Does he care about me like I think he does

I’ve known my best friend for almost 20years and I love him. We’ve lived in different continents for about 16 years but have stayed in close contact throughout since I moved away. We’ve never dated. I’d casually told him a few years ago that I liked him and he said “it was complicated”. I wasn’t bothered too much at the time as I don’t really want a long distance relationship myself. It was more to get a sense of how he felt about me. He is planning to move here in spring of 2021. He has no family here so I’m pretty sure he chose this country partly because of me. A few days back I sent him a message saying I hoped he’d give us a chance when he moves here eventually and if he didn’t feel about me the way I thought he did, he could tell me and I’ll never bring up the topic again. His response literally was “wow..I’m cold/shivering” and he added a frozen emoji. I’m not really sure what to make of it. I don’t know if he’s just scared to say what he feels. This is the guy who stayed on the phone with me for 5 hours while I took out my braids myself because I once mentioned how lonesome and painful the process can be. A guy who shows a genuine interest in anything that’s important to me. A guy who checked in on me almost everyday after my car accident. A guy who was absolutely devastated when I blocked him on my social media because I was dating someone else at the time and I was distracted from my actual relationship because of my feelings for him (I was completely gutted too btw, worst year and a half of my life. I don’t ever want to lose him again). Being away from him is getting tougher each passing day. I would like to get some verbal confirmation about his feelings for me, but I don’t want to rush him either. I want to wait until we’re face to face to tell him just how much I love him but it’s getting harder to not just blurt it out when we speak. How soon after he moves here and we meet up should I tell him those 3 little words? What can I do during this waiting period so I don’t lose my mind lol? How can I get some sort of verbal confirmation that he does love me? Any Suggestions?

Hi, I would say give him time to settle in, and don’t tell him how you feel straight away, you’ve told him in the past, it’s unlikely he would of forgotten that. He’s listened and moved close to you. But let him tell you how he feels first and give him that space. You could help him settle in by taking him to your favourite places and just carry on being a friend to him in the first month or two. That’s not to say if nothing happens after a while you can’t tell him how you feel again and ask him how he feels.