“I think at this point, safety isn't a feeling, it's a process. Starting with trust.”

“To be honest," I halfwhispered,"I don't feel as safe with him as Ido with you.""I know."A ghost of a smile touched my lips. "Howdo you know?""Think about what safety is, Ella.""Trust?""Yes, partly. But also an absence of risk."He unstuck a strand of hair from my dampcheek and tucked it back. "Maybe you needto take a risk. Maybe you need to be withsomeone who rattles you a little.”

“This is a process," she said gently. "I know we want Haven to skip over the middle part and get right to the end . . . but I think the only way for her to get out of it is to go through it. Step by step.”

“But sometimes normal just isn't happening. Sometimes crazy feels too good to resist.”

“Fencing isn't really fighting. It's more like chess with the risk of puncture wounds”

“It was a bad habit of hers … looking for safety in places where there wasn’t any.”

“I understood finally that the thing Ishould have feared most was not loss, butnever loving. The price for safety was the regretI felt at this moment. And yet I wouldhave to live with it for the rest of my life”