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Instead of trying to think of something to say, Nash pushed Gadget into a canter, forcing Meg to keep up behind them. At least at a canter it was too hard to keep a conversation going, which meant fewer opportunities for him to make an ass of himself.
Soon enough, they came to the treehouse. He was still worried that this was all stupid, that he should have just saidthank youlike a normal person. But Nash peeked over his shoulder and saw Meg’s face light up in a grin.
“You should have just said that we were coming here,” she said, dismounting from Nickel and hitching him to a low-hanging branch.
“It wouldn’t be a surprise then, would it?”
“True.”
“Come on,” Nash said, his nerves still making him jittery. “The surprise is inside.”
Meg looked up at the rope ladder curiously, no longer so hesitant. Almost like she trusted him…
He climbed ahead of her to help pull her up. Nash watched Meg’s face carefully as she looked around at his pitiful excuse for a picnic. It looked pretty sad and slapdash now that he was looking at it with fresh eyes. But Meg, against all odds, was smiling.
“What’s all this for?” she asked, looking through the supermarket bags at the snacks Nash had packed.
“A thank you, I guess. For thinking of renovating the buildings on the hill, then actually helping to make it a reality. I don’t know if it will work. It still might not. But I appreciate the effort, you know…”
Nash drifted off, aware that he was rambling. But the smile she was giving him… God, she was just so pretty.
“Well,” she said, sitting down cross-legged on the floor. “This is great. Thank you.”
He sat down opposite her, thrilled that she seemed to like it. It was a buzz just to see her wearing that pretty smile. He pulled the sandwich fixings and potato chips out of the bag and set them out, Meg’s face growing brighter.
Nash started to feel a little embarrassed again when it came to the drinks.
“Yeah, well… I don’t actually own a cooler, so…”
He handed her a lukewarm can of soda, but she took it anyway and cracked it open. It was good to know that the lack of a cooler wasn’t going to ruin everything, then.
“What sort of rancher are you? Never met a farming man that doesn’t own a cooler.”
“I’m still relatively new to this whole business,” he said, sipping from his own warm can.
“Ah-huh,” she smirked. “Well, maybe if this whole endeavor works out, I’ll get you a cooler. As like a celebration or something.”
Would she still be in his life? After this plan either succeeded or whether it failed… would Meg still be a part of it all? Nash didn’t dare hope that much.
“I don’t want you getting in trouble from your bosses,” he said. “So don’t go throwing your lot in with me if it’s going to blow up this life you built.”
She gave him a look, and before she could just brush it off, he jumped in with a rambled explanation.
“I just don’t want you getting in trouble at work, I guess. I hadn’t thought about that until now, which was selfish…”
All he wanted was to be the opposite of selfish when it came to Meg, at least. But somehow it always kept backfiring. She just shook her head.
“I can make my own decisions, Nash,” she said. “You didn’t force me into this. What? You regret it all of a sudden?”
Never.
“No. I don’t regret you coming here, not that. I’m so grateful for that. Just, the thought that I might actually get to keep this place if this works out…” He was choked up and couldn’t say more.
“I can just give them a negative report,” Meg said, taking a sip of her warm soda. “I meant it when I said that before. I’ll tell them it’s not worth buying. Tell them it’s a floodplain or something. That’ll make them back off. If that’s what you still want?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “That’s what I want. I just didn’t think there was ever going to be a way to fix this.”
“Well, you’re lucky I came along then, aren’t you?” Meg said smugly.