Nodding, I wiped my tearstained cheek against his forearm. “I knew what was happening to me, I knew I couldn’t stop it, so I just thought up my happiest memory and clung to it.” “What was it?” “You and me,” I whispered, shivering. “Those things you said to me at the hospital. All those other times, too. I conjured you up in my mind and I concentrated on your face. I imagined your voice in my head and just kept you there—in my mind. Talking to me. Keeping me calm. Making me feel”—my breath hitched and I had to take a steadying breath before finishing—“safe.”
