'The Bachelor' 's Clayton Echard and Susie Evans Are in Love! All the Photos from Their PEOPLE Photoshoot

While Susie initially turned Clayton down during the season 26 Bachelor finale, they continued to explore their relationship offscreen. "In a weird, twisted way it did work out because I ended up with Susie. And I'm happier than I've ever been," he tells PEOPLE.

"We needed to take a step back, and when we restarted our relationship, we set down a new foundation," Susie tells PEOPLE.

"I was totally caught off guard by everything that happened in Iceland so I needed to take time for myself and get to the bottom of who Clayton is as a person," Susie says.

"I never took a step back. I was still very much in love with Susie and when the door opened back up, I was fully back in," Clayton says.

The couple is ready for a fresh start.

"I wanted answers for how he treated me on the initial day of our breakup. But we've learned so much about each other. And those feelings of love came back," the wedding videographer adds.

Four months after the show and "intense" communication, Clayton is moving to Susie's native Virginia — though they're not rushing the next phase of their relationship.

"It's important for us to live our lives alongside each other, and what's most important is that we take things at our own pace," Clayton says.

"We haven't set a timeline for ourselves. We haven't talked about an engagement, but we're having fun getting to know each other and enjoying this time," Susie says.

"We're Team Claysie now," the former football star says.

"We've had tough conversations and we've grown past a lot. And we're a team from here on out," Clayton says.

"I think I asked you to be my boyfriend. I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty sure," Susie says to Clayton, who responds: "I wanted a title."

"I was telling her that I loved her, and I said you don't have to... just tell me when you're ready to say it, but I'm going to tell you because I never fell out of love with you," Clayton recalls. "She actually slipped up on the phone for the first time. She was waiting to tell me in person, and she said it on the phone."

"We have a lot of fun together. We do enjoy cooking. We cook a lot," Susie says. "We have so much fun, and honestly, I feel like in different ways, we both poke at each other the entire time, and just mess with each other. I do think that's one thing people didn't see so much on the show. We just goof the whole time."