Page 2 of Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss

“Hmm,” Meg hummed. She wasn’t so sure. One of the major pros was that she would be three states away from Wyoming, which meant being free of her parents for the first time. Therewas freedom within reach with that option. The major con was also that it was three states away… and she would be separated from Nash, unable to just climb up into his treehouse whenever she needed to. Meg honestly didn’t know if she could handle that. Having their friendship change that drastically all at once would be rough… even though they were just friends.

“Whatever,” she said, brushing off her jeans. “I might not even get into Texas.”

Nash rolled his eyes. “Youwillget into Texas. No matter what happens, you’ll get where you’re going, wherever you’re meant to be, that is. I mean, that’s my philosophy. What’s the point in stressing about all these ‘what-ifs’? You just gotta let life happen, you know?”

“What if Iwantto stay…” she said. Voicing her wants was not something that Meg had ever found easy. Especially when Nash was screwing up his face in confusion at her.

“Why?”he asked, as if that was ridiculous. She had made it well known that she was applying to local colleges for veterinary medicine. But everybody seemed to think she did it as a joke.

“Well, maybe I’ll stay for you,” she said, attempting fragile honesty. “You’ll be lonely here.”

He kept his face screwed up at her like she’d just held up a dead raccoon or something equally gross.

“Don’t make decisions about your whole lifebased on whether or notI’mgoing to be lonely, Meg. That’s just dumb. Don’t live for your parents either. You’ve got to do what you want.”

After finishing his personal philosophy lesson, he shrugged as if it all really were that easy. Meg wished it was. She alsodesperately wanted to talk about anything other than college right now.

“Have you even bothered asking anyone to prom?” Meg asked, trying to sound as casual as possible. She had been trying to pretend like she didn’t care about prom. But she cared quite a lot, really. And it was getting harder and harder to keep pretending otherwise.

“Nah,” Nash said, nonchalant as ever. “As if anyone would go with me.”

Meg decided to be brave and bit the bullet on the question she’d been dying to ask him for weeks now.

“We could go together?”

Nash looked at her and registered what she said. Then his eyes lit up, and he smiled. Meg’s heart soared. In fact, her whole body felt like it was flying. Flying and floating all at once, a big, fat smile ready to split her face in two.

“Oh my God, yeah!” Nash said, excited, and Meg could feel her knees go jittery that he was actually saying yes.

“We can go as friends,” he added. “I’m so dumb I never even thought of that.”

Meg’s spirits came crashing back to earth with enough force to shake her inside and out. She was absolutely determined to keep smiling. Because she wasn’t in love with him. Not one bit.

“Yeah, it’ll be, like, so much easier, you know? We can go together, and it’ll be fun. Prom’s just a party at the end of the day.”

Nash sighed, content and happy.

“Done anddone,” he said. “We can go as friends and have a good time and not worry about all the dating politics everyone else is tying themselves in knots over.”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

Her smile faltered for just a second, not even that, half a breath. But Nash seemed to notice, because he noticed things like that about her.

“Meg?” he asked. “Just as friends, right?”

“Right,” she said. Because she wasn’t about to completelydestroy this friendship over a stupid crush that wasn’t at all important and couldn’t possibly be reciprocated by the crushee. “Just friends.”

Meg got up at seven, as always, and ate breakfast at the kitchen table. Routine was important to her parents, and so was a healthy breakfast. Her dad, Vic, was reading his paper. Rebecca, Meg’s mom, was buttering a piece of toast with fierce precision. There had been an awkward atmosphere between them during mealtimes. As Meg’s senior year was winding to a close, they couldn’t exactly say “Go and study some more.” Nothing she did now grade-wise would affect her acceptance into college. There was nothing to studyfor. There was nothing to be late to, nothing to work hard towards. There was a void in Meg’s life and, for the first time ever, blank spaces in her schedule. It seemed to be screwing with her parents way more than it was affecting her.

Conversation had been snappy at best between them over the last few months. And now that Meg was realizing that she was no longer just their kid undertheirroof and she could make decisions for herself, it was becoming unbearable.

“Still no sign of any responses?” Rebecca asked her, as if Meg would pluck acceptance letters out of thin air.

“It’s like, seven thirty on a Monday, Mom,” she said. “No. There have been no responses.”

Her mom clearly didn’t appreciate the tone, but Vic, who had become a surprising peacekeeper lately, ruffled his newspaper in a soothing gesture. Rebecca tutted but said nothing else.

“Any plans, then?” he asked, genial. “You have all of this free time now.”

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