Page 194 of Blue

Not nervous, exactly. Just waiting. The way he has always waited for me. Patient in a way that took him years to learn and costs him nothing now.

"I love you," I say.

Not dramatically.

Not the desperate kind or the please-don't-go kind.

Just the true kind. The kind that has lived in me since I was eight years old and never once asked permission.

Something in his face goes quiet and soft and entirely mine.

"I love you," he says back.

• • •

Her daisies are all around us.

And now so are ours.

Blue.