Page 4 of Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss

In the safety of her room, she certainly did have a lot to think about, weighing the pros and cons of each college, the three letters laid out on the bed in front of her. Though the deciding factor had nothing to do with classes or career opportunities. If Meg was being honest with herself, it all came down to the flutter her heart made whenever she thought of Nash.

Staying local meant staying near Nash.

Moving three states away meant… well, it meant being three states away from Nash. Could she actually cope with that? He’d been her lifeline for so long, her best friend who she no longer thought of as just a best friend, no matter how much she wanted to deny it. He’d kept her sane these last two years, reminding her that there was more to the world than books and grades and pushy parents.

When she thought of moving away to the fancy college with all of the accolades, she had to seriously think about how she was ever going to do it without him. Staying here meant she had access tothat lifeline, to his smile, to his carefree attitude that always felt like a fresh breeze on a hot day. Leaving would feel like losing a piece of herself.

She texted Nash, at a loss for what else to do.

I got into all three! Just got to decide.

The response took longer than she expected. Usually he was almost immediate with his answers. But hewasout with his family. It just felt like forever.

Amazing!He wrote.So you’re going out of state then, obvs?

Meg’s fingers hesitated over the phone.

Dunno yet. Gotta think about it.

Nash didn’t respond to that at all, which was a little strange. Meg just had to keep reminding herself that he was out with his family. He was busy, not that it had ever stopped him before. But whatever, she was just overthinking things as always.

She stared at the acceptance letters until her eyes blurred, and she still couldn’t come close to making a decision. Even though, deep down, she knew the decision she wanted to make. She was just so used to overanalyzing everything with her head that listening to her gut felt like a foreign language. So, she made a plan for herself.

When she met up with Nash at the prom in a couple of days, the first thing she was going to do was confess how she felt. She would justsay it, let him know everything, and work out the rest from there.

Prom had turned out pretty much the same as every small-town prom since the eighties had turned out. Crepe paper streamers hung from the ceiling of the gym, and there were snack tables and drinks while teachers and volunteer parents kept guard over everything. Meanwhile the main expense, a light setup that was jittery at best, flushed different colors around the gym at various intervals, completely out of time with the music.

Everyone seemed to be having a good time though. The music was loud, the food wasn’t terrible, and the night was still young.

Meg, however, stood awkwardly in the corner, completely on her own. She’d been there for an hour and Nash hadn’t shown up yet… Nash had never been the greatest at time management. He was usually five minutes late to class, maybe ten if something had actually gone wrong. Not an hour. Adding to her rising panic, he hadn’t been answering her calls to see where he was. She was seriously starting to worry that he’d driven off the road somewhere, that he was lying in a ditch with broken bones when hefinallymessaged back to her dozens of texts.

Yeah?

Meg blinked at her phone for a couple of seconds, trying to make sense of that one word. Yeah? That was it? Maybe hehaddriven off the road somewhere and now had a concussion, because what sort of a response was “yeah?”

Did your tie get caught in a doorframe somewhere?Meg sent, sure there was still some obvious explanation.Don’t tell me you actually forgot prom was tonight?

I just didn’t feel like going, tbh.

Meg’s fingers went a little numb. She wasn’t even sure she could type out a response to that.

You didn’t feel like going?

Nah.

Suddenly the blue tulle dress she had been so excited to wear felt too fluffy, too itchy and too stupid to be seen in.

What do you mean?

I just didn’t feel like going, okay? What’s the big deal?

We were going to go together?

Sorry. I’ve just been caught up with other stuff.

What other stuff?

Like, life stuff, Meg. Trying to find a job. Not all of us are going to college.

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