It was love, and it hit me so hard I leaned against the screen door that still stood between us, just to stay vertical. I wanted to touch him like he was a bunny, a kitten, something so special and soft your fingertips can‘t leave it alone. The universe was good because he was in it. I loved the hole in his jeans and the dirt on his bare feet and the scab on his elbow and the scar that laced through one eyebrow.

"...some sacrifices aren‘t worth the cost. Even, or perhaps most especially, those made out of love."

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.