Page 18 of Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss

From this angle Meg could see a small smile lifting up the corner of Nash’s mouth, the sunlight hitting his cheek through the kitchen window.

“Everyone told us to sell it, live off the money, you know, that sort of thing. But me and Will are a little stubborn.”

“A little?”

He turned his head again and cocked an eyebrow at her. “Yeah. Alittle. And we were young and invincible, and we couldtotallytake on a whole ranch by ourselves. Besides, neither of us had anything better to do. I was working shifts at the supermarket, just saving money ’cause there wasn’t anywhere to spend it out here. And then I get handed a wholeranchto keep myself busy? I leapt at the chance. Didn’t think anything could go wrong. And Will was excited for the adventure of it all. I guess I was just happy to be pointed in any sort of direction, you know?”

Nash had always been so carefree in school. Meg had always seen it as a positive thing, how he rolled with the punches, not held down by anything concrete. But hearing him talk about beingdirectionless, it sounded sad. And kind of lonely.

“And is Will okay?” Meg asked hesitantly. Because she couldn’t help but notice his absence while she was sitting here listening. Will had always been a little… odd. Prone to believing conspiracy theories, the sort of person that would fall face-first into a pyramid scheme. She couldn’t help but assume the worst…

“He’s fine,” Nash said, and she could see that dimple on the side of his cheek again that meant he was smiling. “We had a few years working here together, and then he met Lucy, and that was the end of that. He was head over heels the second he saw her. They wanted to live together and have a family of their own, and out here wasn’t the place to do it. Town was better for them. Which I get, you know.”

He still sounded sad about it though, as if Will moving on had left him directionless all over again. But then again Meg was probably reading way too much into it. The man before her was as good as a stranger. She needed to stop thinking of the boy she’d known inside and out. Everything was different now. Right? Right. Be practical. Meg just had to bepractical. Which was hard when she was this sleep-deprived, but she was just going to have to persevere.

Either way she would have to think about it later because breakfast was ready, and Meg was no longer able to focus on anything but the bacon and eggs in front of her. Nash didn’t even ask how much she wanted. He split the whole thing in two and piled up some plates, dumping one of them in front of Meg. He plopped a bottle of ketchup down in front of her as well.

“Do you still drench everything in ketchup like you’re putting out a fire?” he asked dryly, sitting opposite and digging in.

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing at all.”

How was she supposed to remain practical when he kept remembering her little quirks so many years later?

At least she had a reason to keep quiet for a bit as they both shoveled food into their mouths like they were starving. It was delicious, hot and crispy, with enough grease to leave Meg’s lips shiny. Along with the coffee that she got up and poured for them, she finally started to feel alive again. God, had she really been thinking of eating a spoon of coffee grounds?

Meg’s train of thought ground to a halt when she looked up and found Nash staring at her unashamedly.

“What?” she said.

“Are you all out of questions or something?” he asked, poking his fork into an egg yolk so that it ran over some bacon. “Never known you to be this quiet.”

“Things can change.”

“Yeah, your DNA changed too?”

“I’ve been eating. Can’t talk and eat at the same time.”

“Sure you can.”

“Not in polite company, you can’t.”

“In what universe does this qualify as polite company?”

She coughed out a laugh but didn’t ask anything else. There were too many questions to ask to pick just one. And this wasnice. They were being nice to each other. She didn’t want to ask something that verged on too personal and shatter the atmosphere that they’d found themselves in.

“I’ll ask a question,” Nash said.

“Hmm,” Meg hummed noncommittally around a mouthful of bacon.

“This boss with the too-big hat? Is he the reason you came here?”

“He was the final straw,” Meg said honestly. “I made the head office give me a transfer.”

“Made them?”

Meg shrugged. “I’m too good for them to lose. They were falling all over themselves to keep me on the books.”

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