Page 31 of You, As You Are

Aron sat up straighter, his eyes trained beyond where Maisie stood waiting by the door. “Oh look, Owen Thomas is looking at her too.”

Fuck no.

“He’s getting up,” Cai sing-songed.

Iain got up. If he could save Maisie from the local ‘use them and lose them’ man-child that was Owen Thomas, then he had to. Maisie could hold her own, but she had absolutely no idea what was coming for her.

He made two steps when the front door opened again, and Maisie helped Vera, Ronnie, and a gaggle of the elders from the hiking group come through.

“Shit.”Iain sat his arse back down before any of them saw him tucked in a corner behind the bar.

It’d been strange enough that Ms Vera had cornered him into helping Maisie move out of her house last weekend. With everyone watching him, he couldn’t have said no. The same kind of thing would happen again if they saw him here, and he’d end up having to join them for the rest of the night. Cai and Aron and Maisie, too.

Nope. He wouldn’t do it.

“What did you back down for?” Aron pressed.

Iain took a long gulp of his beer and ignored the question.

The pair started giggling to themselves like schoolgirls.

“He’s got a crush.” Cai bumped Aron’s shoulder.

“Yep.”

“Shut it.” Iain gripped his glass so hard it should crack.

“He does.”

“Definitely.”

“What am I supposed to bring to a woman, hm?” Their ribbing made something in Iain snap, and his friends shut their mouths. “I’ve got no savings, a job I’m getting fired from in seven weeks, a tiny little squat of a house, and nothing to my name.I managed to fuck up one relationship already because I was truthful from the start, and I’m just going to do it again.”

Sure, he could try to give his heart away once more, but he’d rather be alone than disappointed, which is all that he had ever been.

“She’s incredible.” He exhaled. “I’d only ruin her.”

Pity pinched Cai’s brow. “Come on Iain, that’s not fair.”

“Me and Ted are better off alone and she would see sense to stay well away from me.” Iain didn’t want to hear any more about it. “I am not interested in Maisie Moss.”

MAISIE

Inside the pub was like a furnace. A welcoming warmth wrapped around Maisie and snapped the thoughts of rain away. She didn’t know how she’d been dragged to this. Vera had mentioned a pub quiz which was a standard monthly occurrence for the hiking group, and in an effort to make some friends her own age here, she’d agreed to come.

She hoped that Iain would be here. He’d given up nearly half of his Sunday to help her – though Vera had fed him in the process – when he didn’t have to, so she’d planned to buy him a drink if he showed up.

Maybe she’d hoped tonight could settle the piece of her heart that missed home, too.

The pub was crowded for the quiz, and she’d gotten stuck near the doorway trying to see if Iain was there, if not because of the fact that the bar queue extended right towards her. She’d have thought she’d be able to spot him instantly if he werestanding, but she couldn’t find his hair or his beard amongst the bar congestion.

“I can get the door—” Vera’s voice was muffled by fifty-year-old glass.

“Here, let me open?—”

“I’ve got it.” Maisie gently pushed the door away from her for hernainto come through, and Ronnie looked insulted that she’d gotten there before him.

They’d waited outside in the drizzle for a few others from the hiking group to gather, and when the seven of them shuffled inside, Maisie’s plan to find Iain before any elder,especiallyVera, could watch her do it drifted off in a cloud of smoke.

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