Chapter 9
That evening, Robert took Maisie to his place to have dinner, and she looked refreshed and happy as he set her up on the couch and smiled when his tuxedo kitten came out to greet her.
“Oh, she’s so adorable.” Maisie picked her up and cuddled with her.
“That’s Mittens, and she is the sweetest little cat.” He smiled to see Maisie rub her cheek against Mittens in a friendly nuzzle and Mittens began to purr. The moment was precious. “Would you like a cocktail, glass of wine, or glass of water before I make dinner?”
“A glass of water would be great.”
“Okay, you’ve got it.” He got her a glass of water, then he gently set her foot on a pillow on the coffee table to elevate it before he started dinner.
She smiled. “Thanks. I will leave a review for you on your clinic website saying you’re an excellent doctor.”
He laughed. “I will need all the reviews I can get once I open the clinic, but I suspect I’ll have a ton from pack members, since I’ve been seeing their animals after I moved into the manor house with Edeen and Lachlan. Now we have to decide what we want to eat. Red meat? Fish? Or chicken?”
“Haddock appeals, if you’ve got some.”
“Coming right up. Chips?”
“Aye! So I want to tell you that I was so impressed with your swordsmanship. You were great. Now you’re going to have to give me some tips instead of the other way around.”
“It’s been so long since I even held a sword that I didn’t think I would be able to do well at it at all.”
“I guess it’s like riding a bike. Except of course when you got distracted on the battlefield.”
“Uh, yeah,” he said, as he prepared the haddock to cook. “Veronica and I danced at Christmastime up at the castle. We haven’t done anything together since then. She is constantly taking off for England to see friends, and I suspect she has a male wolf friend there, but that’s just speculation. Anyway, we really had a great time, but neither of us have really reached out to see each other further.”
Light dawning, Maisie said, “You were afraid she was going to tell me that you’d dated her and worried how I would react.”
He smiled at Maisie. “I should have told you about it, though there’s not much to say. I also spent an evening dancing with Lana Cameron, Heather’s baker. When we have lunch at Heather’s shop tomorrow, Lana might say something about it. But again, that was just dancing at a party one night and nothing after that.”
Maisie laughed. “Okay, I’m forewarned. Veronica didn’t say you two dated. She just said she was the one commissioned to frame the photos I’ll take for your clinic. Oh, that reminds me, tomorrow before our date, I need to get those marine life pictures ready to send for the magazine. I found a few that will be suitable, but I need to check out the rest of them to give them a variety.”
“At least you can do that even if your ankle is still bothering you,” Robert said, hoping that Maisie wasn’t concerned about him socializing with Veronica or Lana.
“Yeah. So have you been dating any other wolves while you’ve been here?” she asked, sounding like a curious wolf.
He served up glasses of sauvignon blanc. “No. I danced with Lana and Veronica only. I didn’t have a date with them per se. I just showed up, and they weren’t with anyone either. We were single, so we danced.”
“Oh, okay.” She sounded a little relieved, probably because Veronica lived here and worked with the pack, so Maisie would be seeing her from time to time.
“What about you?” he asked.
“I’ve been on only one date since we’ve been here. Gus Anderson, a lone gray wolf, was staying at the inn, and he took me out to Heather’s pie shop.”
“Gus, the guy who had lost his driver’s license in your garden.”
“Aye. I think he asked me out because we’re both from Glasgow, but I never met him there. He was nice enough but kept glancing at the clock like he had an appointment, and it kind of annoyed me. I finally just had had it and I told him if he had an important meeting to go to, he should drop me off at the inn. He seemed affronted and said he was meeting with someone, but that he had to eat, and he hated eating alone. He said he was enjoying my company, but if I felt that way about it, he would take me home. I felt a little guilty about bringing it up. He told me he was sorry, that he was just making sure he didn’t miss meeting the…person.
“In that instant, I felt something was really off. He didn’t say who he was meeting, and when he hesitated, he switched from looking at his steak pie to looking at me, as if he had nearly made a slip and he hoped I hadn’t caught it. He looked… guilty , the tips of his ears turning a little red. I thought maybe he was seeing another woman. After dinner, he took me back to the inn, and I figured he retired to his room. I don’t know if he ever met with anyone else afterward or what that was all about. When I told Anne, she said he’d been terribly rude. He checked out early the next morning, and I never heard from him again. So I guess it was like your time spent with Veronica and Lana—nothing came of it, not that I expected anything to since he was living in Glasgow.”
