Page 59 of You, As You Are

Her eyes gave in first, then her smile. “Five fake-boyfriend points to Howell for being a gentleman.”

Iain rolled his eyes away – his standard when it came to her – his lips twitching fondly under his beard. “Ta.”

“I’m sure Ted is missing you. You should get back to him.”

“He’ll survive.” At this rate anyway, his dog would probably be happier if she was the one who walked through his front door instead of him.

Maisie tucked her smile towards her chest. Though a few steps before they reached a crossing, she stopped dead on the pavement. “Do you hear music?”

“My head is still ringing with it,” Iain offhanded, wondering how he somehow couldn’t keep up with a bunch of pensioners at a party. Half of them had drunk him under the table, and he wasn’t even tipsy.

Maisie’s head whipped in the wrong direction, and she began striding up the side road.

“Maisie—”Iain hissed at her as if she were Ted wandering off because he’d followed his nose.

The woman moved quickly when she wanted to, all the way along to the next main road over. Iain almost ran into her when she stopped abruptly yet again, this time outside a black and white fronted pub.

She stepped right up to one of the windows. “They’re playing jazz.”

Iain knew this pub well enough. “First Wednesday of the month,” he said. “Jazz night.”

He caught the wistful look in Maisie’s eyes that appeared a brighter shade of hazel in the dim lights from inside, peering through the foggy window at the amateur band gathered in the room’s corner. It was almost ten-thirty and still a decent number of people hung around to listen.

“Do you want to go in?” Iain asked, certain it was the music she was drawn to and not the pints being poured.

Her mouth twisted undecidedly. “I shouldn’t, I have a lot of work to do tomorrow.” Maisie drew back, adjusting her coat around herself. As lovely as her dress was, her outfit had no chance of providing much warmth on a February night like this. Iain’s fingers went to the closed zip on his coat, but Maisie stepped back again and pivoted to cross the empty street without him.

He followed and fell in at her side. If they kept this pace, then they’d reach her flat in a minute.

“Hearing that … it makes me miss London even more.” Maisie’s eyes turned down. “My friends and I, we all go to this jazz bar in London calledSamuel’s. It’s a hot ticket to get your hands on when they do special shows, but we try to go once a month.”

It wasn’t the first time she’d mentioned her friends with such despondence in her voice.

“You miss them.”

She shrugged. “They’re my people. We all live our own lives, but at the end of the day there’s no tearing us apart. Except …”

“Except for how you’ve moved out here.”

“As soon as I’m sure that mynainis okay, then I’ll be going home. There’s not much here for me other than her.”

Iain pushed back at the slight sting. Fake dating aside, there was camaraderie between them now that felt …natural. It might just be her personality and him going along with her whims, but he’d have thought that that would count forsomething.

How she wanted to leave was as plain for all to see as the ocean’s horizon on a clear day. Maisie put up a front, but Iain knew too well how it felt to want to be anywhere else. She missed her friends, and she missed her old life. She’d said it herself that she would go as soon as what she’d come for was done, and he couldn’t afford to get attached to another woman who would leave again.

They found themselves at her stairwell door soon enough, Iain pushing his hands into his front trouser pockets as he hunched with the cold.

Retrieving her keys from her purse, Maisie turned to him, holding hertaid’spainting by her stomach. “Well, thank you for walking me home,” she said, soft as cotton.

His chest rumbled in acknowledgement. “I’ll wait until you’re inside.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Go on.” He cut off her protest, watching her lips close and roll.“Nos da.?*”

Iain was acutely aware of her mouth when it briefly scrunched to one side, as if she wanted to say something other than, “Goodnight, Iain.”

His eyes never left her all the way up the narrow staircase, her dress swaying from those wide hips as she took each step. He couldn’t deny that half of his reasons for staying where he was were just for watching her go.

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