It's those words of his that finally seem to calm the hammering of her heart. Words that she hasn't even wanted to acknowledge herself, emotions that would be so much easier to simply bury deep down, where they never see the light of day. Loving might be one of the most exhilarating actions a person's capable of, but it's also the one that stands the greatest chance of hurt as well. Life would simpler without it; Sookie has no doubt of that. But so long as someone sees it, someone who isn't her, that makes it easier. Somehow. Maybe, she thinks, it has everything to do with the fact that in front of her is a man who seems so capable of love, who no doubt reveres it in his way. And he knows.

It's lingering in her heart, and that isn't easy to scrub away.

"I do," she nods, pressing her lips firmly together. "I really, really do. He... he did some awful things in his past. Less to me, more to people he didn't really even know. I couldn't tell you why, but he told me that was the real him. I believed it long enough to think that maybe I didn't really love him, or that the man I loved was just a lie, but."

She shakes her head. "That's not true. He's the exact same man that I fell for, and he's back so sudden that's just strange. I don't know if anything will work out. But."