“You okay? the voice above her repeated.Julie squeezed her eyes shut, unable to answer the man's simple question. Was she okay? No, not really.”

“Devon? Are you okay?" For the first time, Dom's voice sounds unsure. Devon sats nothing, not one word. She pushes herself up. She slides the papers toward herself. She slowly folds them into quarters. She closes her hand around them. Devon lifts her face to Dom's. Is she "okay"? Will she ever, ever be okay?”

“His grandma burst into his mum's hospital room ahead of him with a terrible question on her face. But there was a nurse inside who answered immediately. "It's okay," she said. "You're in time.”

“Maggie squeezes my hand. It’s a silent message that everything will be okay. Somehow I believe her. In the end everything will be okay. But hurdles have to be jumped through first.”

“Finely dropped her head, squeezed her eyes shut and began silently to do what some might call praying, she called it begging.”

“She sipped from her bottle. “Okay. Truth or dare.”“Dare.”Okay, she hadn’t expected that. She’d been prepared to ask some lame question that she probably already knew the answer to. Now she had to think of a dare.The driving pulse of music gave her an idea.“Dance with me,” she blurted.He lifted his eyebrows. “That’s your dare?”“Not challenging enough?”He shook his head. “Not nearly.”“You haven’t seen me dance.”