Chapter 42
MAISIE
Waking up next to Henry feels like home.
His hold on me feels more like a beg for me to stay, for us to never leave this bubble we’re in.
He grumbles against my ear, pulling me closer. “My beautiful girl.”
My beautiful girl.
Are you mine, Maisie?
You’re the heaven I didn’t know I needed.
I want Henry in more ways than I can comprehend and it floods every thought in my mind.
There are only a few more weeks until the Inn has a soft reopening and Henry leaves Ruby Lake… and me.
Tears form at the thought of this all coming to an end. Henry will leave and go find a job and a wife, and I’ll be here in Ruby Lake.
I’ll be working at Ruby’s Diner and he’ll be starting a family.
I’ll be growing old wishing for the rest of my life that I was growing old with him.
But it’ll be too late.
I can’t ask him to stay, he has a life outside of here to begin. He has family and friends outside of this town, there’s nothing but myself and Miles to keep him here.
It’s not enough for him to stay.
The tears start flowing down my cheeks and as much as I try to stop them they keep coming and I can't stop my chest from shaking.
“Maisie.” Henry shoots up. “Baby, what’s wrong?” He pulls me into his arms and I start sobbing, soaking his bare chest with tears.
“Henry,” I cry into his chest.
“It’s going to be okay.” He rubs my back trying to calm me down, like he already knows why I’m crying.
“No.” I sob again, not able to get the words out.
“Hey.” He scoops me up and places me in his lap—cradling me—while rocking me back and forth. “We’re okay, Maisie.”
“I’m scared,” I choke out.
“What’s scaring you?” He wipes away a tear on my cheek.
“Henry, I’m falling in love with you,” I cry out, and my eyes flicker between his. “That scares me.”
“I’m falling in love with you too, Maisie.
” His face softens at the confession. “Actually, falling isn’t right.
I’ve already fallen for you. I’m in love with you, Maisie.
” He wipes another tear from my cheek. “I’m so beyond in love with you.
You make waking up my favorite because that means I have another day existing in a world with you in it. ”
“You’re going to leave and start your life and I’m going to be here still wishing everyday that we never said goodbye.”
“Who says we have to say goodbye?”
“You’re only here to help Miles,” I whisper through a cry. “You have no reason to stay here. You have family and friends and opportunities in Seattle that you don’t have here.”
“Do you know what all that doesn’t have?” He moves my tear soaked hair out of my face. “You. I can go wherever I want in the world but there will always be an invisible string pulling me right back here. Right back to you.”
“What about the life you already have?”
“You are my life now,” he reassures me as he cradles my head into his chest. “Everything I envision for my future has you next to me. You have become everything to me. You’ve turned my world upside down in what feels like no time at all.
I never want to go back to how it was before I knew you.
” I feel a tear that isn’t my own. “I can’t ask you to wait for me, but I need you to know that you are what’s most important and I am willing to do everything I can to be yours if you’ll let me. ”
“I’ll wait for you,” I say in a soft breath. “I’ll go wherever you ask me to. I want to be yours.”
“I’m yours and you’re mine, okay?” He holds my face in his palms and kisses me like it’s our last kiss on Earth. “I love you, Maisie. I’ve been falling for you since the beginning.”
I wipe a tear from his face, “I love you, too. I think deep down I always knew you were going to be someone for me to love.”
“We’re going to figure this out,” he reassures me. “I never want to know a life without you in it so I promise you we will figure this out. Together.”