She nodded, putting her hands over his and moving them so they could press their palms together and lock their fingers together at their sides. Some of the noise behind them had quieted, so either her neighbors had turned silent in their spectating, or they’d given them some backyard privacy.

“Keeping things the same,” she said. “Obviously, I’ve—that’s how I try to show people how I love them. Nonna, even though she’s gone. Everyone here. And even with us, when I thought you might not feel the same way back . . . I was just trying to keep myself safe, too. To go back to the things I know are a sure thing. I bolted this morning, and I’m sorry.”

“We’ll work on it,” he said. “Both of us. We’ll figure this out.”

She nodded and pressed up to kiss him again.

“I love you,” he said again, when they finally parted. “I should’ve told you the first night we were together. It feels so good to tell you, I can’t believe it.”

“I know,” she said, and then, because she could, and because she was so full to bursting with feeling, she repeated it. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

He brought her close again, kissed the words from her mouth like he was hungry for them, then bent to put his lips beside her ear, speaking quietly this time, like he wanted to make sure this was only for them. “You’re the first, you know.”

She shuddered at the feeling of his breath against her neck, at the memory of that first night they’d had together, when he’d told her that their physical connection had felt like a first for him, too. But something about his hold on her hands, something about the way he held his body, signaled her that he was saying something new. She leaned back so she could see him, searched his eyes and found them more serious than she expected.

“The first person you’ve been in love with?” She’d assumed that’s part of what he meant, when he’d told her he’d fallen for her sixteen years ago, but—

He shook his head, and then corrected. “Yes, you’re that, but . . .” He lowered his head, loosening a hand from hers so he could reach up and straighten his glasses in a move that made Nora’s whole body ache with longing for him.

He came close again, and whispered in her ear. “You’re the first person to ever say that to me.”