and Nash pressed his lips together to keep from biting back. She clearly hated his guts; that much was obvious. But if Meg had held a grudge this long, then that was on her. He, on the other hand, was determined to be nothing but professional.

“You can help yourself to whatever you want,” trying and failing to sound hospitable. “Food’s being covered by yourcompany.”

“Okay.”

They stared at each other for another couple of seconds.

“Right,” he said, taking a step back. “Let me know if you need anything.”

She shut the door in his face, and he let out a breath. This was going to be the exact opposite of a good time.

CHAPTER 6

MEG

The first three days on Nash’s ranch were the longest days of Meg’s life. Even though she’d hated being on the industrial farm, even though she’d despised Mitch with every fiber of her being, it had still been less painful than this. Even the hellscape that had been high school and the academic nightmare of college seemed preferable to all of this. At least back at the industrial yards she hadn’t cared. She could stomp around the place all she liked; being grumpy was kind of part of the job towards the end. But here… God, it was just soawkward. She could see Nash’s shoulders tense up whenever she was within sight of him. Not to mention her own body turned to ice whenever he was close.

On the lots she was still someone with power. No matter how much Mitch liked to grandstand, the farm hands knew who to go to if they wanted anything actually done and their questions properly answered. Meg held her own perfectly well against all of those men for all of those years, climbing her way to the top. But here, as soon as she saw Nash, she was turned into that anxious teenager all over again. It was a sickening mixture of nerves, dread, embarrassment and anger. It wasn’t even a red-hot anger she could use as fuel; it was just a sad sort of hurt that didn’t help her one bit.

She thought she had dealt with all of her feelings about him long ago. Apparently not. Apparentlyshe had just stuffed them away, deep down, and ignored them. Now they were back after festering away in the dark for a decade.

At least Nash was just as determined to avoid her as she was to avoid him. That made it a bit easier. They made a dance of it over those first few days.

And thank God she had a job to do. Meg was able to bury her nose in her checklist from dawn till dusk, barely setting foot inside until she absolutely had to. Determined to give an unbiased review of the property because she was aprofessional, Meg was pleasantly surprised by what she found on the Callahan Ranch. It was a little run-down, sure. There were windows and walls patched together with duct tape for a quick fix. Anywhere the cattle and horses hadn’t grazed lately was overgrown and wild. But overall, the place was annoyingly perfect for what Midwest Ag Solutionswas looking for. She managed to tick off a whole page with nothing but positive answers. Compared to some of the horror stories she’d heard from previous evaluations, she could see why the company had been so desperate to get their hands on the place.

The horses were clearly spoiled rotten. The two geldings were friendly, curious creatures who approached her with ears pricked forward. Meg hadn’t gotten around to giving them a full vet check yet, but just from a glance she knew they were healthy and happy. There was a pregnant mare too, and despite looking like she hated the world, she still looked healthy. Though all mares seemed to hate the world just a little bit, even when they weren’t pregnant. So that was nothing out of the ordinary. Shedidnotapproach Meg with open curiosity, and Meg was smart enough to leave her be. She’d rather not get bitten, thank you very much.

The small herd of cattle here were just as well-kept. Their coats were just as glossy as the horses, and from what she could tell, all their feet were in better condition than even the cattle on the industrial lot. And that was saying something. Meg hadn’t known what to expect when she realized Nash was the one running the place, but it hadn’t beenthis. He had always been a slapdash sort of person, doing things halfway more often than not. To see all of these animals in immaculate condition was astounding. And Megabsolutely refusedto let it defrost her attitude towards him, even in the slightest.

But still… a tiny, traitorous part of her wanted to be happy that he’d clearly found something he was good at. Or at least passionate enough about that he had been willing to put in the hard work to learn. Not that she had any intention of asking him how he ended up doing this for a living. For three days she had managed not to say a word to him, and he hadn’t said anything to her either. That was how she preferred they carry on.

Unfortunately, she was a human being and had to eat. Eating meant going to the kitchen. Going to the kitchen meant a much higher likelihood of being in a room with Nash Callahan. The thought crossed her mind to buy a bar fridge and a camp stove and keep them in her room so she wouldn’t have to venture into the kitchen at all. Then she slapped that thought down like she was swatting at a mosquito. She wasn’t going to be so ridiculous. She certainly wasn’t going to shrink and hide every time she needed to eat. She had to set herself some sort of standards.

Still… Meg usually tried to time her visits to the kitchen so that their paths wouldn’t cross. She even listened at the door of herroom for a solid minute, trying to decipher if there was anyone else on the ground floor, but heard nothing. Which was still as ridiculous as thinking about buying a bar fridge, but whatever. She was the only one who had to know how wound up she was being.

So in the privacy of her own room and her own head, Meg listened at the door like a weirdo and made sure that she didn’t hear any trace of Nash before leaving, venturing out to make herself some dinner. Well, she’d heard wrong. She waltzed into the kitchen, starving and looking forward to food, to find Nash already there. Meg stopped with one foot in the air, like some sort of cartoon character. At least Nash was equally caught off guard, looking at her with raised eyebrows as he stood at the stove.

It was the first time since she’d arrived at the ranch that they’d been this close. Meg briefly debated if turning around and leaving without a word was an option. But she stood there too long, staring at Nash because he looked more than a little bit ridiculous. He was just sobignow, and here he was, standing over the tiny little stove, stirring a pot with his wooden spoon.

They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds. It was still just so strangeto be back together like this, seeing Nash as an adult and seeing him making dinner like everything in the world was normal. This time, Nash was the first one to break the awkward quiet with a question.

“Do you want some?” he asked, pointing his spoon at the pot. It was some sort of beef chili, the steam puffing out of the pot in fragrant clouds.Yeswas the first thought her stupid, hungry brain threw out. It smelled amazing. It would probably taste even better, especially spooned onto the buttered bread rolls that Nash had ready on the counter.

“No,” she said, praying that her stomach didn’t rumble and give her away. “I’m going to make a sandwich.”

God, why did she say that? First of all she didn’t want a sandwich, not really. She had been about to fry up some hash browns or something, maybe some sausage and eggs too. Instead, she was going to make asandwichfor dinner. Why didn’t she just say she was getting a glass of water? Then she could have headed straight back to her room until he was done. Now she had to stay in the kitchen and make the stupid sandwich because her pride was absolutelynotgoing to let her back out of that one. Apparently setting foot on this ranch meant that she’d lost all ability to even think straight.

Her whole brain was scrambled, and it was all this idiot’s fault. A decade later and he was sending her into a spin all over again.

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