The sentence I’d waited for since before I had the words to wait with.

“I love you, and I have never… I don’t say it, because where I come from, you didn’t get to.”

Her hand made a small, helpless motion.

I watched her reach the edge of the truth.

Closer than she’d ever stood to it in her life.

And then I watched her step back from it, and land where she always lands.