“That sounds like an odd situation he had put you in.” Robert served up the meal and seemed glad to hear that she wasn’t interested in Gus.
***
Maisie dug into her delightful haddock, feeling pleased that they had discussed past relationships with each other. “This is so good.” She took another bite of the haddock, which had been breaded and cooked to perfection. “You can cook this for me anytime!”
“Thanks. You made my day. Edeen and I would take turns trying to outdo each other cooking dinner. She taught me how to cook. I would like to have both you and Anne over for dinner some night before I open the clinic to thank you for dinner last night.”
“That would be great. You’ll have to fix this again. She’ll love it. If my ankle wasn’t still bothering me, I would have loved going for a wolf run with you.”
“As soon as it’s all better, let’s make a plan of it.”
“You’re on.”
After they finished dinner, Robert took Maisie home, carrying her inside and setting her on the couch. “I’ll grab the crutches and be right back.” When he returned, he set them next to the couch and leaned over and kissed her. “See you tomorrow. Bye, Anne.”
“Bye,” they both said.
As soon as he drove off, Anne said, “Well? Spill.”
Maisie smiled at her sister. “We had a great time. Everyone was very welcoming. It’s going to be really nice being part of the pack.”
“That sounds great. What about Jude’s phone? Did you have any luck with that?”
“Robert gave it to Grant, and he said he would try and find someone to crack the passcode. I’m sure it’s not something that the pack members are often asked to do, so it might take a while,” Maisie said. “Did you see any sign of trouble while I was gone?”
“No. Everything was just the same as usual. Guests checked out. Guests checked in. No problem at all. Though, believe me, I was keeping an eye out just in case Jude was sneaking around the inn.”
“Good. Maybe we’ll get word about the cell phone within a day or two.” At least Maisie could hope. Her imagination was truly running wild about it. She was dying to know why he had come to their place, and she was certain it had to do with her, but she couldn’t imagine why, after all this time, he would want to hassle her.
***
The next morning, Maisie’s ankle was feeling much better. She was still walking gingerly on it to make sure she didn’t sprain it again, but she was glad to ditch the crutches.
Anne frowned at Maisie as they wrapped up cooking their own food. “Are you sure you don’t need to be on the crutches still?”
“While we were cooking breakfast for our guests this morning, you never said anything,” Maisie reminded her, amused her sister hadn’t said anything earlier.
“Aye, but then I saw you wince while we were making our own breakfast—twice.”
“I just felt a twinge of pain a couple of times. Really, if it gets worse, I’ll use the crutches again. But I’m being really careful,” Maisie said. Or she was trying to.
“If you need to just sit down, I can do this.”
“We’re almost done.”
Then they dished up their eggs, bacon, chips, and toast and sat down at the table to eat it.
Once they ate their breakfast, they chatted while cleaning up.
“We need a couple of people to make breakfasts for guests when one of us is incapacitated or you’re off on photography jobs. I know you always try to do your shoots in the afternoon or evening so that you’re free to help me, but like now, with your ankle giving you trouble, it would be nice to have additional assistance. And we could use a person to manage reservations and the front desk part-time and somebody on standby to clean if we both are unable to get it done,” Anne said. “Oh, and don’t worry about doing anything at the inn today. I know you need to get the pet pictures for Robert’s vet clinic scheduled and done.”
“Okay, thanks. I’m going to work on the marine wildlife photos to submit them this morning.” If all the other excitement hadn’t happened—the lost dog included—Maisie would have already taken care of this, though she had until the weekend to send the photos to the editor. She downloaded her photos onto her laptop and combed through them while Anne headed out to the vacated rooms.
Maisie had gotten perfectly clear shots of several colorful starfish. Beautiful. A school of flounder—great. Seahorses, coral. She viewed them at 100 percent to see how clear they were and used a Photoshop tool to sharpen the images further.
