April have you met his family? You can usually tell if his Dad is hesitant about showing affection to his mother then you could figure that he is just uncomfortable showing his feelings in public because Dad didn't "act like that". My husband is 10 1/2 years younger than me, his father died when he was 2 weeks old he had no male roll models his mother is very religious and didn't put up with any "junk" he too had a hard time not so much with huging or being very thoughtful in public but when it came to that four letter L word he had a really hard time with it.  Sure I got my feeling hurt lots of times I would go home and cry and say well its over I'm not putting up with that.  But he was worth it, and I'm sure your guy is too. Give him some time and tell him you love him every chance you get, hug him tell him how much he means to you like George said it may be hard for him because he never heard it growing up.  Good Luck  Wanda J