Stone Circle Woulda been gone like a wayward wind

The look on her face made it hard for him to breathe. He'd known this girl as a child, and it was plain to him that she was hurting, uncertain, afraid. He wanted to comfort her, but it was impossible to close the gaping distance between them. Once, he would have pulled her close and groomed the tears out of her eyes, the same as he did for Dawn or Sunny.

"Hey," he said, taking half-a-step after her. But the air was punched out of his lungs, and he had no words to fix this that didn't release her from the commitment she'd just made. All he knew was that he loved her, and that he wanted to erase the tightness in her shoulders, the anxious lines of her face. He missed the happy girl she'd been, the easy affection they'd shared. "I love you," he eeked out, the words bitter on his tongue. But he did, and he knew that she loved him, too. Not the way he needed, but enough to make this okay again.