Last Chance for Her Rancher Boss (Bossy Bachelors)

1. Meg

CHAPTER 1

MEG

M eg’s schedule ran like clockwork, though that schedule was mostly out of her control, either planned out by teachers or her parents. Mostly her parents. Mostly her mother. Her dad as well, but yeah, her mom had the biggest say in how her days ran. But at night, Meg was finally free. Her parents were always asleep by eleven at the latest, and a nuclear bomb could go off next door and they wouldn’t even stir. It made sneaking out almost too easy. Honestly she could just walk straight out the front door, but climbing backwards out the window was way more fun. And she needed all the fun she could get right now.

After shimmying out the window, which was made a little less exciting because it was on the first floor, she set off on her usual route. Walking the streets of Fordswell, alone and in the dark, refreshed her inside and out. The cool breeze tugged at her auburn ponytail as she strode along the sidewalk to Nash’s house. Fordswell was a small town, and without any street lights out in the suburbs, not on the edges where she lived anyway, it was so dark out that she couldn’t even see the freckles that covered every inch of her skin. On the nights when the moon was shining, everything would be painted in monochrome, glowing silver. She felt like a ghost, like she was invisible, and it was a delicious feeling. It made her feel free.

Nash’s house was only a few blocks away, and she knew the way by heart. Walking there in the dark was no problem; she could have walked there with her eyes closed. She knew how to open his garden gate so that the hinges didn’t squeak, and she knew exactly how many steps it was to the base of the tree that took up most of the yard. Twelve. There were nine rungs on the rope ladder that led up to the treehouse, where they met at least a few times a week. Meg had climbed the ladder so many times that the wobbling and swaying of it hadn’t frightened her in years. She climbed, muscle memory taking over, towards the faint orange glow that was leaking from the treehouse.

Nash was in there, ready and waiting, keeping himself occupied with one of his handheld video games. He looked like a giant crammed into the little tree house, his dark hair in his eyes and his long limbs all tangled up. But as soon as Meg’s head popped through the hole in the floor, he set the game aside with a grin.

“You look like a gopher,” he said.

“You say that, like, every time,” she puffed, crawling over.

“It’s true every time.”

Meg tutted and pulled herself into the cramped space. The treehouse had been made for Nash and his brother when they were little, designed for children’s dimensions. It wasn’t exactly made with two lanky teenagers and all their limbs in mind. Meg tucked herself into her usual corner while Nash leaned against the opposite wall, knees pulled up to his chest to give her space to sit.

They’d been friends for years, gravitating towards each other in middle school. At first it had been a friendship of convenience, of solidarity, the sort made in schools and workplaces all over the place. They weren’t exactly social outcasts, not really. But it wasn’t like people flocked to be either of their friends. Meg was the studious, A-grade student, forever with her nose in a book or practicing test papers in the library. She was the one with the strict parents and no room for a social life, even if anyone was interested in being her friend. Nash was the class clown, the guy who didn’t take anything seriously. He mostly bummed around during class and shrugged when anyone asked him anything about his plans for the future. Apparently having way too much focus on the future was just as unappealing in a friendship as having none at all.

So they’d started sitting next to each other in class. They paired up as partners when needed and joined forces for group projects. Meg was able to take control of the assignments, bowing to the immense pressure her parents put on her to be a straight-A student, and Nash would do as she asked, going with the flow as always, benefiting from the grades that he shared with her. In return he was a beacon of light in Meg’s life. He made her laugh one minute and reminded her to breathe the next. He was a normal friend, a taste of life outside of studying and grades and college applications. He was the best thing in her life.

So the friendship might have started out because they just happened to be in the same classroom, but now, right at the tail end of senior year, Meg couldn’t imagine her life without Nash in it. And they were just friends. That was all. She definitely didn’t have a crush on him. Nope. Not one bit. And she was going to keep telling herself that; she needed Nash’s friendship way too much to throw it away attempting to transform it into anything else.

Besides, she wasn’t here to think about stupid feelings that probably weren’t even real in the first place. Meg was here because she was desperate to talk and for someone to actually listen .

“She’s driving me insane.” Meg sighed, launching straight into what she needed to say. “They both are.”

