Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Miss Trifle’s takin’ her sweet time, isn’t she?” he asked, his sweater sleeves pulled midway up his forearms.
“Yeah,” Maisie mumbled. “Knowing her, she probably requires a toilet.”
Finn chuckled, and she stared up at him for a minute. His shoulders were still raised high, and the tense look across his features was still palpable, but at least he was talking to her again.
A low growling sounded at her feet, and Maisie looked to see Trifle no longer sniffing as her eyes homed in on Finn.
“I’m probably not helpin’ the situation by comin’ out here,” Finn said, taking a step back as his features fell again. “I just popped out to let you know I received word that the clean-up’s finished. They’re sendin’ cars through, so we have to board again.”
“Gotcha,” Maisie responded. She looked down at the dog. “You hear that, Trifle? That means you go now or forever hold your peace.”
Trifle kept her focus on Finn.
She smiled. “Yeah, she’s not gonna…”
Her words trailed off as she looked up at Finn walking away without a word.
Her smile faded away, but her impulsiveness called out to him. “Hey, Finn?”
He looked over his shoulder in silence.
“Are you okay today?”
“’Course. Always am.”
His smile was tight, his response stinted, but she nodded all the same and watched him return to the bus in silence. As she stared after him, she caught Mrs. Waterstone watching her through the window again, those crow-like eyes condemning, though Maisie had no idea why.
On any other day, in any other minute, Maisie would have smiled and not allowed Mrs. Waterstone’s mood to sully hers further. But in that moment, she couldn’t deal.
She stared back at Mrs. Waterstone with a challenge in her eyes until the woman looked away herself. Only then did Maisie turn away from her to peer down at Trifle instead.
“Okay, you’ve had your chance,” she said quietly. “Let’s go. Just don’t pee on Renee or you’ll be sorry.”
She tugged at the dog’s leash, and Trifle made it two steps before stopping and finally— finally —going. Not a minute later, Maisie was stepping back onto the bus with a happy dog, though she was greeted at once by Dünser’s baby still crying.
She walked past Finn, who was chatting on the phone—no doubt to whoever had told him about the traffic clearing up—and glanced at the back of the bus where Mr. Dünser was standing up and bouncing his baby back and forth to no avail.
Instead of staring at the small family and possibly having them think she was judging them, Maisie focused on smiling at Renee and delivered the dog back into the woman’s welcoming arms.
“Thank you so much, Maisie,” Renee said with a grateful smile. “Oh, you’re soaked, poor dear.”
Maisie shook off her sleeves covered in rainwater, smiling to herself at the knowledge that Renee was speaking about Trifle’s wetness and not Maisie’s. Still, Maisie was glad she could be of service.
Now if only she could do the same for the Dünsers.
As she walked back to her seat in the middle of the bus, Maisie stole another glance at the little girl. Those feelings of longing for a family of her own knocked again at the door of her heart, but she refused to answer them, unable to face them alone.
Instead, she did her best to settle in her seat and get ready for the next leg of their journey. However, when Mrs. Waterstone’s voice rang out loudly again, she paused.
“This is why you leave dogs and kids at home. Totally disrespectful.”
Maisie’s stomach tightened. Renee was happily smiling at Trifle, apparently blissfully unaware of Mrs. Waterstone’s words, but Finn’s eyes were on Mrs. Waterstone in the rearview mirror, focused and hard. And when Maisie looked back at Mrs. Dünser, the young mom’s pale face turning red as she’d clearly heard Mrs. Waterstone’s complaints, Maisie’s heart broke.
She didn’t know why the Dünsers had brought their baby with them on their vacation. Maybe they didn’t have anyone to watch her. Maybe leaving their baby for so long caused them anxiety. Or maybe, just maybe, the couple simply wanted to share an experience with their new young family.
Whatever the reason, they had as much of a right as anyone—the Waterstones included—to be on board that bus right now, and Maisie was going to make sure they knew it.
As Mrs. Waterstone continued shaking her head and the mother attempted to strap the crying child back into her car seat, Maisie reached for the snack bag in her car organizer, then stood from her seat and walked calmly down the aisle, knowing full well she was going against Finn’s advisement to stay seated.
His eyes were on her—she could feel them—but after his distance this morning, she didn’t care if she broke the rules anymore. She had to do something for Mrs. Dünser.
