She came back almost immediately after, slightly flustered looking. Shane tried very hard not to look relieved - he didn't want to fight with her, but he also didn't want her to walk away. He didn't know what he wanted.
"I'm sorry about this, but Alex said something dumb and now I can't get it out of my head. Please don't take it the wrong way - it's not that I don't trust you or - I just. My brain won't let it go until I know the answer -" Lucie's words had fallen out in a tumble, tripping and spilling over each other in the hurry to get out. She glanced up at Shane's face, saw his confusion and then pressed a hand to her forehead. "By Yoba this is ridiculous."
Shane didn't answer her, didn't fill the silence. Then when Lucie voiced her concern he felt the hole in him widen, the small patch of emptiness that had been his life up until a few months prior. It wasn't anger that washed through him, only a growing sense of emptiness.
"Do you want to keep us a secret so you can hook up with your ex?" Lucie's face showed that she hated the words that fell out her mouth as much as Shane did. "I'm sorry - I just…if I didn't ask it would drive me insane."
"Why would you ever think that?" Shane asked, quietly, not looking at her. "Is that what you think of me?"
"No!"
"Why would you ever think it then?"
Lucie pressed her hands to her forehead and struggled to find the words. She spun on the spot turning away from him, then looking back. Her wide eyes met hurt ones, her heart cracking as she met Shane's gaze. She took in a deep, juddering breath then paused. Say the right words this time, Lucienne, she scolded herself.
"When you said you didn't want people to know about us, I thought you meant for a week or two," she said slowly, tearing her eyes away and sitting on the small wooden border of the play-area. "But we're forecast snow next week - it's been an entire season and I'm scared to end up like Marnie and Lewis. Skulking around, terrified that people will find out and not actually being able to be together, properly." Lucie plucked at the grass at her feet, and couldn't bring herself to look up. She didn't know Shane had moved until the wood creaked slightly, his weight joining hers.
"'I want my time with you'," he quoted softly. Lucie looked up, surprised, her pupils swallowing the darkness of the maze. Shane shrugged and looked away. Lucie grabbed the hand that sat on his thigh and squeezed it.
"I do." The earnest in her voice made Shane's gut clench slightly. "I want - I want picnics in the woods in the spring, I want day trips to the city to waste our time in coffee shops and bookstores and wherever, I want evenings in with the fire burning and sat together on the couch. I want to walk you to work and kiss you goodbye at the door. I want to walk through the town square holding your hand, instead of stealing a glance every now and again. I want to sneak into this stupid maze together and everyone to know that the main reason why we've gone in is just to sneakily make out in the darkness," she caught her breath, the small shocked gasp filling the air. "I want to be with you and not have any part of me question whether or not you're embarrassed to be seen with you. I don't want to have to tell myself that I'm being paranoid and stupid."
She sniffed and dropped his hand. Her words hung in the air, loitering like unwelcome visitors that had stayed far too long, haunting her with their raw truth.
"I'm not embarrassed to be with you," Shane finally said, staring at the hand Lucie had let go of only moments before. "I was scared you would be - and, and that someone would say something and you'd realise how ridiculously out of my league you were."
Lucie glanced up at him, and he had the grace to look slightly sheepish. His small smile broke her and she spluttered with laughter. Shane slowly relaxed and let himself join in.
"I can't believe that our argument was that we both think the other is too good for us," Lucie giggled, leaning into Shane. He lifted an arm and wrapped it around her, his thumb stroking the curve of her shoulder.
"Lucie?" He said after a few moments of silence, the name murmured lightly into her hair.
"Mhm?"
"Amber? My ex? Is the most pretentious woman I've ever met. We went on one date because Jas' dad wanted to watch me suffer, and now she uses it as an excuse to come to our 'quaint little festivals'. If I knew how to stop her, I would."
Having resolved the petty fight, Lucie and Shane suddenly realised quite how long they'd been hiding in the centre of the maze, and how unnervingly uninterrupted they'd been. In order to justify their absence, they decided that they would have to find the centre of the maze, find whatever had been hidden and return triumphant.
