I did say

I did say, but he said it first.

This evening, after our usual Sunday evening stuff, we had the following conversation:

him: I love you.
pause
pause
pause
me: Really?
him: Yeah.
me: I love you too.

I had kind of hoped that when that moment came I would be more clever or romantic than I actually ended up being.

The butterflies I got when he said it are still with me.

Related: What we will say. I won't, but I did.