Page 47 of Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss

“You guys sleep like the dead. It wasn’t hard.”

Her mom took a deep breath and shook her head. “Well. The more you know. Any other secrets to divulge while we’re at it?”

“Can you handle any more?”

“Not really, no.”

“Then no. No more secrets.”

“Good. Sneaking out… my word.”

A smile crept onto her mom’s face as she shook her head in amazement. Seeing that, Meg knew that this was all going to be okay.

CHAPTER 17

MEG

Being up so early, Meg figured she would make breakfast for everyone. Her mom had disappeared back to bed for another hour or so, and then her dad had wandered out. And everything seemed kind of normal again. Not that any of this felt super normal… but it feltnice.

Maybe they weren’t all going to be holding hands and skipping through daisies anytime soon. But after having that conversation with her mom, there was a weight off of Meg’s chest that she hadn’t known was there. A forgiveness that smoothed out plenty of rough edges in their relationship in one fell swoop. And because her thoughts were constantly returning to Nash, she started thinking about forgivinghim. Maybe she should be brave and be the one to reach out, to rip off the Band-Aid and actuallytalkabout things. The more time she spent away from the ranch, the more she wanted to go running straight back.

The number of life-changing realizations Meg was having this week were starting to give her a headache.

Sitting at the table, having breakfast with her dad, Meg marveled over the fact that he still read a physical newspaper.

“I didn’t know you could still buy newspapers?” she said. “Who sells them? A merchant by the side of the road? A small boy shouting the headlines and asking for a penny?”

“I have a subscription,” said Vic, not once taking his eyes from the page. “Would you like the crossword pages or not?”

Of course he had a subscription. That would be the mosteconomicalway to get newspapers, after all. Meg held out her hand despite herself. It wasn’t like she had anything better to do. Vic extracted the pages neatly and passed them over to Meg. Rebecca emerged at some point, looking ready for the day, and they all sat together like it was some sort of postcard for a strong family unit.

“I love you very much, Meggy,” said Rebecca. “But this is… strange.”

“We’ve been having a very enjoyable morning,” Vic said, peering at his wife through his eyeglasses, ready to deflect a potential fight.

“No, it is strange,” Meg said. “Enjoyableandstrange.”

“As long as you two are agreeing,” Vic said, sounding exasperated. “That’s all I can really ask for, isn’t it.”

Meg got bored with the crossword she was working on and flipped over the page to find a different one. Her heart sank through the floor.

There was a half-page advertisement for the hillside buildings, complete with the photos she and Nash had taken. They looked great; they really did. It looked exactly how they had envisioned.Nash had clearly taken steps to get things advertised in order to get bookings coming in. The thought that she wasn’t there helping stabbed Meg through the ribs. She wasn’t mad at him though, not anymore. Now she was mad at herself. She could easily reach out, call or text or drive back there. She just didn’t know how. And seeing everything they had worked on together printed out in front of her was like the universe giving her the most literal sign it could think of.

Her mom looked at her over the top of her coffee cup, her eyebrow raised as usual, this time with curiosity.

“Meg?”

“Still need to catch up on some sleep, I think,” Meg said with a half-hearted attempt at a smile. She left the newspaper page on the table and retreated to her room.

She flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Even though the advertisement was still out in the kitchen, she could clearly see it, imprinted into her mind like her brain had photocopied it. The photos had turned out great. It looked bright and fresh and inviting, just what they had been going for.

Going back to the ranch was out of the question. Her knees felt unstable at the thought of it. Not to mention she knew that if she were to make the drive out of town towards the ranch, she would find any excuse she could to turn her truck around and drive back in the opposite direction.

But she should call him… right? Or text. Something. The more time that passed, the more Meg had been able to really think about Nash’s perspective in all of this, which is what she should have been doing a whole lot sooner. He’d been a stupid kid,trying to protect her, trying to do what was best for her. Meg was the one with a chip on her shoulder about getting bossed around.

And since the conversation with her mom… well, that had added a whole new layer to it as well. Her parents weren’t the villains; they never had been. Meg had known that deep down. But seeing how upset it had made her mom to learn just how badly it had affected her over the years… it made Meg a million times more forgiving than she had ever been before.

She had just managed to repair everything with Nash, to reconnect. So what now? She was going to throw it all away because he’d gone about things the wrong way when he was still just a confused kid? That waspetty,if nothing else.

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