Just a thought; if you use your own story as an example we, the simple forum folk, easily start to think of it as you asking what we think of you handling it that way in your story, and then it's advice galore I've written several novel manuscripts from start to finish with my husband (though only one has made it through more than 3 drafts, our current WIP), and there's actually one story in which the lovers never say "I love you" even though they show love-like devotion, even obsession for one another. I never stopped to think about it that much, it just turned that way, and even now I really couldn't imagine writing it there. So basically it really depends on the characters and the story whether the three words are "necessary" or not. I doubt it will ever be make or break for any reader, though.