The rock reefs were colonized by starfish, sea anemones, soft corals, hermit crabs, queen scallops, shrimps, squat lobsters, and congers. The eelgrass beds around the rocky outcroppings kept the mud and silt from stirring up, making the water clear to see in. The grass was wavering, beautiful, streams of sunlight penetrating the water, shadows of the plants moving across the sandy and rocky bottom.
Then she saw something odd in the seaweed, something that looked like glass. Was it trash, perhaps? It seemed to be floating. Her dive light had bounced off it, but when she viewed a closer shot of it, she couldn’t make it out.
She sent her best photos of marine life to the editor of the magazine, and he came back within the hour and told her he loved them and that he needed her to do a cave dive for some more pictures in a few weeks.
Awesome , she wrote back. She added it to her calendar that was getting booked, which she was truly thankful for. She called up Edeen.
“Hey, Edeen, my ankle is feeling much better, and I wondered if I might be able to take some photos of your animals this afternoon after lunch.” Maisie still wanted to do the transitional training with Conan too, but for now, she really needed to get the animal photos done for Robert’s clinic.
“Oh, absolutely,” Edeen said. “I don’t know how well they’ll behave, but I can’t wait to do this with you. It’ll be fun. We’ll have tea when you come.”
“Alright. Would two o’clock work for you?”
“Perfect. See you then.”
Maisie looked back at the photo of the floating glass and blew it up some more. It was too blurry then, and she just couldn’t tell what it was. Normally, glass was denser than water, and it shouldn’t have been floating, unless it was a small shard of glass and the currents were keeping it afloat. She couldn’t think of what else it would be that would reflect her dive light like that. She couldn’t help puzzling over it. Then she realized what was bothering her. If it was a piece of glass, her dive light would have reflected through the back of the glass. The light only reflected off the front. Which meant? It was attached to something solid, she thought.
She sighed and called Colleen next. “Hey, it’s Maisie. How are you doing?”
“I’m ready to have these kiddos.”
“I bet. I was going to ask you if I could take pictures of your animals later on this afternoon, about four? I’ll be taking pictures of Edeen’s at two.”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll let Lachlan know and he can take you around to help you get the best shots you can. I was kind of surprised Veronica came over to talk to you during the weapons training.”
Maisie laughed. “I wondered if she and Robert dated.”
“They danced at an event, but they haven’t seen each other exclusively, as far as I know.”
“Well, Robert and I are having our first official date at lunchtime, so as far as I’m concerned, we’re dating.” Maisie was ready to let the whole pack know that—Veronica included, in the event she was interested in upping her game with Robert.
“I’m so glad for you and Robert.”
“Thanks.” Of course, they were just getting to know each other, which meant that they might not end up mating each other. Still, he was so hot and so kind to her and protective, it was hard not to envision being mated wolves.
Once Maisie and Colleen ended their call, she got ready for her date with Robert. She was really excited about going out on her first official date with him. If she could handle it, she would love to go running with him as a wolf tonight, after she did her photo sessions with Lachlan and Edeen’s pets.
Robert was early to pick her up, and she loved that. One of the guys she’d dated had been late for all their dates—Jude, in fact—and it was great being with someone who cared about being with her enough to show up early. Being late for a date for no good reason made her feel as though the guy hadn’t really wanted to be with her, even if that wasn’t the case.
What made it even better was that Robert kissed her like this was only the beginning for them, and she certainly felt that way about him.
“Oh, I needed that.” She kissed him back, tongues stroking and lips melding. Damn, she wanted to take him to her bedroom and skip lunch!
He separated from her, smiled at her, and kissed her lips again. “Are you ready?”
“Yes. I’m going to take photos of Edeen’s and the MacQuarries’ animals this afternoon. I could take pictures of your cat also. And we can run as wolves after that?”
He opened the car door for her. “Yeah, that sounds like a great idea, if your ankle can handle it. But dinner before the wolf run?”
“Yeah, perfect. I’ll let Anne know I’ll be having dinner with you too.”
“She can come over also, if you want to have dinner with her, so she doesn’t feel left out.”
“I’ll text her.” Maisie didn’t want to put Anne on the spot.
Anne texted back: No, you have fun. I’m watching a reality show.
