Marriage was no standstill affair, thank God! You were almost forced to keep working at it; that way you kept learning, and she guessed that was the only way to keep any relationship alive, to be eternally curious about the other person, never taking him or her for granted. Maybe that was another form of loving, because you couldn't be curious unless you cared. And was that really so hard to say?
Eve tried the words out loud, curving her body into his.
"Brant, I love you."
Her voice held a stammer; the words sounded rusty and hesitant. The last time she'd said them had been to David—and then she had said them too often for them to really mean anything; she realized that now. Every time you said you loved someone, it should come as a fresh realization.
He said nothing for some moments, but she felt his arms tighten around her body as if he meant to hold her close forever.
"I guess that's what I was trying to tell you awhile back, Eve. But some words aren't easy for me to say."
"Don't say them, then. You don't have to. Show me."
And he did—renewing his lease on her, she thought crazily, all the time he was making such tender, beautiful love to her. Renewing it for the next hundred years, maybe. Which was the way she wanted it.