“Oh, my God, Milly! Are you okay?!”

Tara jumped out of the hard plastic seat and ran across the ER’s linoleum floor as soon as Milly entered the front lobby.

“I’m fine. It was just a few stitches and a rabies shot.” Milly held out her gauze-wrapped arm. “See, all fixed. You didn’t have to come all the way out here. I only left that message because I didn’t want you to worry about me when you got home and saw I wasn’t there.”

“Oh honey, don’t say that! Of course I came! First that awful cancer diagnosis and now this. Oh, God, this is all so messed up…” Tara looked stricken for a second, but then she grabbed Milly by the shoulders and demanded, “Why the hell were you in Faoltiarn?! That’s the middle of nowhere! What if you hadn’t been able to make it to the closest hospital? Anything could have happened to you!”

“Well, it’s not exactly in the middle of nowhere. And I thought it was kind of charming…” Milly stopped when she saw the way her bestie was glaring at her. “Anyway, I only went because that’s where Iain’s cottage is located—he goes for these, like, weird monthly camping trips. And he needed me to drive over and pick up a thumb drive for the development team.”

Tara’s brow bunched. “Wait, your boss has a home in Faoltiarn?”

“I know, right? I don’t get remote mountain retreat vibe off him either. But I guess he grew up there…and, you know, keeps a wolf in his home office. Crazy, right? But the nurse who bandaged my arm said their clinic gets what appear to be wolf bites at least once or twice a year.”

“Wolf bites!? Okay, so you went to your boss’s house and got bitten by a wolf…” Tara frowned ugly, like she was having a hard time processing what Milly had just told her.

Milly didn’t blame her. She was still having a hard time processing it herself, and she’d had three hours to sit and go over what had happened multiple times while waiting to be seen. “Sorry for the wait, dearie,” the nurse practitioner who’d stitched her up had said. “Full moon nights can be absolute madness ‘round here.”

“But how do you feel now?” Tara asked, eyeing Milly’s bandaged arm.

“Fine,” Milly assured her. “It barely hurts anymore. And the nurse said I was lucky. It was a pretty clean bite, so it might not even leave a scar.”

“Okay, okay, good…” But Tara continued to eye her with sharp worry. “But you could have been hurt. Really, really hurt. Have there been any…side effects?”

“Side effects?” Milly repeated not understanding the question. “Like what? They only gave me Ibuprofen. And the shot should have taken care of everything else—”

She cut off when Tara suddenly engulfed her in a bear hug. “Honestly, it doesn’t matter. I’m just so relieved you’re all right. So relieved…”

The hug kind of hurt her bandaged arm, but Milly didn’t try to disengage. And she found herself working hard not to cry. She didn’t realize how much she’d needed a hug until she was wrapped in her much taller friend’s comforting embrace. And no, Tara hadn’t come up from Liverpool to make her a cup of tea last night. But showing up here this morning…all was forgiven. And despite her diagnosis, Milly counted herself blessed to have such a wonderful friend.

They stood like that for a long time before finally agreeing it was time to leave. There was some debate about whether Milly was ok to drive herself all the way back to Edinburgh, or if she should go with Tara in her car. But Tara was already running nearly an hour late for work, and Milly didn’t want to make her any later.

Plus, she couldn’t just leave the company car parked at this rural hospital. Iain aside, most of the people who worked at AlgoFortune were friendly and easy to get along with. Milly didn’t want to inconvenience at least two unlucky co-workers who needed the car by leaving it an hour outside Edinburgh. Especially because there was a distinct possibility it would get clamped—which was kind of like a triangular form of booting—before anyone could pick it up.

The good news was that Tara needn’t have worried. Milly made good time back to Edinburgh, and her arm only twinged a little during the drive. The bad news…it was raining by the time she got back to the city.

Not that this was unusual weather for Scotland. But since she’d only taken her wallet and phone for what was supposed to be a quick pick-up at Iain’s cottage, she didn’t have an umbrella.

Milly was seated in the parked car, contemplating the fastest route into her flat, when a loud rapping sounded on the driver side window. She jumped and very nearly screamed.

Then the driver side door was yanked open, revealing…Iain! Seriously. Milly squinted up at him in disbelief through her glasses.

Her boss stood on the curb outside her apartment building holding a giant black umbrella. She felt certain he could fit an entire family under that thing.

And as for Iain, he looked...well, not up to his usual standards. His familiar red plaid kilt was gone, replaced by a pair of dark gray sweatpants and a green t-shirt she would never have guessed he owned, much less wore outside the confines of his Edinburgh apartment where anyone could see him.

Not only that, his usual neatly styled hair was mussed and disheveled as if he’d rolled right out of bed and driven straight here. No, definitely not up to his usual standards.

And though Iain’s hair was drying, the rain must have caught him off guard as he was getting out of his Jaguar XJ. Because his green tee was just about plastered to his body; highlighting muscles she’d guessed at underneath all those suits and button-up shirts but didn’t know were there for sure.

