It sounds to me like you already have a pretty good idea of what your relationship is like. You are able to describe how you feel and how he feels. So, I find the question of which label you should apply to it superfluous. The point of words like "love" and "friendship" is to give us a means to communicate with others about the kind of relationship it is. If you understand it, then what difference does it make whether the label "love" is what is most easily applied to it or not? You seem to understand how he feels about you, and how you feel about him. Why worry about whether the word "love" is the best description for those feelings? The word is going to be far less nuanced than the description you have already given and that you already understand.