Page 127 of You, As You Are

Hands steepled, Maisie tried to make herself crystal clear. “Iain understands that things have to be done. Actually, when I wasn’t well, he came and helped do those things for me,” she noted. “And anyway, that doesn’t matter.Nain,you’rethe one making things difficult for me every time you turn up here and ask me to take you somewhere or go to lunch with your friends.”

The way words ran from her tongue caught them both off guard, but everything she blurted was the truth.

Vera sniffed primly. “You don’t have to agree, Maisie.”

“But you make me feel guilty whenever I say no,Nain. So I don’t. And I pick up the slack in a rush later on. I can’t keep on doing that.” Maisie watched her grandma’s eyes fall and reined herself in. “Why don’t we organise times for when we can see each other?” she suggested, hoping to ease the tension she’d escalated.

“What is wrong with now?” Vera asked.

“I am trying to work,Nain. I was on a phone call that I had to end because you came in here so loudly.”

“Right …” Vera uttered. She stood and gathered up her coat and bonnet, folding them over her now cast-less arm as she made her way towards the door. “I only came to invite both you and Iain to dinner this Saturday. I have a surprise for you.”

“You’ve given me enough surprises,Nain.” And she’d rather whatever Vera was hiding be the last one.

“This one, you might like.” The words were happy, though Vera looked anything but.

“I can’t,” Maisie said regretfully. Preparing herself to accept the ‘Worst Granddaughter in Wales’ award. “Iain has a rugby game and I’m going to watch. We’ll miss the hike, too.”

“I didn’t think you were interested in sports?”

“Iain never has anyone cheering for him on the sidelines,” she said, “and now he has me.”

“Ah. Well I hope he knows how lucky he is to have you, Moo Moo. We can rearrange to whenever you like. I’ll see myself out. You get back to your call.”

Maisie’s eyes lingered on her front door as it closed.

That wasn’t how she’d wanted to make her feelings known about, well,everything,but doing it gently just wasn’t going to work. She’d done what she’d needed to do for her own boundaries to be met.

So why did she feel such a lead weight moving through her stomach like it sank through tar?

Maisie was supposed to be here to find out what was going on with Vera that had all her family so worried, and all she’d done just now was push her away. She’d hoped that Vera would come out with whatever secret she was keeping to herself naturally, which is why she’d gone along to so many impromptu lunches and shopping trips whilst keeping her worries inside. But none of that had worked.

She was no closer to finding out what Vera was hiding, and it was all her own fault. She’d been distracted – with work, with the hiking group, with feeling so homesick and lost, and now with Iain too. Getting close to him was the one thing she’d promised herself shewouldn’tdo. But she’d broken that rule. And now he was the one steady thing that she was sure of.

The outer door that led onto the street closed, and the heavy bang echoed up the stairwell.

She should go after Vera. She shouldn’t leave things so fractured like this.

But her phone began to ring with the client she’d abruptly cut off’s name lighting up the screen, and Maisie had no choice but to spin back to her desk and worry about if she’d just ripped a hole in the relationship she had with her grandma, later.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

MAISIE

Sports had never beenon Maisie’s list of priorities until today, and boy was she glad that she’d weathered the drizzle and rain to come. Beneath the shelter of the stand atClwb Rygbi Aberystwyth, she watched Iain bulldoze his way into every tackle of this game he played against a town called Burry Port.

He was hard to ignore on a normal day, but this lunchtime – with his broad chest expanding against his striped, blue team shirt, the rain pushing his dark curls into his forehead – it was damn near impossible to look at anyone else.

Those were some short,tightshorts that he wore. Watching him run about all sweaty and muddy in them was practically foreplay. She couldn’t quite believe that those firm thighs had been between hers, that those fingers he wrapped around the oval ball and sprinted with had helped bring her to the point of feeling as though she could touch stars.

Since coming home from the glamping trip, they hadn’t come close to having sex yet, and though he’d listened to her and respected her about taking things slow, Maisie knew that she was ready. Her body hadn’t ever wanted someone so much as she wanted Iain, and her mind was right there with that impulse too. This man was agiver,and he actually listened to everyunspoken thing that she said. She knew that once they went there, things would be different than they had been in the past.

They’d been getting to know each other steadily for months already – Maisie didn’t need any more time.

She had very little clue of what was going on in front of her, though. Whilst her brothers had tackled each other when they were growing up, she’d been drawing or painting or following their mum around the kitchen.

She winced every time Iain took a hard hit in a tackle and cheered whenever he had the ball and ran. Watching him squat and lean into the scrum was an experience. And when he proved to her that he could indeed lift a 110-kilo man in the air by his arse, she got all giddy inside.

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