Page 8 of Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss

Meg actually laughed at that, and Mitch’s face turned pinker.

“I really, seriously doubt that,” she said.

“How much does a farm vet even make?” he scoffed.

“Two hundred thousand.”

Mitch’s mouth fell open like a cartoon, and he was momentarily lost for words. Oh, this was so satisfying. She was going to be riding this high forweeks.

“Anyway,” Meg said breezily. “Have fun getting those super accurate numbers which areabsolutelywithin the realm of possibility. Don’t bother calling me when this place starts burning down the second I leave. Tell Dougie I said bye.”

When she turned to actually leave the room, Mitch finally found his voice again.

“How are we supposed to check the — the pregnancies that areimportant, which is why we were having thistalk?”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Just make sure you’re wearing areallylong pair of gloves.”

Before he could say anything else, Meg shut the door in his face.

It took her call being transferred three times to people of increasing superiority, but Meg was finally able to speak to someone named Fiona at Head Office who actually knew what they were talking about. Thoroughly done with any sort of politics or niceties, Meg cut straight to the chase.

“Give me a transfer or I quit.”

There was the smallest of pauses.

“I’m sure we can organize something,” Fiona said in a calming voice, the perfect representative for Human Resources. “Is there a problem in your current position?”

“Yes, his name is Mitch.”

There was the faint tapping of computer keys from the other end of the line.

“I’ll be sure to set up a meeting with you, Meg,” she said, repeating Meg’s name in a bid for familiarity. “We can discuss your concerns, and I really would love to hear any feedback you might have. In the meantime, you’re a valuable asset to the organization and we’d hate to see you go. Let me just pop you on hold, and I’ll see where we might be able to transfer you.”

The same generic tune came on that Meg had been listening to all afternoon, and she settled back in the seat of her truck. She’d stormed off the lot, grabbed her things and not left her truck since. It wasn’t an empty threat that she really was going to quit altogether if she wasn’t transferred, so she’d made the initial phone call to her boss’s boss with all guns blazing. It had done the trick, apparently. She’d been taken seriously. And Meg let herself preen a little at how they all seemed fairly desperate to keep her on the books. She’d known that she was good at her job, but hearing all of them scramble to make sure she didn’t quit was a nice little confidence boost. At the very least, it made her even more determined to never set foot on that lot again to be talked down to by a scrawny man in a too-big hat.

The music clicked off a lot sooner than Meg had anticipated, and Fiona’s soothing voice returned.

“Are you still there, Meg?”

“Yep,” she drawled.

“Excellent. I’m pleased to inform you that we do have a position for someone of your caliber that we need to fill rather urgently.”

Meg felt herself sink into the seat of her truck like her bones were melting. For all of her bravado, it was a relief to know there was a place for her.Thank God for that.

“Is it another lot?” she asked, because despite everything, jumping straight into a new job with absolutely no information wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

“No,” said Fiona with just a flicker of hesitation. “I understand that you’re in Texas currently?”

“Yeah?”

“There’s a property in Wyoming that we’re looking at acquiring,” Fiona continued, sounding more like a thesaurus with every sentence. Wyoming. Jeez, how long had it been since she’d been back there? Too long to think of the answer off the top of her head.

“That’s fine,” she found herself saying. “Wyoming’s fine.” Because what was keeping her in Texas? Nothing really.

Fiona’s relief was palpable through the phone. “That’s excellent, Meg, really. We need someone experienced to evaluate the property and give us some detailed reports on the land, the current livestock, and that sort of thing. We’ll send you with a detailed checklist, of course. It may take a few weeks to get through the whole evaluation since we need to be quite thorough. The current owner has agreed to all of this. He has room and board provided and asks in return that whoever is sent out is able to see to the animals in a veterinary aspect, which I’m sure you’ll agree is quite reasonable.”

Itwasreasonable, but Fiona was on a roll with her spiel, trying to convince Meg to take it, she could tell. Meg jumped in with her questions before Fiona could steamroll ahead.

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