Page 107 of You, As You Are

They were going to miss the walk they’d booked onto, which had thankfully been delayed to let the worst of the rain pass, and as far as he was aware Maisie still hadn’t eaten. He tried to text her, but no message went through. Not even one tick beside his increasingly irate ‘Where are you?’ texts. Knowingher, she could’ve struck up a conversation with a tour guide or be booking them in for more activities at the information centre.

Maisie was never late for anything at all. In fact, she was chronically early. And she’d stolen his dog nearly an hour ago. They should’ve been back by now.

“Maisie, Maisie,” Iain uttered her name as he grabbed the brown, heavy-duty coat that he always wore.

The rain hammered down upon the canvas rooftop of the awning as he stood outside on the deck, grimacing at the weather despite being purebred Welsh. If he got to the information centre and found that she’d been waiting out the rain there without so much as a cursory call, then he’d be miffed. He’d want to rip her clothes off and teach her a lesson about leaving him like she did, too.

Two feelings that shouldn’t coexist.

He jogged over to the information centre, but of course, she wasn’t there. The woman at the reception desk didn’t bat an eye at the rain sluicing off of him, puddling on the floor as she informed him Maisie hadn’t been here at all.

“Where else could she have possibly gone?” he demanded to know.

“Have you tried the canteen? Or the indoor activities centre?” The receptionist tried to be helpful.

Those prefab buildings were another ten minutes’ walk away towards the car park, and given that his keys jangled in his pocket, Maisie hadn’t attempted to steal his car either.

Iain stood out under yet more awning and watched the slanted rain pour down to the ground. His phone still had no call or text from her, and his signal only showed one bar. His concern turned more to worry with each second, his leg jittering as his tell. He didn’t ever get like this – not about anything. His life fell apart around him without much of his attention, andyet losing sight of Maisie Moss is what sent his pulse to one hundred.

Sighing out his angst, he took one step out into the rain, ready to get soaked again on his way back to the cabin, when a bark made him stop.

A dog’s bark that was definitely Ted’s.

“Ted!” Iain spun in circles.

His boy came running out from the forest. Filthy and …alone.

He dropped to a crouch beside Ted’s ball of energy. “Where’s Maisie? Where is she?”

Ted bit on his sleeve and tugged him.

“Go find.” He used his command for when he hid treats or toys around the house, hoping that the principle would translate.

The rain had turned stone-chip paths soggy underfoot, making running behind Ted in clunky walking boots ten times harder. Iain was already worried, but winding through the forest towards the farthest edge of the campsite’s grounds tripled that feeling. If Ted led him right and Maisie was out here somewhere, evenhedidn’t know where they were, then what the hell had she been playing at?

“Ted,” he called when the dog got a little too far ahead of him along the trail.

His dog barked, and Iain followed the sound until he found Ted stopped at Maisie’s lifted foot, her elbow using a tree as a prop. She had mud all down her side below the waist as if she’d used the forest as a slide.

“Maisie!” The panic in his voice echoed through the trees, hands flying to the zip of his coat.

“I’m okay … I think,” she tried to shout, her chattering teeth obstructing her volume. “I slipped.”

Which would explain the mud, but all Iain focussed on as he skidded to a halt beside her was the ghostly paleness of her skin and the wet, browned curls of her hair clinging to her. All of her was soaked – her leggings, her t-shirt.

He ripped off his coat and put it around her shoulders. Maisie’s arms instinctively moved within the sleeves and his went to hold her up.

Rain plummeted down on their heads.

“Are you hurt?” Iain demanded. He had no idea what he was going to do if she couldn’t walk back to the cabin. He could lift her but there was too much chance of them both getting injured on this unmarked trail.

“My knee aches,” Maisie said, a hint of a hiss in her voice as she avoided his eyes. “I landed weird.”

Iain’s pulse tapped a rapid beat. He looked between her and the narrow, overgrown trail. Finding out what she’d been doing out here and scolding her for it could wait until they were dry.

He took her arm and put it around his waist. “Lean on me.”

“I’m too much for?—”

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