Page 36 of You, As You Are

She ran her finger over the edge of her mug but didn’t drink from it yet, her eyes that looked more brown than green today assessing him. “Let me guess, your entire wardrobe is some shade of the earth?”

“Yep.”

“I already know your idea of fun is walking with OAPs and having gentle contact with men.”

What was she trying to get at? “It’s the best.”

“Would a makeover cheer you up?” Maisie bit into her muffin without inhibition.

“No.”

“Then maybe you do need to get laid.”

Iain choked on his coffee. His eyes burned into her like he contemplated murder. Ted, unbothered, didn’t even lift an ear.

“You have foam in your beard,” Maisie commented, tongue licking the buttercream from her mouth.

“Hm. I wonder why.” Iain wiped at the coarse hairs with the back of his hand. Being all dainty with a paper napkin wasn’t his style.

“You didn’t object,” Maisie pointed out before blowing steam from her ‘coffee’. The thing was a monstrosity of sugar and milk.

“I don’t need …” His gaze bounced down to the rosebud pout of her lips as her breath blew the sweet caramel scent his way.

Ohhh damn.

“Anything,” he finished through his teeth.

“Okay.” Her brows jumped, and her tone didn’t say that she believed him.

He didn’tneedsex. It’d be nice, of course, if there were no strings involved and the chances of him seeing the woman again were slim, which was hard to achieve in a town that was only a mile wide. He’d lasted fourteen months with just his hand for company, another few were moot at this point.

Whatever new footing they were on, it was better than when Maisie had been mad at him.

He turned the tables. “Anyway, you’re the one who broke up with their boyfriend—what is it?—eightmonths ago now?”

“Yes,” she said with a bit of a growl.

“You seem … frustrated.”

Maisie huffed and re-crossed her legs. “If you’d been with someone for six months who only ever did half a job, you’d be frustrated too.”

The insight was awakening, but still Iain was forced to remind himself that he wasn’t in a place to get anywhere near to helping her solve that issue.

“Then maybe you’re the one who needs to?—”

“I’m good,” she said sharply, her freckled cheeks turning a touch pink.

If Iain wasn’t so sure he would screw up any attempt at a relationship again, then he would’ve swung the conversation in a different direction than he did. “Has anyone from the group texted?” He’d felt his phone vibrate but he wasn’t in the habit of checking it when he was with company.

Maisie took hers out of her purse in her lap and thumbed at the screen. “Why those …” Her lips twisted like she wanted to finish that sentence with something that wasn’t so pleasant. Iain’s mouth twitched in a smile she didn’t see as the shifting colours of the screen illuminated her face. “They’re all together and wondering where we are. Look?—”

Maisie turned her phone around and sure enough, there was a haphazardly taken selfie with thirteen faces softened by time, the pad of a finger obstructing one corner of the screen.

Her brows puckered together cutely. “Did we get a different message or something?”

“I only got the one in that group chat.”

“Me too.”

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