Lee holds him, feels the sudden tension and then release, watches his face turn patchy pink in different places. She feels a little weird just looking at him, but a little gratified, too, and swollen with affection, and curious. What that feels like, is it different from how she feels? Sometimes she thinks it must be, he seems to feel it more intensely, and maybe if she looks hard enough she can figure out the difference. It's like she wants to figure out what separates that exact moment from the one before it, is it like an on switch or like stepping through a door, where for most of it, part of you is on the other side?
She kisses his jaw all the way up to his ear and then over his cheek. “It's okay. I'm here.” It's so important that he knows that, that however far away she seems sometimes, she's still here. It's a way to say I love you without saying it. And he's beautiful, but she can't say that because men don't like that, it makes them feel weird. She kisses the line between his eyebrows that forms when he pushes them together.