James let his forehead come forward to rest gently against hers, hands sliding up the back of her neck into her hair, thumbs framing her face. "I love you." It had just popped out, and for a moment, James looked shocked at himself.
James had pretty much accepted a year or two ago that he wasn't going to find a girl worthy of those words. Most girl she dated ended up hating his guts enough without him pulling the big ILY out of his pocket. In fact, he made a point of it not to let himself say things like that, and here it was. It had rolled off his tongue as easy as any other normal phrase in conversation.
He wondered if he should take it back, but then decided that A) There was no real way to take something like back, and B) even if he did, he still would have meant it, wouldn't he? What was the point? Maybe it had taken a terrible incident to get him to say it, something that showed him how fragile things could be, but it didn't make it any less true, and he could feel his heart pounding annoyingly in his chest as he waited for her to say something.