Why won’t my bf say he loves me?

So, my boyfriend and I have been together for awhile now. We’ve split up once before for a couple months but got back together a couple months ago and everything has been great and back to normal we really needed that break for ourselves. Only problem is we’ve never said that we love each other. I’m beyond positive that I’m in love with him, he is my first true love and everything I can hope for. However, I’d only ever say it if he were to say it first. I don’t know why he hasn’t said it I mean the things he does surely enough do prove in a way that he does but I need verbal confirmation. We’ve had multiple conversations about love but he always seems to hold back whenever he is about to say something. Once I asked him what would be the last thing he would tell me if I were to be on my death bed (just as a joke for fun) and he said “I can’t say it’s not the right moment”. Idk what he meant by that and when we split up and got back in touch he asked me what I were to tell him for the last time if I never saw him again and basically I sent a whole paragraph about that I was so in love with him despite me never telling him and so on and I asked him the same question and he said I’d say the same thing everything word for word. If that’s the case then what’s the hold up? Im this close to doing it myself lol