I swallow. I could lie, but the pages between us are all about honesty. A contract, or rules for a game. And I’m not breaking them.

“I didn’t know what to think, at first. I admit that I . . . I guess I felt some doubt. About what you’d told me, about you and Avery. About who you’d told about the program.”

He looks up at me. “You have a lot of reason to doubt people,” he says. “You can’t know how sorry I am that I’m now another one of those people.”

“Reid, I don’t doubt you. Not now.”

But I can tell he doesn’t quite believe me. He looks down again, to his now-unbuttoned cuffs. I reach out, tug gently on one of them.

“Reid,” I say again. “I know you. I know your heart. You were under so much stress, and maybe you made some mistakes. But I know you didn’t mean for this to happen.” I rest my hand on top of his letter. “I believe you.”

“How, Meg?” His voice is low, raspy from the tears he’d shed against my body. “I hid so many things from you.”

I shrug. “I hid things, too.”

He looks up at me, his gaze dismissive. “The program is nothing, Meg. That’s over. You know I don’t—”

“I didn’t mean the program.”

He shakes his head. He’s still fighting me so hard. “You didn’t hide anything like this.” He gestures idly to the now-empty table.

I don’t bother to look over at it. I keep my eyes fixed on him.

“I hid that I’m in love with you. That I’ve been in love with you. For a long time.”

I pick up the pages of his letter, move them to the other side of me. Then I shift, turning to the side, moving closer to him. I put my hand on his cheek, turn his face toward mine. I look into his sad, disbelieving eyes. His shoulders are still tight with tension. Stoic, stern, Masterpiece Theatre Reid. He never has been quite what he seemed on the outside, but I always knew that. I always saw something else inside him. From that very first day.

“I love you,” I repeat, and he closes his eyes. I lean in and press a kiss to his temple, trail my lips over his scarred brow. One, I don’t say. I move to his cheek, brush my lips back and forth there. Two, I don’t say. I pause with my lips in front of his. Three, I’m begging him silently, but I don’t move.

Then he whispers, “I love you, too.”

And he kisses me.