You dealt with it so well, ruthiek. Well done. Love is an emotion, a feeling that we have and even we the adults can't sometimes explain why we love someone more or less than another. At times we just can't help it and so often logic doesn't come to it, especially with the kids. No one can tell us to love someone or not to or how much of it we can have towards anyone. This is a freedom we all have and I think the sooner we learn it the better it is. It's a freedom to be respected even if we may not like it. We're all, irrespective of our age, entitled to it and once we develop this mentality we're less likely to argue or fight about it. It can come and go just as easily as it came and went.
Having said all this, when my 3 year old grand daughter told me she didn't love me the other day, I felt deeply hurt and sad. It didn't help me at the time that she was frustrated with someone else. I felt hurt despite the fact that she's only 3, I much, much older, and the fact we're both entitled to our feelings.
I've learnt that as we get older, we can learn how to notice and respect our emotions and feelings but be mindful of how we react to them. I've learnt I have choices and control over them. I can now assess which reactions could produce what kind of outcomes and choose between them. Even then, not all my choices work out well. It took me a life time to learn these and find peace. Before that I used to react to many of my emotions without enough thought like Kids and many adults who go through life missing out the real growth in our lives, the emotional side.