Page 44 of Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss

“Do you want to explain to me exactlywhat I did wrong?” Will asked, holding out a hand as if he were trying to calm down a rabid bear.

“I asked you not to say anything to Meg about me being such an idiot in high school. Iaskedyou not to mention anything about the past, that it was done, that we were moving on from that. You looked me in the face and promised. So, what? You just forgot? This afternoon you started blabbing about us ‘finally getting together.’ Talking about me ‘coming clean’? You had no idea what had happened, and because you threw all your little theories out, Meg’s disappeared, and I doubt she’s ever going to talk to me again.”

Will’s face grew more and more somber as Nash ranted.

“I honestly thought you had filled her in, man.”

“Well, I hadn’t.”

“I just thought since, you know, things were sweet between you two now…”

“Yeah, and you ruined it because it all came out at the wrong time.”

“Don’t blame me,” Will said, growing steely.

“I absolutely blame you!”

“You don’t think she deserved to know, man?” Will said, his own anger boiling over. “Were you just going to never mention high school ever again? Just pretend it never happened? She deserved to know how messed up you were about her prancing off to college and never talking to you again. And if she was this upset about it the whole time, then I’mgladI said something, because she really did deserve to know the truth.”

“Maybe, but?—”

“Nomaybe!” Will interrupted, voice getting louder with every word. “You don’t get to storm in here like you’re on fire and start yelling and cursing at me. It’s not my fault that you’re in this mess. It’s yours. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.”

“You shouldn’t have said?—”

“You shouldn’t have done what you did all those years ago!” Will yelled, getting up in Nash’s face, clearly losing the last thread of his patience. “You shouldn’t have abandoned the poor girl, thinking that you knew what was best! You should have reached out, and you should have apologized. You should have done literally anything other than what you did. I was on your side this whole time because you’re my brother and because I saw how it ripped you up, but I’ve changed my mind. You deserve every ounce of that misery because you gave it all to yourself. Meg hasn’t kicked you to the curb now because of something I said. She’s done it because of whatyoudid. So don’t come here launching an attack on me. Go and find her and actually apologize. Or is it too much to ask for you to not be an emotionally repressed jackass?”

They were nose to nose when the front door of Will’s house slammed open and Lucy appeared beside them with a fierce frown of her own.

“Enough,” she said, in a tone that could melt rock. “Take two steps back from each othernow.”

Will obeyed pretty much instantly, still looking like he was ready to smack Nash upside the head. After another piercing glare from Lucy, Nash followed suit and took two steps backwards. Will’s words were ringing in his ears, every one of them. They were seared into his brain like a tattoo, and it hurt just as much as a needle to skin.

“And you? You’re done gawking?!” Lucy said, pointing her gaze towards the neighbors’ house, and sure enough they had an audience. An older couple were watching over the fence with wide eyes. But they had enough decency to pretend to be doing something else when Lucy turned her ire onto them. That was enough to snap Nash out of it, to remind him that there was a world still spinning with other people in it. He was finally able to take a deep breath.

“You,” Lucy said, pointing to Will. “You should’ve watched your mouth. It’s too big for your own good, and you know it. Andyou,” she said, aiming her finger at Nash like a laser. “You dug this hole yourself. Will is right about that much, at least. Both of you are wrong. Both of you are idiots, and both of you need to calm down and act like grown men instead of little boys.”

Nash had embraced the anger — clung to it — because he knew once that disappeared, he’d be left with nothing but that dark tunnel, empty and cold. Well, here he was, his anger vanishing as Lucy told both of them off. He looked at the toes of his boots, not wanting to look at her, or Will, or anyone. Right then and there he wished that he could just disappear.

“I was just going,” Nash said, his voice sounding flat even to his own ears. He didn’t bother to wait for a response, and he definitely didn’t look up at either of them. He turned and walked back to his truck, shoulders hunched and hands cramping.

He drove home in silence, the setting sun getting in his eyes because he’d left his sunglasses back at the ranch. His mind was blank, and he didn’t feel much of anything. The only thought that crossed his mind was that the future stretched out in front of him, no longer filled with the possibility of Meg at his side. Instead, the following days, weeks, years… they were all going to be as empty as the road in front of him.

The buildings weren’t completely finished. They looked a hell of a lot better, bright and open and smelling of fresh air and fresh paint. But not finished. At first blush it was daunting, but then Nash was thankful for it. It gave him something to focus on instead of drowning in his own thoughts.

There was a whole pile of lumber that had been accumulating under a tarp for years, and he took the opportunity to go through it and salvage the best pieces. He would make some bookshelves for the weekend getaways. They might not have many books on them, but he could put little decorative things on them, like they did in magazines, just to look pretty. He could make some bedside tables as well; they didn’t have to be super elaborate. In fact, the more rustic they looked, the better. That was the whole vibe they were going for, after all.

Not they. He. The look thathewas going for. Because it was just him now.

He forced those thoughts away, stamped them right down to where they couldn’t bother him. He would make shelves and nightstands and maybe some stools. Ha, he could probably make a big fancy headboard for the beds with some of the wood he had. That’d look nice. He’d screwed up everything else; at the very least, he was going to make this work. It had to work. It was all he had left.

CHAPTER 16

MEG

It was rare when Meg couldn’t sleep. It was something she’d always been grateful for, being able to lay down on any sort of remotely soft surface and just shut off. It was something that she’d inherited from her parents: the ability to sleep like the dead. Maybe it was because she was back under their roof and the whole atmosphere was like traveling back in time. Maybe it was because she was no longer working herself half to death and wasn’t passing out at every opportunity, desperate for just a little bit of rest.

She knew the reason she couldn’t sleep; she just didn’t want to admit it. The problem was that Meg couldn’t avoid thinking about the reason, no matter how hard she tried. Thoughts of Nash circled around her brain like water going down a drain. She would just start to drift off and snippets of conversation would start strolling through her mind, the beginnings of dreams weaving themselves together. Sitting in the treehouse he had made on the ranch. Doingotherthings in the treehouse. Sitting in another treehouse in another lifetime and promising to go to prom together, just as friends, of course. Standing alone at the same prom, heartbroken and flashing forward in timeto Nash confessing that he had pushed her away on purpose. Because apparently everybody had a say in what she did with her life.

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