Page 23 of Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss

“Everything all right?” Lucy finished.

“Fine,” Nash said, sounding a little too chipper to be believable. “It’s nothing. Just brother stuff, you know how it is.”

“Yeah. I remember,” Meg said, with a sly lilt in her voice. “Nothing changes, does it? You two are still exactly the same.”

“They’re never going to grow out of it, are they?” Lucy asked Meg, with a long-suffering shake of her head.

“I doubt it,” Meg drawled, as if they were both lost causes. “I think I read a study somewhere that said your personality is set in stone by the age of eight or something…”

“Then there’s no hope, is there?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“Can you stop talking about us like we’re not here?” Will said while the ladies giggled at themselves.

“If you’re feeling left out, stop bickering and come and join the grown-up conversation,” Lucy said, continuing her way to the house without a backwards glance. Will followed obediently, giving Nash one last pointed look over his shoulder. It took all his self-control to not mime a “you’re dead if you say anything” motion at Will. Nash shoved his hands in his pockets to resist the urge.

Meg waited for him. “Are you okay?” she asked when he caught up to her.

“Yeah, why?”

“I don’t know, you went all quiet. Is Will being mean to you?”

She said it with a sly grin. The joy of having her willing to talk to him again was enough to get Nash to smile.

“I’m fine.”

That was enough for her. She nodded and followed the others up to the house while he tagged along behind.

He wasn’t fine, not really, not when he was experiencing a whole new wave of realizations.

Meg had been here all week, and in roughly two minutes she’d shown more warmth and sweetness to Will and Lucy than she had to Nash at all. When he had been standing in the kitchen, he had been thinking how grateful he was that she didn’t seem to actively hate him anymore. He’d thought that maybe this cool, closed-off demeanor that she had was closer to who she was these days, that he was finally getting to see who Meg had grown up to be.

But on hearing guests arrive, with no idea of who it might be, Meg had come out with a megawatt smile and an excess of hospitality.

Eighteen-year-old Nash had thought it best to push her away, all for the greater good. He’d always assumed, or maybehoped,that any pain he had caused had been fleeting. But now… well, seeing the difference between how she acted around him versus other people, how bad had it really been? How much hurt had he put her through?

CHAPTER 9

MEG

So much about running a ranch came down to the tedious task of maintaining fences. If even one panel goes down without you noticing, then all your livestock can wander off and get lost, stolen or killed. And that’s precisely the opposite of what you want to happen to your cattle, isn’t it? That was how Nash was planning to spend the day, roaming around the perimeters of each field, checking what might need repairs.

Meg still wasn’t used to having so much time on her hands. She’d gone from working till she was borderline delirious to actually having wholehoursto herself. In theory it was great. In reality she was bored out of her brain.

“Can I come?” she asked as Nash was chugging down the last of his coffee.

“You want to come check fences?”

“Yeah?”

“Why?” he asked, looking amused.

“Because I’m bored,” Meg said with an honest shrug.

“Checking fences is boring too, you know.”

“It’s less boring than hanging around here on my own.”

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