Page 40 of Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss

Meg stayed silent and perfectly still. Hopefully, she would just blend in with the surroundings. Everybody would forget she was even there, and Will wouldn’t turn his scrutiny in her direction. It was wishful thinking, but Meg was going to take advantage of it for as long as humanly possible. Because when Will put it together, he was going to beinsufferable.He was Nash’s older brother, after all…

“We’re just tired, okay?” Nash said, getting snappy as he grew more defensive.

“Why? What did you get up to last night?” It fell out of Will’s mouth as a stupid joke, one that would usually be accompanied by waggling eyebrows, but as soon as the words were out, Will realized why they were acting the way they were. Then a smug little grin brightened up his whole face.

“Oh.Oh,okay. I see how it is.”

Nash said nothing, but Meg, preparing to just get this over with, sighed. That was all the confirmation Will needed.

“Oh! Well, thank goodness for that!” he crowed, acting like this was the best news he’d ever received.

That… that wasnotthe reaction that Meg had been expecting. She tried to catch Nash’s eye, but he was looking at Will, still perfectly still.

“Whoo, boy,” continued Will. “I thought I’d be six feet under before this day came, but here I am, still kicking and getting to witness this miracle firsthand.”

“You were expecting this?” Meg asked, still surprised by that. Because according to her,this had only ever been one-sided on her part until very, very recently. But the way Will was acting…

“I mean,no,” Will said, grinning like all of his Christmases had come at once. Meanwhile Nash was still. So, so still. “I never in a million years expected Nash to come clean about this whole malarky. But here we are. I guess I better keep a lookout for some flying pigs as well, because apparently anything is possible.”

He laughed at his own joke, and Meg smiled in an automatic response, her body taking control. Nash still wouldn’t look at her.

“Well, don’t mind me, then. I’ll be off. You lovebirds have a good day. Call if you need me, but I doubt you will. Farewell for now.”

With that he sauntered out the door and back towards his truck, like a cartoon character of some old prospector. Meg was surprised he wasn’t whistling a tune and kicking his heels together as he made his grand exit.

Everything slowed down as what Will had said registered in her brain. Nash’s strange reaction added to her thoughts.

“Come clean about what?” she asked, even though a tiny little part of her already knew what was coming. She hoped desperately that Will was just being crazy like he usually was.

Nash finally looked at her. He looked so sad. He looked absolutely furious. With each passing second a different emotion flashed across his face, and Meg figured she must be looking exactly the same.

“Nash?” God, her voice sounded so quiet in all this empty space. Nash sighed, and it was deep and sad. Then he looked her right in the eye.

“I… I had a massive crush on you in high school. Well, massive is kind of an understatement. But, yeah. I carried a torch for you. I guess you’d call it that. That’s why Will was acting like this was a long time coming… because I’ve felt that way for a long time…”

He petered out with a shake of his head.

“You just wanted to be friends?” Meg had always been so certain that was what he’d wanted. Any time she had tried to stepsideways into a conversation aboutfeelings,he had shut it down.Just friends.

“But how Will was, like,celebratingjust now… Did he know that I was in… that I had a crush on you?”

‘Had a crush’ was such a pathetically inadequate way to describe it. Nash’s eyes flashed with a million different feelings as he put together puzzle pieces of his own.

“It wasn’t just me hiding feelings, then?” he said, not accusing her of anything, just sounding sad.

“I tried to say it,” said Meg, her own eyes darting around the barn. “I didn’t knowhowto say it.”

“But I did?”

“I don’t know… No. Why didn’t you tell menowabout back then?”

It was all coming out jumbled, a reflection of all the thoughts that were whizzing around her brain, all of them too fast to make sense of.

“I didn’t want to lose you,” he said.

She knew how that felt. But her brain itched, still trying to piece things together.

“That’s fine,” she said, processing her thoughts out loud. “That’s all fine because, yeah, I wasn’t exactly able to say it either. Butprom…” Her voice broke on the word, which felt so stupid, but she couldn’t help it. She’d pretended for years that it hadn’t completely ruined her, and she couldn’t pretend anymore.

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