Page 157 of You, As You Are

Maisie met his eyes – eyes that looked more full of life than she’d ever seen them.

All this time. She’d stopped giving it much thought every time he called herDaffy.The nickname had become so natural to her that thewhydidn’t really matter anymore; she just wanted to hear him calling her that once again.

Maisie sniffled to stave off her next wave of tears. Something clearly must be in the air – no one ever cried so much as her at a beach.

“So, is all of this a parting gift?” She pulled the sleeves of her jumper over her hands and gestured at the muffins and flowers – herfavouriteflowers. “Something to ease the goodbye?”

“I was told it’s called a grand gesture.”

“And who told you that?”

Iain gazed at her with an expectant softness, the rising sunlight touching the shine in his forest-like eyes.

“Vera,” they both said at the same time.

Of course it would be her. The woman had been out of hospital for barely a day and already she stirred up trouble again. This time though, it was the good kind. Therightkind of meddling.

It caught up to Maisie on a delay just what Iain was giving a grand gesture for, and her lungs expanded in a silent gasp.

“She was right about those books,” he said with a lopsided smile beneath the moustache he’d neatened up since the last time she’d seen him.

Lips parted, Maisie nodded, then she confessed, “I’m not going back to London.”

Iain tilted is head, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Ted’s do the same. “You’re not?”

She wasn’t.To stay might’ve been the easiest decision she’d made in a long while. Iain was right:homeis wherever you made it. Mould or no mould.

The breeze picked up the hem of her long skirt and pushed it against her calves like it ushered her towards his safe arms.

“I’m making this my permanent home,” she said proudly. “It turns out Vera never needed me after all. Being here … it’s not where I need to be, but it’s where Iwantto be.

“I want these views every day. I want the quiet, slow life. I want Sunday dinners at mynain’s,and Saturday walks through valleys I will never be able to pronounce.” Iain cracked a chuckle, and Maisie grinned, her cheeks stained with tears. “I want this scruffy mutt”— she ruffled both her hands in Ted’s fur, and he lolled out his tongue — “and I wantyou. I want you, Iain.”

His broad chest expanded. “That’s grand. Because it’ll make asking you to come on a date with me a little less awkward.”

Maisie’s heart leapt up towards the sky. “A date?”

“Mhm.”

She narrowed one misty eye playfully. “A real one?”

“A real one,” Iain confirmed after quietly chuckling. His eyes softened as he looked at her. “Because I bloody love you too.”

Maisie’s chest rose with a slow breath. He was too far away for her to touch if she tried, but it couldn’t happen anyway; he’d just said that he loved her, and that stunned her to her spot. The look she now knew as utter adoration in his green eyes warmed her all the way to the tips of her toes – toes that would maybe fall off if she didn’t step out of the water soon.

“I know I’ve got a hell of a lot to make up for with how I left things the other afternoon,” Iain said. “The whole day had been too overwhelming, and I couldn’t think straight. The things that I said … they felt true at the time, but they’re not anymore.” Hetook one step to meet her, pebbles crunching under his boots. “I said I didn’t know what I wanted, but I do now. I was so scared of losing everything again that I didn’t even consider what could happen if I didn’t, if I suffered those storms in my life so that I could get to you.

“I saw you and felt like I’d met someone who would be a drop of yellow in my world of grey, Daffy. Imagining a life that we spend together doesn’t scare me, what scares me is losing you.” Iain tilted his head in the most heart-achingly tender expression. “You can have all of my darkest secrets, Daffy. I’m not running from them anymore.”

Maisie’s heart ached with how full it was. She reached into the pocket of her skirt and drew out the pebble that’d been there the entire time. “I believe you.”

Iain’s eyes bounced up from the freckled stone, lips parted and his brow softening as if he’d expected for her to have thrown the gesture out to sea. Maybe she would have. Maybe that’s what she’d subconsciously been here so early this morning to do? But she would never know, because this tiny, perfect pebble that he’d searched the beach for was forever going to stay right where she was.

Wheretheywere.

He wet his lips. “I found that after we sat out here together, and I kept it because I think a part of me already knew even then what you would mean to me. I’d just hoped that you wouldn’t forget what it meant.”

“I didn’t forget,” she told him. “You’re allowed to be unsure and scared, but the second that feels too much, you have to tell me.”

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