Nash gave her a sympathetic half-smile. He didn’t need any context. He knew very well how overbearing her parents were. “It’s almost over. Just a few more weeks and high school is done forever.”

“Yeah, and then college begins,” she said, rubbing her temples like someone two decades older.

“ Yeah. And it will be totally different than high school. You’ll only be studying vet stuff. So you’ll be loving every minute of it.”

“I just wish these stupid applications would come back already,” Meg said, not really caring about how whiny she sounded. Talking with Nash was the only time she was able to sound whiny and get away with it. And even then, Nash had said to her on multiple occasions that she wasn’t being whiny at all. She was just expressing her feelings, like how people were supposed to.

“You’ll get into all of them,” Nash said confidently as if it were that simple. Her parents seemed to think the same thing — a rare moment for them to have the same opinion as Nash.

At least she hadn’t had to fight her parents on what she wanted to study, just so long as she studied as hard as physically possible. Veterinary medicine was an acceptable career path. At the end of the day, it was still medicine , and it still paid well. Meg was just grateful she’d never had the desire to be an artist or a musician. Her life now might be difficult, but if she’d been born with a creative streak, it would have been impossible.

“You’re lucky,” she said, aware that she was still definitely sulking and not caring one bit. Nash shrugged again, not a care in the world. “What’s it like to have no expectations heaped on you from birth?”

“Can you seriously imagine me in college?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” She scrunched her face as she thought about his question. “Maybe not in any actual classes, but hanging around the campus? Sure. There are parties at college, aren’t there? I can imagine you at those.”

“Very funny.”

“If I go to Texas, you could come in my suitcase or something. Live under my bed.”

“Yeah. That’ll be comfy,” he drawled. “You can sneak me pizza and soda. I’ll be like the dorm room pet. That definitely won’t get either of us arrested or anything.”

He chuckled, amused. Meg managed a small smile.

“I could just go to the local college,” she said, floating the idea out loud. She’d been wanting more and more to just stay here if she was able to but hadn’t actually said anything about it to anyone until right this second.

But Nash frowned. “You’re too good for the local college. If you get into the one in Texas, then you should take that one.”

“Hmm,” Meg hummed. She wasn’t so sure. One of the major pros was that she would be three states away from Wyoming, which meant being free of her parents for the first time. There was freedom within reach with that option. The major con was also that it was three states away… and she would be separated from Nash, unable to just climb up into his treehouse whenever she needed to. Meg honestly didn’t know if she could handle that. Having their friendship change that drastically all at once would be rough… even though they were just friends.

“Whatever,” she said, brushing off her jeans. “I might not even get into Texas.”

Nash rolled his eyes. “You will get into Texas. No matter what happens, you’ll get where you’re going, wherever you’re meant to be, that is. I mean, that’s my philosophy. What’s the point in stressing about all these ‘what-ifs’? You just gotta let life happen, you know?”

“What if I want to stay…” she said. Voicing her wants was not something that Meg had ever found easy. Especially when Nash was screwing up his face in confusion at her.

“Why?” he asked, as if that was ridiculous. She had made it well known that she was applying to local colleges for veterinary medicine. But everybody seemed to think she did it as a joke.

“Well, maybe I’ll stay for you,” she said, attempting fragile honesty. “You’ll be lonely here.”

He kept his face screwed up at her like she’d just held up a dead raccoon or something equally gross.

“Don’t make decisions about your whole life based on whether or not I’m going to be lonely, Meg. That’s just dumb. Don’t live for your parents either. You’ve got to do what you want.”

After finishing his personal philosophy lesson, he shrugged as if it all really were that easy. Meg wished it was. She also desperately wanted to talk about anything other than college right now.

“Have you even bothered asking anyone to prom?” Meg asked, trying to sound as casual as possible. She had been trying to pretend like she didn’t care about prom. But she cared quite a lot, really. And it was getting harder and harder to keep pretending otherwise.

“Nah,” Nash said, nonchalant as ever. “As if anyone would go with me.”

Meg decided to be brave and bit the bullet on the question she’d been dying to ask him for weeks now.

“We could go together?”

Nash looked at her and registered what she said. Then his eyes lit up, and he smiled. Meg’s heart soared. In fact, her whole body felt like it was flying. Flying and floating all at once, a big, fat smile ready to split her face in two.