Maisie smiled, knowing her sister better than that. Anne wanted to give Robert and Maisie their time together alone, and Maisie was happy to do that, but she knew Robert would be just as happy to have her sister join them, to show he wanted to include her as family and get to know her better. It was important to Maisie also that if she and Robert ended up together that he and her sister were like family. And her and her sister’s parents too.
Maisie texted: If you change your mind, we would love to have you there.
I’ll let you know. Have fun on your first real date.
Thanks!
Maisie set her phone down on her lap. “Anne wants to watch a TV show.”
“She wants us to have more time to ourselves.”
“Exactly.” Maisie laughed. “But I told her she could change her mind and join us.”
“Absolutely.”
When they arrived at Heather’s pie shop, they found that she’d set up a romantic table for them—candles, a special red tablecloth, and fresh red roses. Maisie smiled. “Was this your idea?”
“I told Heather I wanted a special table for our date, and she went all out,” Robert said.
“This is so cute.”
Heather was taking a payment for some pies and waved at them, smiling broadly.
They quickly took their seats, and one of Heather’s brothers, Oran, came over to take their orders. Maisie got a Scotch pie and Robert ordered the steak pie, both dishes accompanied by baked beans and chips.
Then another of Heather’s brothers came out of the kitchen to help take some other orders. Maisie thought how uncomfortable Heather looked, like the babies would come any second.
When Heather came over to their table to check on them, Robert said, “Thanks for doing such a beautiful job of making this the perfect date.”
“You won’t believe it, but Callum was the one who set it up, though Ethan and Oran kept telling him how to do it right, as if they were the experts. Of course, part of the reason is that my brothers really want me to stay home on bed rest.”
Maisie chuckled. “I don’t blame them. They’re afraid they’re going to have to deliver the babies here.”
Heather smiled. “Absolutely.”
“How are you feeling?” Robert asked.
“Oh, I’m tired. I’m not sleeping all that great. Uncomfortable. Heartburn. I’ll be glad when the babies are born, but I know then I won’t get any sleep either.”
“But you’ll have a ton of nannies wanting to take care of the babies,” Maisie said.
“Aye, that’s true. And Enrick will be there for me and the little ones, so it’ll be good.”
A customer came in and went to the counter, and Heather excused herself to help her.
Oran delivered the pies to Robert and Maisie’s table. “Enjoy.” He was smiling.
“Oh, we will. Heather’s meals are terrific,” Maisie said.
“I totally agree,” Robert said.
Then another customer came in and glanced in her and Robert’s direction, grabbing Maisie’s attention.
“Oh, that’s Gus Anderson!” She was relieved she could give him his driver’s license. “I’m going to tell him his license is at the inn.” She hopped up from her chair and went straight across the shop to see him.
Gus was just paying for a pie, and he looked startled to see her approach.
“You dropped your driver’s license in the garden, and I found it,” Maisie said, smiling.
He stared at her, appearing as though he didn’t comprehend what she was saying. She guessed he hadn’t realized he’d even lost his driver’s license. She wondered why he hadn’t answered his phone messages Anne had left for him about it.
“At the MacTavish Inn.” She swore he didn’t remember who she was. Talk about being an unremarkable date! Though he had been terribly distracted when they went out. “We still have it there if you would like to pick it up.”
“Uh, yeah, sure. Thanks.” He got his order, glanced at Robert again, and headed out.
Maybe he was afraid of having a wolf-to-wolf confrontation with Robert.
When she returned to their table, Robert was watching Gus get into a pickup and drive off. Maybe Robert had been giving Gus the evil eye and that’s why he was in such a hurry to leave the pie shop. Or maybe Gus had another meeting with someone and was trying to eat before he met up with them. Who knew? Maisie often overthought situations when she just needed to let them go.
“At least now Gus knows where his driver’s license is. I swear I must have been the most unremarkable date he has ever gone out with, the way he acted like he didn’t even know me,” Maisie said to Robert.
Robert waved at their romantic table. “You went out with him a couple of nights ago and now he sees you with another wolf having lunch here with wine, roses, and candles. I’m sure he was worried I might want to punch him out if I learned he’d had dinner with you.”
