They had danced around the words, coming close but what they truly wanted to say to each other remained inside their hearts. He could see it in her eyes and she could hear it in his voice but the words were still unspoken. He didn’t say it out of fear that it would be too much, too fast, that he would scare her away. She wanted to wait until he said it first, to go at his pace, afraid she would scare him away. That fear kept the words inside, kept the emotions bottled up in their hearts. It was only three words, seven letters all together, how could something so small feel too large to say. He opened his mouth to speak those words to her, but his courage failed him and the words died on his tongue. As much as he wanted to say it, what if she didn’t feel the same? Doubt and fear held him back, until the day he couldn’t stop himself. The words rushed out of their own accord, they would not be denied any longer. He finally I said, “I love you.” He waited, heart in his throat, and then he heard, “I love you too.”