“Oh my God, yeah!” Nash said, excited, and Meg could feel her knees go jittery that he was actually saying yes.

“We can go as friends,” he added. “I’m so dumb I never even thought of that.”

Meg’s spirits came crashing back to earth with enough force to shake her inside and out. She was absolutely determined to keep smiling. Because she wasn’t in love with him. Not one bit.

“Yeah, it’ll be, like, so much easier, you know? We can go together, and it’ll be fun. Prom’s just a party at the end of the day.”

Nash sighed, content and happy.

“Done and done ,” he said. “We can go as friends and have a good time and not worry about all the dating politics everyone else is tying themselves in knots over.”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

Her smile faltered for just a second, not even that, half a breath. But Nash seemed to notice, because he noticed things like that about her.

“Meg?” he asked. “Just as friends, right?”

“Right,” she said. Because she wasn’t about to completely destroy this friendship over a stupid crush that wasn’t at all important and couldn’t possibly be reciprocated by the crushee. “Just friends.”

Meg got up at seven, as always, and ate breakfast at the kitchen table. Routine was important to her parents, and so was a healthy breakfast. Her dad, Vic, was reading his paper. Rebecca, Meg’s mom, was buttering a piece of toast with fierce precision. There had been an awkward atmosphere between them during mealtimes. As Meg’s senior year was winding to a close, they couldn’t exactly say “Go and study some more.” Nothing she did now grade-wise would affect her acceptance into college. There was nothing to study for . There was nothing to be late to, nothing to work hard towards. There was a void in Meg’s life and, for the first time ever, blank spaces in her schedule. It seemed to be screwing with her parents way more than it was affecting her.

Conversation had been snappy at best between them over the last few months. And now that Meg was realizing that she was no longer just their kid under their roof and she could make decisions for herself, it was becoming unbearable.

“Still no sign of any responses?” Rebecca asked her, as if Meg would pluck acceptance letters out of thin air.

“It’s like, seven thirty on a Monday, Mom,” she said. “No. There have been no responses.”

Her mom clearly didn’t appreciate the tone, but Vic, who had become a surprising peacekeeper lately, ruffled his newspaper in a soothing gesture. Rebecca tutted but said nothing else.

“Any plans, then?” he asked, genial. “You have all of this free time now.”

“She could always be looking into college preparation courses?—”

“Me and Nash are going to go to prom together,” Meg said, interrupting her mom. “As friends.” She tacked the last bit on quickly, not wanting her parents to get the wrong idea.

Her mom’s eyebrows twitched a bit at that. Her lips pursed just a fraction. Meg instantly geared up for a fight, and she was sure her own face bore the warning signs: a frown and narrowed eyes. A list of arguments sprang forward immediately, ready to be let loose.

She was going to prom. End of discussion.

Going to a high school party wasn’t going to retroactively ruin her perfect GPA.

Did her mom think going to prom meant that Meg would suddenly lose her mind and start doing drugs behind the school gym? That she’d quit everything and run away to a big city and end up homeless?

She was going to prom. She just wanted to wear a pretty dress and dance, eat snacks and hang out with Nash. She just wanted a moment to breathe.

They’d already had this discussion five times. Having it a sixth time wasn’t going to change anything because she was going to prom .

She already had the dress, for crying out loud.

And if she hadn’t mentioned it enough already… She was going to prom.

There was a moment of taut silence, like a tightrope stretched out between them, both of them preparing for a battle they’d already had.

Then Vic snapped the tension with a prim shake of his newspaper. “Sounds like a good idea, honey,” he said, with a pointed glance at his wife. “As long as you have your phone with you. We’re still dropping you off. However, Nash is welcome to drive you home. As long as you text, I see no problem with that. Right, Rebecca?”

Rebecca’s lips reversed position, going from a purse to a thin line. She said nothing, just tutted and continued fiddling with her breakfast instead of actually eating it.

All of the tension left Meg’s body at once, leaving her feeling like jelly. While her mom ignored them both, she gave her dad a grateful smile. He gave her a nod before shaking out his newspaper and returning to his reading, leaving Meg to finish her breakfast in peace.

