"I LOVE YOU!" I say and smile my big Shannon smile.

He blurs the photos with a stammer of disbelief, "Do you mean that?"

"Yes, I do mean it. I love you," I whisper, hardly believing myself.

Fish fly past our heads at Pike Place, and he bundles me into his coat as the sun sets. We throw french fries up over the water and the gulls catch them mid-flight. They hover like hummingbirds in the quiet quick sunset. Great white hummingbirds.

Am I too quick to love, or have I just been too slow to love in the past?