As she approached, the mother looked at her with a wary eye, rushing to speak. “I’m sorry,” she said, her accent thick. “We are trying to help her, but…”
She trailed off as Maisie shook her head with a smile she hoped revealed patience and kindness. “Oh, no. That’s not why I came back here.” She sat down on the empty seat in front of them and leaned into the aisle so she was on the same level as them.
She raised her voice just a touch to be heard above the baby’s crying. “I just wanted to let you know that you guys are totally fine. Babies cry. And you’re doing the best that you can, so don’t worry about the rest of us.”
Mrs. Dünser’s eyes widened in surprise. “Thank you,” she whispered quietly as her husband took over buckling their daughter. “Thank you for saying something. She just doesn’t like to sit in her seat when the car is not moving.”
“Who does?” Maisie joked.
Mrs. Dünser smiled, looking slightly less harried. “She’s also hungry but won’t eat any of the snacks we brought.”
Maisie smiled, grateful she’d followed her instincts. She pulled out her large bag filled with wrapped snacks, treats, and chocolates. “It might be a longshot, but will any of these work?”
Mrs. Dünser instantly protested, but her husband leaned forward, speaking in German and motioning to the bag.
Maisie looked between them.
“We can’t take your food,” Mrs. Dünser continued in English.
“Oh, please,” Maisie said. “I have so much, you’ll be saving me from a sugar crash if you take some.”
“Greta does love chocolate,” Mr. Dünser said quietly to his wife, his accent much thicker than hers.
After another moment of hesitation, Mrs. Dünser finally nodded, and within a few moments, Greta was accepting a piece of chocolate with hiccups as she began to settle down.
Maisie lingered for a moment, admiring Greta and conversing with the couple about Austria and the weeks she’d spent there this summer before Finn’s voice interrupted them .
“Alright, ladies and gents, it looks like we’re movin’. Please take your seats if you haven’t already.”
Maisie knew he was speaking to her, though she was grateful he’d given her time to stay back for as long as she had.
“Thank you,” Mrs. Dünser said as Maisie stood. She spoke to Greta in German next, and the little girl smiled shyly up at Maisie.
Maisie waved down at her. “Any time you need any chocolate, you know who to come to,” she said to the little girl, though she knew full-well Greta was too young to understand.
Still, when Greta smiled again, chocolate caked at the edge of her lips and blue eyes shining brightly and dried of all tears, Maisie’s heart cracked another inch.
She nodded her goodbye to the family, forcing her smile to remain as she headed back to her seat, but she paused in the middle of the aisle as Mrs. Waterstone spoke again.
“Finally,” she said loudly. “I didn’t pay to hear a baby screaming all day long.”
Maisie very rarely got angry. It just wasn’t in her nature. But, just like her dad, her frustrations only ever became apparent when in defense of another.
That being the case, she couldn’t help herself as she stared down at Mrs. Waterstone, and with as false of a smile as she could muster, said, “Would you like some chocolate, too, Mrs. Waterstone? I find it really does help with foul moods.”
The look Mrs. Waterstone delivered her could have frozen the sun.
Maisie, fortunately, had the brightness of two suns within her for being able to help two families today, so she smiled all the brighter and sauntered back to her seat.
One day, she knew she’d regret speaking out. But today, she was more than happy to have finally shut that woman’s mouth—at least for a minute.
With a quiet sigh, she threw her blanket over her lap and leaned against her pillow, focusing on settling the burgeoning feelings she still suppressed .
Before she could do anything, however, she looked forward and found Finn watching her. If she wasn’t questioning everything that had happened between them up until that point, she could have sworn his eyes were smiling, as if he was proud of her standing up for others.
But with a shake of her head, she looked away, realizing it didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to dwell on the emotions she was pushing down any longer, nor was she going to worry a second more about Finn and his hot-and-cold behavior.
She had another rainy day in Northern Ireland to enjoy, and enjoy it, she would.
Dunluce Castle was everything Maisie had hoped it would be. With the forty-minute delay on the bus, the stop at Bushmills had to be cut short, but Maisie didn’t mind. She’d much rather see the castles anyway.
After lunch in the village, an update to her food journal, and a quick text to Daphne about finishing the menu that night, Maisie had gotten back on the bus and had done her best to be completely neutral toward Finn. It wasn’t hard, what with him clearly ignoring her in return.
