[While Fiddleford certainly had a much happier childhood than Stanford perhaps, he did grow up in the same time period, and is thus very aware of the prejudices folks have. Even though his family supported his decision to go to college and pursue science rather than taking over their hog farm in Tennessee... well.]

No. It's unexpected, but somehow, it... it doesn't feel wrong, hearin' it from you. Even if I've been told different since before we met, told how I should respond to somethin' like that.

[It's not really a conversation his family had all that much, but they didn't have to for Fiddleford to get the implication from society that they would have had words, if not just shy of threatening getting his hide tanned six ways to Sunday if they had ever caught him having that kind of relationship with a man. Especially now that he had a wife (even if she was an ex) and a son. The respectable, expected image of a proper family man.

...And yet]

I already said it before, but I still think you can do better. You deserve better.

[He's just a lead weight, an anchor tied like a noose threatening to pull the other man into a point of no return.

But as he stares at their hands, here at the point where a better man would have let go and stepped back, his mouth opens and the words fall out before they can be stopped--]

Except, I'm... happy. Bein' told that I'm loved despite that. And that it's you, the person that I care about the most in this place.