Page 156 of You, As You Are

He’s here.Standing behind where her feet were rooted in the shore. Days of no contact, and of all the times and places, he had found her.

“What?” she asked airily since her brain hadn’t processed his words beyond their sound.

“I quit.” That voice said again behind her. “My boss … he was trying to give me a way out that wouldn’t be a mark against my name this whole time.”

He quit. He wasn’t fired; he’d made the choice to leave that place.

“Decide what you want, Iain. And if that’s not me then tell me before you break my heart.”Well, he’d told her alright. Words weren’t needed with how he’d handed her the box withthe crocheted penguin and walked out of her door. He couldn’t have made himself any clearer.

Maisie raised her eyes that had begun to water to the ocean. “What are you going to do?” she asked whilst trying to keep her voice from showing just how affected she was for feeling his presence so soon.

Iain at least sounded happier when he spoke, and despite how much she had cried over the image of his back as he’d walked out through her door, she was glad for him.

“I’m going to do the tours for that photography couple next week,” he said, “and then I was going to ask if maybe you wouldn’t mind helping me set up a website?”

“Of course I will. You would be amazing at it,” she said with a wobble in her voice that tried to hold back the emotions tightening in her chest.

He’d come to her for help when she didn’t think he’d ever gone to anyone when he needed them before. If she cared about him less, then she wouldn’t have agreed. But she couldn’t push him away. Her heart physically couldn’t fathom being apart from him – even just as someone hired to help get his life back on track.

Ted sat himself beside her and leant his body against her leg. Her fingers drifted down to scratch between his ears, the familiar feeling comforting.

“I was thinking of enrolling at the college for a first aid course,” Iain continued. “And I’ve been reading about qualifications for becoming a walking leader across different terrains. There’s a short list of requirements and a couple of forms to fill in, but the Welsh training base isn’t too far from here. I think I could do it.”

Maisie tried to discreetly wipe away the tear that escaped from her eye, raising her gaze through her lashes as if that couldstop her mascara from running. “Of course you could,” she said truthfully. “You can do anything, Iain.”

“It won’t be enough to pay the bills during the off-season, so I’ll have to find something else to do in winter.”

“You don’t need to know right now. We’ll figure it out.”

His voice warmed. “We, Daffy?”

“Yes. Because I bloody love you.” The words ripped from Maisie like a caged bird that had finally been released. “I don’t need a massive house. I don’t need expensive things. I don’t need luxury holidays or a flashy car. I just need you holding me at night, walking with me, making me laugh.Loving me. That’s all I could ever need from you.”

Iain’s silence made the light, fluttering feeling deep in her chest swirl with worry.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?”

He didn’t for a beat.

“Turn around.” The low tone of his voice that she’d missed went straight to her veins.

Maisie didn’t want to. What if what she found wasn’t what she wanted to see? What if when she turned, he only walked away again? She didn’t think that she could handle the way her heart – a heart she’d put on hold for so long – would rip apart again if he did.

“Maisie, look at me. Please.”

She held her nerve to face away for as long as she dared – until the need toseehim again became too overwhelming.

The tension in her brow softened. Wearing his grey chequered fleece and those tactical trousers that fit him so well, Iain held a plastic tray of blueberry muffins, a bouquet of real wildflowers like the ones she always kept in her living room, and something crocheted …

“Daffodils,” she whispered softly, the word barely escaping her lips.

“Ydyn?*, Daffy, they are.”

“You first called me that at Vera’s party, when I wore the …”

The yellow dress.

Iain’s mouth curved. “I was wondering how long it’d take you to realise.”

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