They were failing miserably. It wasn't until Shane tripped on a small root and fell through the hedge, rather than into it, that they discovered the hidden tunnel in the rock face.
"By Yoba, it's dark in here," Lucie muttered, her voice echoing back through the tunnel, whispering back promises of all the nasty things that lurked in the mines. The hand that laced into hers startled her, sending Shane into a fit of laughter. She squatted him away and strode into the small opening alone. But she reached back for his hand as soon as he followed her.
"Is that a chest?" Shane asked, reaching out to touch the wooden box in the centre of the cavern.
"Looks it," Lucie said distractedly, running her hand along the top of the chest. Her hand hit metal, and she flicked open the catch. Even in the darkness, they could seen the shine of the golden pumpkin, the faintest hints of light glinting on the ridges of the vegetable. Lucie scooped it up and offered it to Shane, but he pushed it back into her hands, stepping towards her as he did so. Instead, he kissed her lightly on the forehead, then the cheek, then he found her lips. He felt her smile as he pulled back.
"What was that for?" She asked after a satisfied exhale emerged without her permission.
"Just felt like it." Shane laced his fingers back between hers. "Come along, Farm Girl, let's go find the light again."
Haley was loitering in the maze, only a few hedges away from where Lucie and Shane had sat on the wooden border. She caught sight of the two of them rounding the hedge and clasped her hands in front of her face.
"Did you two make up? Please say you did," she pleaded.
Lucie smiled and rolled her eyes.
"No, Haley, I always hold hands with people I'm fighting with." The sarcasm dripped from her, but Haley only looked at her reproachfully for a second before squeaking happily and throwing herself at both of them. The impromptu hug was made more awkward by Shane's half-hearted pat on Haley's back.
"You can let go now," he said, the words slightly stilted. Haley obliged, somewhat grudgingly.
"And you finally asked her out!" She beamed at Shane. "Took you long enough."
Lucie and Shane exchanged a sheepish glance, before he echoed Haley's statement back at her, as though confirming that he had indeed just asked Lucie out. And not two months prior. Luckily, Haley was too excited to notice the obvious mistruth.
"Why do you have a pumpkin?" Haley frowned at Lucie, pointing at the pumpkin cradled under her arm, as though Lucie might have been confused as to what Haley meant by 'pumpkin'.
"Maze snack." Lucie tried to walk past Haley and out the maze without clarifying further.
"You aren't funny, you know."
"Au contraire, mon amie. Je suis trés drôle," Lucie retorted. Haley blinked. "I'm hilarious. Now, move, I'm hungry and I can smell Gus' burgers from here."
The small smile that Lucie gained from Marnie was more heartbreaking to see than had she burst into tears. Lucie's heart flew out to her, but the only response she had was a small smile to Marnie, and a squeeze of Shane's hand. The glance to Lewis cracked something in Lucie and she had to wrench herself away before she started to let herself feel Marnie's pain for her.
"Lucie," Haley warned. "Don't go interfering in other people's relationships."
Lucie looked at her, outrage jerking her chin back.
"You hypocrite - you do nothing but interfere!" She spluttered. Haley grinned.
"Exactly. Leave the interfering with me," she sang, before bounding off to Alex. Lucie shook her head lightly, then glanced up at Shane, the ghost of a smile lingering in her eyes.
"Are you two trying to make my home life hell?" Shane muttered, only faintly grouchy. Lucie smiled at him.
"Only bad enough that you want to run away and stay with me forever," she teased. She raised herself on to tiptoe and lightly pressed a kiss into Shane's cheek, the faint stubble grazing her chin. "Or if not forever, at least tonight?"
Shane grinned at her, and kissed her in lieu of an answer. Then he paused, glancing over his shoulder, and said:
"I'm going to go tell Marnie so that she doesn't panic and think I'm dead again."
"Good plan."
Shane faltered, and resisted the urge to pout.
"I feel like a teenager asking permission to sleep over at a friend's house," he grumbled. Lucie laughed lightly and raised herself on to tiptoes. She waved at Marnie, who caught her gaze. Lucie gestured to her and Shane with her thumb, then towards her house. She didn't wait for the response before spinning Shane around and heading back towards her farm, hand in hand with him.