But he had them. Oh man, did he ever. Rippling muscles that made her wonder what it would be like to feel them with her bare hands, pressing up against her skin…

“Come on then, Millicent! Stop gawking and get out the bloody car!”

Milly’s cheeks heated. She hadn’t realized how openly she was ogling him until he snapped at her. She quickly scrambled through the open door, scooting as far beneath the umbrella as she could without touching him. And, oh wow…he smelled good.

The scent was much too subtle to be cologne. It had to be his natural one; a heady combination of pine trees, moss, and crisp lake air that made her think of castle ruins and bagpipes. A mountain. He smelled like a mountain. To be specific. He smelled like the Highlands. Like Faoltiarn.

Why hadn’t Milly ever noticed how good he smelled?

The sound of sniffing brought her head up. Iain’s nose was flared as if he, too, was taking in a scent. But unlike Milly, he didn’t like what he was smelling. “Was someone…” he sniffed again, his eyebrows pulling down so hard that a crease appeared, “…holding you?”

Milly had no idea what he was talking about until she remembered his super sensitive nose. “Ah…yes. My roommate came to see me at the hospital.”

“Your roommate,” he repeated, voice flat. “You never mentioned you lived with someone.”

“You never asked,” she gently pointed out. “Might I ask why you’re here?”

Iain stiffened, clearly not used to being interrogated by her. “When I came down from the mountain this morning, I found the thumb drive in my home office. It was covered in blood. I washed it off, drove it into the office myself, and when I saw you weren’t there, I came here to check on you. See if you were all right. Are you?” he asked.

She tilted her head up at him. Iain one of the most self-absorbed individuals she’d ever met, had driven all the way to her flat in Holyrood? Just to check to make sure she was okay?

Why hadn’t he just called? Or texted—her mental questions cut off when she suddenly realized why he might not have wanted to do something as official as calling or texting.

Her lips thinned. “You didn’t have to come here, Iain. I’m fine, and I’m not planning to spend the short amount of time I have left suing you.”

Iain’s expression remained static, registering neither guilt nor denial. But after a beat, he said, “I’ll tell Linda in HR to include a generous bonus in your next paycheck. For your…inconvenience.”

It wasn’t quite an apology, but it was better than anything she ever expected to get from him.

“Thanks,” she said. Honestly, she’d rather he gave her those two extra weeks he was making her work. But a bonus was nice, too. Especially if it meant she could travel a little longer before figuring out the hospice stuff.

That should have been the end of the conversation. But instead, they both continued to stand there, rain pitter-pattering against the top of his ridiculously large umbrella. And after a few more seconds, Milly cleared her throat and said, “Iain?”

“Aye, Millicent?”

“I know you aren’t a fan of hearing other people’s opinions. Especially mine. But I really think you should reconsider having a wolf as a pet. They’re magnificent creatures, and no matter what you may have seen on shows like Game of Thrones, they’re not meant to be cooped up like that. I mean, is that even legal? Anyway, I’m not surprised it bit me. Poor thing is probably going crazy in that cage.”

She peered closely at him to gauge his reaction and was surprised to find his eyes glittering with amusement. “Let’s see if I’m clear on this. My wolf bit you badly enough to send you to hospital. And you’re worried about his well-being? Really, Milly Mouse, this is too self-effacing. Even for you.”

“Don’t call me that!” Milly snapped before she could stop herself.

Iain stilled. Probably shocked at the harsh reaction he’d elicited from his generally meek assistant.

Another wave of fatigue passed over her. Sometimes it felt like that was all she was: a self-effacing little mouse who came into this world with barely a squeak and would go out the same way.

“I’m sorry. It’s been a long night.” She scrubbed a hand down the side of her face. “I should go inside and get cleaned up for work. And you should probably get back to your camping…and your pet wolf.”

“Okay,” he answered.

“Okay,” she echoed softly, waiting for him to make the first move and go.

But then he said, “I promise never to call you Milly Mouse again. Come on, let me walk you to your door…”

Iain took her by the elbow and escorted her down the short walkway and then up the steps toward the covered entrance outside the front door of her terrace house flat.

“Um…thanks,” she said, not quite knowing how else to respond to this unprecedented act of gentlemanly behavior.

Or how to feel about the way her elbow tingled as they walked together up the steps. Or what to think when he lowered his umbrella but not his hand once they’d reached the top of the stairs.

“Thanks,” she said for the third time. She was finding it increasingly difficult to squeeze any words at all through her suddenly dry throat.

“Millicent…” Iain said, looking down at her, his steely gray gaze as soft as it had been that first time they’d met during her interview. His hand still hadn’t dropped from her elbow.

“Yes?” she asked, her heart thundering in her chest.

Iain opened his mouth…but then the softness faded from his eyes, and his face seemed to close like a door until it resembled its usual hard mask. “You can work from home today, but I’ll expect you in at four tomorrow morning.”

His hand finally released her arm. And without waiting for her reply, he jogged down the steps.

By the time she spotted him opening the door to his Jaguar, the thundering of her heart had come to a full stop. And as Milly watched him drive away without so much as a backward glance in her direction, Tara’s words echoed in her ears. “What. A. Dick.”