"I know." Still. He's made friends here, people he hopes they both can trust. Yet extending that offer in the moment seems like a bad idea, or at least a poorly executed one. So when she squeezes his hand, he decides to take that as a sign that there's room for other people in their complicated little matrix of trust. She just needs time to get her sense of self settled.

"Yes." Mostly he's afraid that it will hurt, which he can't mitigate at all, and that she'll hate him, which is silly and selfish in the bigger picture.