She laughed and took another bite of her pie. “You don’t think it had anything to do with the way you were eyeing him with a warlike alpha-wolf stare, do you?”
Robert scoffed. “After the way he treated you on your date, I would say he deserves it.”
She smiled. Robert was so sweet. “Well, I agree.”
After they finished eating their pies, Maisie ordered Scottish macaroons and Robert asked for Scottish tea cookies because they were just too good to pass up. Then they thanked Callum and his brothers for the beautiful setup. He looked happy to have done it for them.
“Hmm,” Maisie said, biting into a macaroon. “These are so good. I’m glad you wanted dessert too.”
“Aye, always. When I come here, it’s standard fare. A meal with dessert.”
They thanked Heather and her brothers for the lovely meal.
“Oh,” Heather said, “I want you to do a maternity shoot for me before it’s too late. Edeen already made me a beautiful gown for it, but I’ve been so busy, I forgot about scheduling it. Maybe tomorrow after closing here at the shop?”
“Take the afternoon off,” Callum said, “and get it done before the babies come or you’ll forever regret it.”
“Okay, tomorrow afternoon then?” Heather asked.
“Yes, that will be perfect.” Now Maisie wondered if Colleen would want one too. She could imagine her missing out and regretting it, since Heather was getting hers done now. “See you tomorrow. Is there somewhere special that you would like to do it?”
“At the MacQuarries’ castle gardens.”
“Do you want me to meet you there at noon then?” Maisie was delighted to be able to do this for her.
“Aye, let’s do it.”
“Good. I’ll see you then.”
After that, Robert drove Maisie to her home, but on the way there, she asked, “Hey, do you have time to look at one of my underwater photos and see what you think of it?” She wanted to see if Robert could identify what her dive light had reflected off. She needed to ask her sister too.
“Yeah, sure.”
They parked at the inn, went inside, and Anne greeted them. “Did you have a good time?”
“Yeah, it was great. Heather’s brother Callum set up a really romantic table, with candles and roses and everything,” Maisie said.
Anne laughed. “That’s so cute.”
“It really was,” Maisie said. “Oh, and I saw Gus Anderson there and told him that he dropped his driver’s license here and he could pick it up. It seemed like he hadn’t even realized he’d lost it. Did he make it here?”
“Yes. He came by. I was busy with reservations at the time and put it on the counter for him. When I turned to speak to him, he had taken his ID and was gone.”
“He never thanked you for saving it for him?”
“No. I guess he was in a hurry.”
“He acted odd at the pie shop, I thought.”
“After seeing you with Robert at a romantic table setting? I can see why,” Anne said.
“True. Anyway, I was going to show Robert a strange picture I took while scuba diving. I need you to look at it too, and maybe one of you can figure out what we’re seeing,” Maisie said.
“Sure,” Anne said.
As they scanned through the pictures on her laptop, Robert said, “You do a beautiful job.”
“Thanks. I was thrilled so many of them had turned out.”
“Especially since I thwarted you while you were working.”
Maisie chuckled. “Luckily, I had finished taking the pictures.”
Then they came to her favorite shot: Robert, the upside-down boat, and the floating ice chest. But only because they had safely made it to shore and gotten help.
Smiling, he shook his head. “Now that is one for posterity’s sake.”
Anne laughed. “I love it.”
Maisie got to the photo in question, and Anne and Robert peered at it while Maisie enlarged it. “That’s my dive light reflecting off something.”
“Glass?” Anne asked.
Maisie sighed. “Aye, I think so, but glass doesn’t normally float unless it’s really small and the currents are moving it.”
“A watch face,” Robert said.
Anne and Maisie stared at the picture a bit longer. “I think you’re right,” Maisie said, chill bumps dotting her arms. It might not be anything, but she couldn’t stop worrying that there was something more to this than just a bit of debris in the water.
“Why is it floating?” Anne asked. “A watch would have sunk to the bottom of the ocean, don’t you think? A small shard of glass might have been swept around, but a watch?”
Maisie couldn’t stop looking at it, seeing it in a new way.
“I think it’s a watch,” Robert said.
Maisie didn’t want to say why the watch was floating in the ocean among the eelgrass but felt she had to: “What if it’s not floating there all by itself? What if it’s attached to an arm?”