Page 62 of Time for You
“Why?”
“Because.” Henry waited for her to complete the thought, and when she didn’t, he lifted an eyebrow. Daphne sighed. “Because it means shattering my plan, okay? I know it seems small to you, because it’s not like I’m talking about leaving medicine, but this has been such a big part of my life plan, and I don’t know if I can lose that if I lose you, too.”
“But you’d be happier if you switched.”
“Maybe. Probably, I don’t know. I don’t even know if it’s possible; I know it happens, but it’s hard and a lot of things have to go right for it to work.”
“Never thought you’d shy away from a challenge.”
“It’s not that, it’s—fuck, I don’t know, Henry, but the past few months have been so disorienting, you know? Meeting you and falling for you and now—” The lump in her throat made it impossible to force the next few words out.
“And now you’re losing me,” Henry finished. “That’s no reason to sentence yourself to unhappiness, my love.”
Daphne smiled weakly and stretched her neck to kiss him. “What will you do back there?” she asked.
“Be miserable,” he deadpanned. He cupped her cheek in his hand and looked at her thoughtfully. “Go back to my old life. Provide for my mother, find my sisters suitable husbands—or let them find them themselves,” he corrected before she could interject. “Run the business, I guess.”
“You won’t get married?” Daphne asked, hesitant. She wasn’t sure how she wanted him to respond.
Henry looked deep into her eyes, his gaze an impossibly bright blue. “Not if I can’t have you.”
Daphne looked away first. “That’s no reason to sentence yourself to unhappiness,” she echoed.
“Would you? Marry?”
“I always thought I would, but not in a specific, ‘this is what I want’ way. More that it just seemed like the next step, and I sort of vaguely assumed it would happen. I just never thought it would be a nineteenth-century gentleman.”
“If I stayed, would we?”
“I’d marry you, yes,” Daphne said, surprised by both her own certainty and the ease with which she admitted it. “I’d marry you, Henry MacDonald, if you’d have me.”
“Of course I would, woman,” he said, cuffing his hand around the back of her neck to kiss her.
Daphne smiled even though her heart was splintering into a thousand tiny shreds. “Would we have kids?”
Henry considered her thoughtfully. “In my time, that’s not much of a choice, barring unforeseen issues. But if you want them, I’d be happy to have them with you.”
She made herself laugh even as tears pricked the corners of her eyes. “What do we do, Henry? You have to go home, and the portal won’t open for another seven years.”
“Don’t wait for me,” Henry replied. “It’s too long, and life is far too uncertain. Live your life, and find happiness, Daph. Find it, no matter what.”
“Only if you promise the same thing,” she whispered hoarsely.
Henry didn’t answer, just kissed her like it was the last thing he would ever do.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“This smells amazing,” Michelle said, walking through the door. She had a bottle of red wine in her left hand, Vibol close on her heels with a bottle of white.
Henry looked up from the stove. “Chicken tikka masala, gyoza, and a salad with goat cheese and cranberries,” he explained.
“Tikka masalaandgyoza?” Vibol asked. “You know those are not from the same regions despite being from the Asian continent, right?”
“Right,” Henry said. He turned a burner off and started ladling the tikka masala into a bowl. “But it’s my going-away dinner, and these are the two best things I’ve had while I’m here.”
Daphne knew the unspoken words behind his explanation wereI won’t be able to have them at home, which broke her heart. Henry had been so interested in and excited by the way food had evolved since his time, but now that he was going back, he wasn’t going to be able to recreate most of it.
“What’s with the salad?” Michelle asked. Daphne opened the bottle of wine she’d brought and started pouring, while Michelle ferried the glasses to the table.
