Page 142 of You, As You Are

“You set the boundary you needed to set.” Iain nuzzled in her hair. “Don’t feel guilty for it.”

But she did. Maisie couldn’t help it. She was so fed up with having to stand up for herself all the time in public – if notfor her size and just being herself then certainly withmen. She didn’t think she’d have to do it with her family, too.

She twirled her fingertip in Ted’s wiry fur. “Can I ask you … What did you feel when you left the farm?”

All Iain answered was – “Lost.” She thought he would say no more, but he said, “I led my own life for the first time, though I didn’t get far.”

Maisie watched the way he stared numbly across the room. “You took your life back into your own hands. You moved to new places, did new things. You almost got married. And none of what came before that was your fault.”

Iain’s chest rumbled some kind of agreement.

Maisie pressed her palm above his heart and felt its fierce beating. “How you were treated wasn’t your fault,” she said. His gaze refused to meet hers, but she knew avoidance well. “Come on, speak those words to me, Mountain Man.”

He gave her a side-eye.

She curled her fingers like she was teasing words out of him. “Say it with me.It was not …”

“It was not my fault,” he drawled just to appease her.

“A bit more gusto, please.”

“It was not. My. Fault.” Iain said the words with more conviction, but then a breath shuddered out of him. His eyes became glassy as those words sank in.

Maisie couldn’t heal all of him, but she could help him get there piece by piece.

“There.”She patted his chest, running her hand down his solid stomach to curl her arm around his waist. “Now when we go to see Alun tomorrow, you can go with your shoulders a little lighter.”

Iain gazed at her for a long second. “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

His head still shook slowly. “Make me feel as though there isn’t a storm in my mind?”

Maisie didn’t know. All she knew was that he deserved so much love – and she wanted to give it all to him. She twisted and captured his lips in a kiss that gave the answer she couldn’t form with words.

“Could we maybe have that conversation now?” she asked when they pulled apart.

Iain filled his chest, his gaze falling. “Could it wait a little longer? Tomorrow. After we see my dad, I promise.”

It wasn’t ideal, but now that he had tomorrow’s meeting in his mind, one more day couldn’t hurt.

“Sure.”

Maisie clutched and held on tightly to the threads of him that were slowly slipping through her fingers.

Commitment was a scary thing for Iain – it was for her too – and this newness between them was still exactly that:new.So Maisie put her faith in the fact he was figuring out his feelings, and that things would all be okay when he did.

* English woman

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

MAISIE

Iain Howell

I’ll pick you up at 10. I don’t want to be late so please be ready x

Maisie Moss

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