When she got to Dunluce, she left the bus behind and headed straight for the ruins, crossing over the bridge and arched walkway before being welcomed by the grand, rich history of the castle. She spent over an hour exploring every inch of the site—admiring the views from the cragged rocks and loving everything she learned from banshees haunting the old grounds to the kitchens plummeting into the sea during a storm hundreds of years before.
She made another FaceTime call to her parents as she wandered around, showing them more of the sights and catching them up on the previous day before letting them go .
Now more than ever, Maisie was feeling more like herself. Or so she chose to believe. It was better to do that than focus on whatever feelings were trying to rear their ugly heads to ruin her lovely vacation.
After exploring the castle grounds twice-over, and with twenty minutes still to kill, Maisie wandered back to the parking lot, looking left and right to see if there was a viewpoint she’d missed before spotting a line of people at the side of a green and white van, a large ice cream with a big smile painted on the side of the vehicle.
Ice cream? In this weather?
Sure enough, as she looked around, she saw more than a handful of individuals enjoying ice creams of their own.
Maisie couldn’t help but smile. Now this was a custom and culture she could get behind.
With her umbrella popped up, she walked toward the line, eying the list of flavors on the side of the van. As she did so, she spotted a pretty young woman—probably a few years younger than Maisie—handing out the ice cream to those in line one at a time, giving them a smile and a wave before greeting the next customer.
Her dark hair was long, draped over her shoulders, and her smile was broad and kind. In between taking orders, her eyes continually glanced off to the right, so Maisie leaned to the side to see what she was staring at. A sinking feeling dropped inside her chest as she spotted Finn.
The woman was beaming at him , not at the passengers, and Finn was grinning right back as he leaned against the side of the van, hands in his pockets and an easy smile on his lips.
All day long, he’d been distant and cold. Now, seeing him as happy as he’d been in Carnlough their first day together, Maisie couldn’t help her stomach twisting.
She knew she couldn’t really justify any hurt feelings at this point. She barely knew the guy. Did he know the ice cream woman, or was it just another passing flirt? Was that all Maisie had been—a way to pass the time those first couple of days?
She shrank back behind the line, not wanting Finn to catch sight of her staring again. But as she drew closer, the line getting smaller, she could almost see the chemistry between the two.
At the sight, her thoughts rushed forward like a busted dam, drowning her with regret. Were he and this woman dating? No, Finn had said he was single. But then, did he want to date her? That had to have been why he had been so weird and distant with Maisie after she’d gotten his number—because he thought Maisie was coming on to him.
She pulled a face. He obviously thought she’d just fall all over him if he smiled at her again. As if she were so pathetic.
The line shifted forward, but she hardly moved half a step, staring at the woman and Finn. Yeah, going up to them both, seeing their flirting firsthand, wasn’t worth anything—even ice cream.
Stepping off to the side that Finn was not on, Maisie retreated from the line, heading back to the security of the castle.
Not two steps there, however, and she spotted the English ladies exiting the castle entrance, Pearl’s arm around Renee, who was wiping tears from her eyes.
It took Maisie half a second to catch Trifle missing from the woman’s arms.
Her heart sank, and she rushed toward them. “What’s wrong?” she asked at once.
“Trifle,” Pearl said softly as Renee’s chin quivered. “She’s gone missing.”
“Oh, no,” Maisie breathed.
“She spooked on the grounds when we were getting lollies,” Joyce explained gently. “She ran into a crowd, but we’ve not seen her since.”
Maisie winced. “Have you checked in the castle?”
“We just informed the staff,” Pearl replied. “Renee wants to stay out here to watch the roads, in case…”
Maisie nodded her understanding. Nothing would be worse.
“She’ll just run away from the workers if she’s inside,” Renee managed. “She’s so terribly frightened of everyone.”
Maisie put a comforting hand on the woman’s arm. “Well, she’s not afraid of me. If she’s in the castle, I’ll find her.”
Renee’s eyes glowed with hope. “Thank you, dear girl.”
Maisie nodded. “Don’t worry. We’ll find her, I’m sure of it. She’s a smart dog.”
Joyce and Pearl agreed, but Maisie didn’t listen for long, rushing toward the castle while praying to find little Trifle.
While she would have never wished for this to happen, she couldn’t deny that she was grateful for the distraction. Searching for a lost dog was better than admitting to herself how stupid she felt for falling for Finn’s flirting—and how embarrassed she was by the amount of jealousy she experienced due to the ice cream woman receiving Finn’s smiles now and not her.