held Anna immobile in the woman’s embrace.
“Your mother would be proud of you, dear,” Loretta whispered.
Anna pulled away. “Would she?”
“Of course, she was always so proud of you.”
Anna jerked backward and Loretta’s arms fell away. “Proud of me? I don’t think so.”
Loretta tilted her head, grit coming back into her voice. “Anna Maitland, your mother thought the sun rose and set in you. She was always bragging about how talented you are.”
“She’s never said anything like that to me.”
“Did she need to?”
Anna harrumphed. “It would have made a nice change.”
Iain came up next to Anna and dropped his arm around her shoulders. His wet shirt sent her squealing away. “We’ve got to get you out of those wet clothes.”
The irony was she hadn’t even meant the sentiment sexually, but the height of Loretta’s and Mr. Timmerman’s eyebrows made heat burst in her cheeks.
Mr. Timmerman cleared his throat and sidestepped toward the studio’s back door. “Unless you need me for something else, I’ll be going.”
Loretta wasn’t far behind. Anna accompanied her to the door. “Iain and I are, you know, friends.”
Loretta’s laugh was throaty and had a mocking edge. “Friends? That would be a darn shame.” When Iain stopped a few feet behind Anna, Loretta transferred her attention to him. “Thank you, Iain. You’re becoming invaluable to the town.”
“Glad I could be of some help,” he said.
The door closed, leaving her and Iain alone. The silence that followed made Anna’s stomach squirm. She searched for something to say but found only blank pages.
Finally, Iain said haltingly, “I need a hot shower and dry clothes. Do you … want to come back to Stonehaven with me?”
“Yes.” She clung to the easy answer.
He waited at the foot of the stairs leading to her apartment while she gathered a change of clothes and toiletries. When she stepped onto the landing and looked down at him, a sense of vertigo spun her head, and she couldn’t make it to his side fast enough.
After stumbling the last couple of steps, she grabbed his arm and tried a nonchalant laugh. “I guess we’ll have to wait to turn everything to rubble.”
“Yes. We should put it off as long as possible.”
A hundred questions scrolled. He turned to the pickup, opening the door for her. She hesitated with one foot in and one out. Did she really want to know the answers? Giving him a small, tight smile, she climbed in. By the time he slid behind the wheel, the moment had passed, but the doomsday clock’s hands moved ever closer to midnight. How long did they have left?
Chapter Sixteen
The ringing of his mobile on the counter brought Iain out of his three-count waltzing trance. He had been practicing without Anna. While avoiding total humiliation would be nice, more than anything, he wanted to make Anna proud. He didn’t want her to be embarrassed to be with him. Progress had been made, but as the whisky tasting was in mere hours, time was running short.
He grabbed his mobile. It was his da. A zing of worry shortened his greeting. “Everything all right, Da?”
“Hullo, lad. How’re you making out? Melted away yet?” The timbre of his da’s voice was so comforting and familiar, Iain’s lips curled into a smile.
“Not yet. How are things at Cairndow? No issues, I hope.”
“Everything is puttering along. Alasdair and Isabel are head over heels for the wee babe. Nothing much is getting done besides routine maintenance.” While his da might not admit it, he had a soft heart under the gruff exterior and would be wrapped around little Annie’s finger in no time.
“There’ll be more time for big projects in a season or two. How is Tommy working out?” Iain had handpicked one of the village boys to take care of the herd while he was gone.
“He’s a hard worker and isn’t a complainer.” High praise indeed from his da. “Doesn’t know his arse from a hammer, though. Rose tells me the festival is this weekend. You’re still flying home Monday, I hope?”
“I need to double-check my flight time. I’ll send you the details.” He didn’t need to double-check. He’d stared at his return ticket so often, he had it memorized. “I’ve been busy.”
“I need you home, lad.” The somber shift had Iain clutching his mobile tighter.
“What’s wrong?”
“I didn’t realize how much I’d come to rely on you the last year until you left this summer. If I’m being truthful … I can’t keep up, and that’s without the extra projects Isabel and Alasdair have