QUOTE : She needed to know more. “But that means…”<br /><br />“It means I love you, Violet. I have never said that aloud to another human being.”<br /><br />He said it quickly and tonelessly. As if he was afraid of the words. Violet stood basking in those words the way she might a sunbeam after a long, gray day. She closed her eyes. And she knew she was lit from within.<br /><br />“Do not let me just stand here having said those words,” he said stiffly. “It’s undignified.”<br /><br />“I love you, too,” she said softly, hurriedly. Feeling abashed. Eyes still closed. Egads. So this was what it was like to be in love. Awkward and foolish, indeed.