Page 46 of Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss

“You never cared about me having friends,” she said. “You never cared about whether I was happy. You never cared about anything like that. I guess I’m wondering why you would care now?”

Rebecca looked blindsided. “Why would you think I never cared?”

“Because you only ever cared about my grades and how many extra minutes of studying I could fit into a day. Nothing mattered except succeeding. Having a social life didn’t matter. Having fun didn’t matter. Schoolwork was theonlything that mattered.”

It came out heated and too pointed, but Meg was too exhausted to care anymore.

Rebecca frowned. “We were maybe a little… too strict.”

Meg snorted. She hadn’t meant to. It just came out, a reaction born from years of suppressing any sort of sarcasm around her parents. Rebecca’s eyebrows shot up.

“We weren’tthatbad, surely.”

Something in Meg snapped then; all those years of being restrained and quiet and trying to keep the peace just… broke her. Meg opened her mouth and launched into a rant before her mom could draw breath.

“I was never allowed to doanythingif it didn’t contribute to schoolwork. If someone at school had a party, then I wasn’t allowed to go because that was a whole six hours that could be spent doing homework. Because God forbid I get a B plus and not an A. You wonder why Nash was my only friend all those years? It’s because he was the only one who was willing to put up with it. He was the only one who bothered to understand how much pressure I was under.

“And yeah, I ended up going to college in Texas, but the main factor was Nash ditching me, the reason for which I only found outten years later. Otherwise, I would have stayed here and I can’t even beginto imagine how hard you would have flipped out if I’d tried to put my foot down about it. You never even thought of giving me a choice about what I was going to do in school or after it. Thank God Iwantedto go into vet medicine because then at least it was worthwhile.”

She had to pause to take in a deep breath and promptly shut her mouth when she registered the look on her mom’s face. Her eyes were wide, her mouth pressed thin, and with the light shining just right, Meg could see a sheen of tears starting as well.

“That’s why you never visit?” she asked, and God, her voice was so small. Meg had never heard her mom’s voice like that, ever.

Meg rubbed her face and the rough calluses on her palms scratched her cheeks.

“I needed a break,” she said, voice flat. “I needed a break from you.”

It was harsh; she knew that. This whole thing was harsh and horrible, but now that she had started saying what she actually felt, she didn’t know how to stop. And maybe harsh was okay? Now that Meg was an adult, maybe they needed to burn their old relationship to the ground in order to build something new. Shewantedto build something new.

“I suppose…” Rebecca started, smoothing out the edge of the tablecloth. “I suppose I don’t blame you, then. If you don’t love us because of all that. We were just trying our best, that’s all. We wanted the absolute best for you.”

“It’s not that I don’t love you, Mom,” Meg said, working hard to keep a calm and neutral tone. “I tried so hard all the timebecauseI loved you. I just wanted you to say good job. Well done. This has all been worth it. We’re impressed with how you’re doing. I just wanted you to say anything other than ‘now do better next time.’”

There was another pause. While Meg’s words were flowing out of her like a faucet, Rebecca didn’t seem to know what to say.

“Well,” she said after collecting her thoughts. “I thought all of that went without saying. Of course we were proud of you.Areproud of you. Of course you excelled because you’reexcellent. You always have been. I thought it was obvious how pleasedwe were with you — with where you’ve ended up. I suppose… I suppose we assumed wrong.”

It healed something in Meg to hear her say that. Part of her must have known all along that that was how they’d felt. It was why she’d never stopped loving them. But to hearit… all she had needed was to hear the words being said. Maybe there would be cracks between them; maybe there always would be. And even though it was teenage Meg who had needed to hear her mom say it most, at least it was better late than never.

“I don’t hate you,” Meg said softly. “You know that, right? I can be angry and also not hate you.”

Rebecca nodded solemnly. “Iamproud of you, Meggy. I’ll be sure to say it out loud from now on.”

There was an awkward silence, and Rebecca cleared her throat.

“Is there anything else that needs to be said?” she chirped, suddenly businesslike. “Any other skeletons that need to be cleaned out of the closet?”

“I used to sneak out.”

Her mom blinked at her, looking more like an owl than ever. “I beg your pardon?”

“In high school. I would sneak out at night and go hang out with Nash.”

“How often did you do that?”

“Like four times a week.”

Her mom’s mouth hung open like the hinge of her jaw was broken. “Wha— How?”

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