"I ..." She gave him a curious look, then reached over to twine her fingers through his. If he didn't pull back. "N-no, I didn't mean ... that. I ..."

Deep breaths. She could say this. Right? "Just that ... it's hard, reaching out if you're ... when you can't stick around, so I wasn't gonna ... reach out again until I knew if you were okay to stay. So I didn't end up feeling weird and you didn't end up feeling pressured and ..."

She closed her eyes. "Do you?"