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exchange, her mouth still forming that same precious word. Her balled fists clenched tight against he didn’t know what. Eyes squeezed shut, she writhed in the chair, her expression twisting against some sort of torment.
    She didn’t look as if she should go anywhere, but he’d have to trust their judgment.
    Then again, he had to wonder still… Why him? “Did she give you my number to call?” A flash of guilt softened Laura’s long face. “Uh, no.”
    “How did you get it then?”
    “Mr. Raines, we’re short-staffed. We could keep a sitter here for a little while, but she’s needed elsewhere. Sabrina isn’t a danger to herself, per se, but she shouldn’t be left alone. As such, I made an executive decision.”
    “An executive decision?” The woman was giving him little to work with.
    “Yes, I went through her purse to find a cell phone or an address book or something. I didn’t find any of those things, but did find your number on a balled-up piece of paper.”
    Mystery solved then, but it made him angry. “Is that really your decision to make?
    To call up random numbers and hope one of them sticks?” Laura’s stance widened, her sensible shoes planted firmly on the ground. “If that’s what it takes to ensure her safety, yeah, it is. Sabrina is a nice lady with a bad lot in life.
    If she’ll take her meds, she’ll be fine. If she ends up in my ER again, I’ll know you’re not 36

    Intimate Whispers
    the person I should have called. And believe you me,” she said, hands on hips, “I won’t make the mistake twice.”
    She would have bore a hole in the middle of his forehead if she could. Jason hated to drag his attention away from her and admit defeat in this standoff, but dropped his gaze to look at Sabrina again. If she had any idea of the turmoil surrounding her, he couldn’t tell. She was lost in her own world.
    He held his hand out. “C’mon, Sabrina,” he called softly. “Let’s go home.” He couldn’t stop looking at her on the drive there. What was going on in her mind?
    She didn’t answer even the most simple questions, just kept up the incessant conversation with some person or persons he couldn’t see.
    Laura suggested trying to anchor her back in the real world by talking to her until the prescription could be filled. Since she hadn’t been dangerous, but coherent enough, they had to honor her refusal of medications dispensed by the hospital. He didn’t though, she reminded him.
    “ Get her those meds. Her mind will never come back and stay in the world of reality without them .”
    So, he needed to talk to her. Except what to say?
    “I think you would have liked Thad,” he tried. “He was a good guy despite his faults. I think I mentioned that he swam like a fish, but, Sabrina, you should have seen him. There wasn’t a stroke he didn’t master.”
    He remembered attending swim meets with his parents, his heart swelling as he watched his brother stretch ahead of the other swimmers. Making it seem as easy as breathing.
    “And there wasn’t a person he didn’t like. He was so popular in high school, the kind of guy everyone wanted to be around. The thing was, you couldn’t even envy him.
    He deserved to have people fawn over him. I remember this one time these younger kids were picking on the class loser. Michael, I think. Thad handed me his stuff and stepped in between them. Didn’t say a word. Just stood there.” Jason paused, remembering that day. Thinking his brother was going to be toast in about two seconds.
    “I don’t know what made them leave, but they did. He didn’t exactly befriend Michael afterward, but it stopped the jeering and that made that kid look up to him like a god.
    “I’m not like him. Never was. Thad saw beneath people’s exterior and knew the heart of them. Me? I have to take forever to get to know someone. Although I try to tell myself not to judge a book by its cover, I don’t have his ability to see the true person beneath, you