Page 34 of Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss

“I hope we did because that hardware store might be the worst place on earth.”

“Nah,” he said with an evil grin. “I reckon if I go back, it’ll be a real fun time.”

“You’re a menace.”

“Oh yeah, I never said I wasn’t. If they wanna be mean, I can be meaner.”

“All to protect my honor?”

It was just a joke, honest. She’d just said it as a joke. But Nash was instantly not joking.

“I’d do a lot more than that to protect you, Meg.”

Oh… Meg had no clue what to say to that. Nash looked like he hadn’t meant to say any of that at all, his neck flushing pink and his mouth snapping shut. There was a taut silence between them, made more intense by the fact that Meg knew he meant every single word.

“Well, good to know,” she said, attempting and failing to bring back the joking atmosphere.

“Yep. Now you know. So… good. That’s good. Uh…” He brushed off his hands. “It’s getting late. I guess tomorrow we’ll find out if we really do have enough paint.”

“I guess so.”

They headed for the house to wash up and have dinner, neither of them acknowledging how their conversation had been so similar to flirting.

Any talking between them over the next couple of days kept veering into flirtation. Meg wasn’t doing it on purpose, and she was pretty certain that Nash wasn’t either. But little things kept happening. He would hand her a paint brush and their fingers would touch for just a beat too long. Meg would catch him watching her with a smile on his face, then his cheeks would burn and he’d look away. Nash would catchherlooking athimin much the same manner. For her own sanity Meg decided that it was just the paint fumes getting to them.

This was all in her head, just like her stupid high school crush before the prom night that ruined their friendship. She wasn’t going to let stupid little feelings derail her all over again.

They managed to paint the interiors in record time. It was punishing and Meg’s whole body ached, but it was worth it. Just seeing all of the walls fresh and bright gave them both a boost. It no longer looked abandoned inside. It lookednice. Maybe not quite livable yet. There were some hinges that needed fixing and some beds that needed building. Nevertheless, it was a massive improvement. All their hard work was paying off.

But if this whole plan was actually going to work, then they needed to be thinking three steps ahead. They needed to advertise the place, which meant taking photos. Which meant that it was up to Nash because Meg was the world’s worst photographer. She couldn’t even take a good selfie.

They needed to build some furniture for the smaller buildings before they could take pictures, but showing the barn clean and empty was kind of ideal. It looked huge with the bright newwalls. Nash was snapping pictures from multiple angles when he stopped and looked at Meg like he had an idea.

“You should get in one of the photos,” he said.

“What? Why?”

“To show how big the barn is,” he said with a shrug.

“I’m not even dressed up. I’m in work gear.”

“Isn’t that the point? To show that it’s in the country? You’re an authentic country person in this authentic country barn.”

Meg rolled her eyes, but she had to admit that it was a good idea.

Nash held the camera up to his face, holding it the specific way fathers did at amusement parks. He spoke up first before Meg could make fun of him for it.

“Look happy,” he said, still trying to get just the right angle.

“I am,” she said, and it was a bit of a shock to realize it was the truth. She’d beensatisfiedover the last few years, her career traveling leaps and bounds, buthappy? When was the last time she’d been this happy?

“I mean, look normal-people happy,” Nash said. “Not Meg happy.”

“What’s Meg happy?”

“Usually it involves cows, or maybe ducks. It also involves looking generally disappointed in the world.”

Meg rolled her eyes. “It’s just my face. I can’t help what my face looks like.”

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