Time was behaving oddly. High school was coming to an end and Meg was handing in final assignments, feeling a little lost with no more essays to research or write. Prom was speeding towards them at a ridiculous pace, her blue dress hanging in her closet, waiting patiently. The days ticked by at an alarming rate, her usual routine gone, everyone excited for the end of the school year, for summer break, for prom of course. Meg felt a bit like she was floating.

And Nash had been acting… strange. Well, not strange exactly. It was like he was just focused on Meg more than usual. Like he was looking out for her or taking care of her. Checking in at random times to see if she was okay, or if she wanted to hang out, or if her parents were being unbearable again. If it had been anyone else, she might have started wondering if he had a crush on her… But maybe that was just wishful thinking on her part.

It was getting harder and harder for Meg to convince herself that she thought of Nash as just a friend. Her heart sank whenever she couldn’t hang out with him. It soared when she received a text. When they were together, she was deliriously happy, and when they were apart, her thoughts always found their way back to him. Meg could keep Nash in the dark about her feelings, but she could no longer delude herself. Saying they were just friends wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

So she walked through her front door on Tuesday afternoon, feeling pretty aimless and confused about life in general. There was nothing left to study for, so what was she supposed to do with a full afternoon of free time? She could go hang out with Nash; that was usually what she would do. But his brother had gotten an award from the track team, so their family was going out to dinner. When Meg opened the front door, she let out a little yelp because her parents were standing right there in the entryway, grinning like idiots.

“You good?” she asked, a hand to her chest. “Have I walked into a horror film or something? Are you actually my parents or have you been possessed by smiling ghouls?”

Rebecca’s grin dropped and she rolled her eyes at Meg’s dramatics, but Vic just kept grinning, rocking on his heels.

“We have mail for you,” he said. Meg’s stomach dropped.

Three envelopes were held out to her, and she tore through them in record time. Meg was left slightly numb with shock when all of them were acceptances, including the college three states away.

“Well, that makes that decision easy then,” Rebecca said, clapping her hands together with a pleased look on her face. “Living in Texas, won’t that be exciting, Meggy?”

Meg felt herself bristle, and her dad noticed too, holding a hand out to her like she might bite.

“It’s up to Meg,” he said. “It needs to be an informed decision,” he added, giving Meg a look. “You need to look at the curriculums and compare which one is going to be the best, what career avenues they have and whatnot. But Meg needs some time to think through it.”

There her mom went pursing her lips again as if the fate of the world hinged on Meg going to the most prestigious school.

“A fancy name doesn’t mean better opportunities,” Meg said, trying and failing to keep the tartness out of her voice.

“In an ideal world, no,” her mom said, folding her arms. “But we live in this world.”

“That’s enough,” her dad said, gentle but firm. “This is a celebration. And Meg has a lot to think about now, don’t you?”

He gave her another look, one that read head to your room so I can talk to your mother. Meg was happy to comply. She’d always seen her parents as one unified being. But towards the end of high school, when things had been verging on maybe just too much to deal with, her dad had become a surprising ally, a voice of reason and a buffer between Meg and her mom. So she took his allyship without complaint and ran off to her bedroom, where even her mom didn’t dare invade.

In the safety of her room, she certainly did have a lot to think about, weighing the pros and cons of each college, the three letters laid out on the bed in front of her. Though the deciding factor had nothing to do with classes or career opportunities. If Meg was being honest with herself, it all came down to the flutter her heart made whenever she thought of Nash.

Staying local meant staying near Nash.

Moving three states away meant… well, it meant being three states away from Nash. Could she actually cope with that? He’d been her lifeline for so long, her best friend who she no longer thought of as just a best friend, no matter how much she wanted to deny it. He’d kept her sane these last two years, reminding her that there was more to the world than books and grades and pushy parents.

When she thought of moving away to the fancy college with all of the accolades, she had to seriously think about how she was ever going to do it without him. Staying here meant she had access to that lifeline, to his smile, to his carefree attitude that always felt like a fresh breeze on a hot day. Leaving would feel like losing a piece of herself.

She texted Nash, at a loss for what else to do.

I got into all three! Just got to decide.

The response took longer than she expected. Usually he was almost immediate with his answers. But he was out with his family. It just felt like forever.

