Page 14 of Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss

As Meg walked in, she noticed that Nash had left some solar lamps on in the stables, illuminating the space with soft, warm light. Tilly was in her stall and was, indeed, out of sorts.

“Hey, girl,” Meg said in a quiet voice. She got an angry snort in return, which was honestly fair. The mare was pacing in circles around her stall, so much so that she had made a track through her sawdust bedding. She would huff and snort, her ears back, pausing to think about lying down, deciding not to and then starting to pace all over again. So she was definitely uncomfortable, but nothing out of the ordinary. Certainly nothing that rang any alarm bells in Meg’s mind. The mare’s eyes weren’t rolling around, and they were still bright and alert.She wasn’t foaming at the mouth or anything, just snorting out of discomfort. She wasn’t happy, but she was fine.

Nash, however, watched his horse with a laser-like focus, taking in every twitch. The two geldings were in their own stalls, heads over the gates and their ears pointed forward in curiosity as they watched Tilly walk in circles. They obviously knew better than to make a ruckus, keeping quiet so that Tilly didn’t snort at them. Wise boys.

“She’s all right,” Meg said to Nash, who had his hands shoved into his pockets.

“She doesn’t seem all right,” he said. There was no trace of an argument in his voice, just pure concern. His frosty demeanor had vanished, and instead he was just a big ball of anxious concern.

“She’s not having fun, I’ll give you that,” said Meg. “But this is all normal, I promise.”

“Hmm.”

Not once did his eyes leave Tilly, his gaze circling with her as she paced. How long had it been since Meg had seen someone this engaged with their animals? This concerned?

People got worried about the cattle on the industrial lots, sure, but at the end of the day, it was all about business. And it wasbigbusiness too. Efficiency and numbers were king, and there wasn’t room for emotions in that mix. So looking at Nash now, well, it was just a little bit heartbreaking.

Meg still had no idea how he’d ended up running a whole ranch by himself. It wasn’t like they’d had a proper conversation since she’d arrived, let alone delved into each other’s lives. She’d justassumed he was doing all of this begrudgingly, that he wasn’t actually invested. But he looked nothing if not invested right now. He looked like it was the most important thing in the world.

“I guess we’re having a sleepover in the stable, then?” she asked. Nash finally tore his eyes away from the mare.

“You don’t have to,” he started to say, already pushing her away again, already closing himself off and hunching his shoulders. Meg rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I do. You’ll just come running to get me again. And as far as stables go, this iswaynicer than where most of my campouts have been lately.”

Nash was still looking at her skeptically. When did he get soclosed offto everything? Closed off to help, even? It started an itch in Meg’s brain, a desire to find out more instead of just ignoring him. He was still a major jerk, that much was true, but… but now curiosity was biting at her ankles, suddenly more powerful than her desire to avoid him. How did the carefree boy she once knew grow into someone so shielded and cautious? Meg buried a sigh. Her curiosity was going to be the death of her one of these days.

“Nash,” she said firmly. “I want to, so chill. Besides, I think Tilly’s happier with both of us here.”

Nash’s skeptical look stayed firmly on his face, but they both looked over at Tilly, and Meg’s words seemed to be proven true. She was still pacing and still pretty unhappy with the whole ordeal, but she had stopped snorting and constantly stamping her feet.

“Okay,” Nash said, giving in. “Thanks.”

Meg just shrugged, not knowing what to say in return. The awkwardness between them had returned, both of them watching Tilly to avoid looking at one another. Since they were going to be stuck here for a while, Meg was trying to decide whether she should try to break the tension or let the silence linger when she felt a nibble on the end of her ponytail.

“Excuse me,” she said, turning around and pulling her hair free from Gadget’s mouth. “That doesn’t belong to you.” She gave him a pat along the snout anyway. “You’re a troublemaker then, huh?”

“Yep,” Nash said, answering for the horse. He wasn’t smiling; he hadn’t even relaxed his hunched-up shoulders. But he was looking at Gadget with the same fondness he’d shown Tilly.

“He’s the reason I have this,” Nash said, pointing to the scar that sliced through his eyebrow. “Flung me into a fence for no good reason.”

So that solved at least one mystery. Meg’s curiosity came roaring back like a forest fire. If they were going to be out in the stable for the rest of the night, surely talking would be better than stilted silence? Her vow to interact with Nash as little as possible wasn’t some contract written in blood. She could break it whenever she pleased. Right?

“I was wondering about that,” she said, taking the opening she’d been offered. “Looks like it would have needed a fair few stitches.”

Nash kept his eyes firmly on Tilly, his arms crossed against his chest. Now Meg was just waiting for the conversation to falter, for him to grunt a half answer and the silence to come crashingback down. But to her surprise, Nash actually answered, even if his voice was cautious.

“My neighbor superglued it shut and then drove me to the hospital,” he said. “Didn’t break anything, so I got sent home with an ice pack and some painkillers.”

“Your neighbor seems very… neighborly, then,” she said, even though she wasn’t all that sure about the super glue part. A smile made Nash’s mouth twitch.

“He is. If you see some crazy old guy named August wandering around, that’d be him. You probably won’t. He only emerges, like, twice a year.”

“Crazy old guy, noted.”

Now that they were talking,actuallytalking, Meg was desperate not to lose momentum.

“I’ve got a pretty gnarly scar on my thigh from a steer,” she said. It wasn’t a pleasant story to latch onto, but it was better than letting them drift back to cold silence.

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