[She's right, and it's a relief that she knows it. She could have never kissed him even once—though he'd hate to live in that reality—and Henry Creel would have eventually developed the same array of feelings for her. The depth and degree would have remained even if it took another path; after all, the river always finds the sea.]

Exactly. I still would have fallen in love with you. Being intimate is just one tiny, tiny fraction of how that love manifests. It's one fragment of an entire world you've opened for me, one I want to share with you.