Amazing! He wrote. So you’re going out of state then, obvs?

Meg’s fingers hesitated over the phone.

Dunno yet. Gotta think about it.

Nash didn’t respond to that at all, which was a little strange. Meg just had to keep reminding herself that he was out with his family. He was busy, not that it had ever stopped him before. But whatever, she was just overthinking things as always.

She stared at the acceptance letters until her eyes blurred, and she still couldn’t come close to making a decision. Even though, deep down, she knew the decision she wanted to make. She was just so used to overanalyzing everything with her head that listening to her gut felt like a foreign language. So, she made a plan for herself.

When she met up with Nash at the prom in a couple of days, the first thing she was going to do was confess how she felt. She would just say it , let him know everything, and work out the rest from there.

Prom had turned out pretty much the same as every small-town prom since the eighties had turned out. Crepe paper streamers hung from the ceiling of the gym, and there were snack tables and drinks while teachers and volunteer parents kept guard over everything. Meanwhile the main expense, a light setup that was jittery at best, flushed different colors around the gym at various intervals, completely out of time with the music.

Everyone seemed to be having a good time though. The music was loud, the food wasn’t terrible, and the night was still young.

Meg, however, stood awkwardly in the corner, completely on her own. She’d been there for an hour and Nash hadn’t shown up yet… Nash had never been the greatest at time management. He was usually five minutes late to class, maybe ten if something had actually gone wrong. Not an hour. Adding to her rising panic, he hadn’t been answering her calls to see where he was. She was seriously starting to worry that he’d driven off the road somewhere, that he was lying in a ditch with broken bones when he finally messaged back to her dozens of texts.

Yeah?

Meg blinked at her phone for a couple of seconds, trying to make sense of that one word. Yeah? That was it? Maybe he had driven off the road somewhere and now had a concussion, because what sort of a response was “yeah?”

Did your tie get caught in a doorframe somewhere? Meg sent, sure there was still some obvious explanation. Don’t tell me you actually forgot prom was tonight?

I just didn’t feel like going, tbh.

Meg’s fingers went a little numb. She wasn’t even sure she could type out a response to that.

You didn’t feel like going?

Nah.

Suddenly the blue tulle dress she had been so excited to wear felt too fluffy, too itchy and too stupid to be seen in.

What do you mean?

I just didn’t feel like going, okay? What’s the big deal?

We were going to go together?

Sorry. I’ve just been caught up with other stuff.

What other stuff?

Like, life stuff, Meg. Trying to find a job. Not all of us are going to college.

Meg felt herself shrinking. Why was he being so harsh all of a sudden?

You had to look for jobs tonight instead of going to prom? What happened to you’ll get where you’re going? Go with the flow?

Yeah exactly, that’s what I’m doing. Going with MY flow. Not everything revolves around you and your life.

She felt like she’d been slapped. The loud music went quiet, and all of the bright colors seemed to fade into gray.

Okay , she typed. I’ll stop bothering you.

She waited, hoping desperately for a reply, for an explanation or an apology. But nothing came.

Then Meg did something that she thought she would never do. She texted her dad to come and get her early. He replied straight away, of course, saying he would be right there and to wait out front for him. Meg did just that, not wanting to spend a second longer in the gym. The balloons and streamers, the dance music playing from tinny speakers, all of it just seemed like a joke now. It was all just a stupid party that didn’t really even matter.

That’s what Meg tried to convince herself as she stood at the school gates in her blue dress and sandals, arms folded across her chest, trying not to cry. She failed at that too, tears rolling down her cheeks, and she wished her dad could just teleport there.

The feelings kept growing bigger and growing worse. She knew that once she was in the safety of her bedroom, she was going to bawl her eyes out. It was obvious then that this was how Nash really felt, because there was no reason she could come up with to explain it all away. He’d always been a flake, always been late and not committed to anything. She shouldn’t be so surprised that he’d acted the same towards her. She clearly didn’t matter, not really.

She wiped her cheeks, trying desperately to keep it together while she was still standing on school property. At the very least, her decision about college had been made. No way in hell was she staying here to be near Nash. She would move to Texas and start a brand-new life. One without Nash Callahan in it.