I love you, Erik,” I whispered. “You don’t
have to say it, too,” I hurried on, not giving him the chance to
reply. “I know you were about to before, but I just wanted to tell
you now, like this. I wanted you to know that it’s for real, and
not because of anything that either one of us makes the other one
say or do.”
“I love you, Natalia,” he said in a confident
tone. Then he laughed softly. “Man, I’ve never said that before. To
anyone. Feels kinda weird. Weird in a good way,” he assured me.
