“I have waited years to hear you finally vocalize what you feel, and it's exactly what was hoped and prayed for. Donovan, I want this. I love and cherish everything about you, but I'm so afraid you'll run again.”

At last Donovan completes his surrender to our reality. “There is no more running. I have admitted my feelings to myself for years, and not telling you was killing me inside. Now that I have, everything else has melted into nothing. The very core of my being loves you. It's taking every bit of restraint to stop me from carrying you up those stairs and making love to you, but you need to know that what I feel isn't about that. It was never about that. It would have been so much easier if it was.”