Ask Again, Yes

by Mary Beth Keane

And while he lightened her burden, he felt he’d lightened his, too. It was the truth, what he’d said.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love him, he knew. It was that she loved him so much that it frightened her, loved him so much that she worried she might have to protect herself from it. He tried to let her know that he’d figured that out, finally, that there was no need to explain, but then he realized that she might not know it herself.