DARE-TO-LOVE-TRUTH-AND-DARE-DUET-COLLECTION-by-Lylah-James-pdfarchive

One. Two. Three. Inhale. Four. Five. Six. Exhale.
When his breathing slowly became less ragged, I
whispered, “I’m proud of you. That’s good. Do it again,
Maddox. Breathe with me. Stay with me.”
His eyes opened, and I realized whatever I said had
gotten through to him, so I repeated it again. “I’m proud of
you. Stay with me.”
I inhaled, showing him how to do it, and Maddox
breathed in a shaky breath. Somewhere in his tortured blue
eyes, I saw him trying to hold onto his own sanity. I stared
into his dark and bottomless eyes, seeing something I had
never seen before. Fear and misery consumed every part of
him.
I saw myself in him, and we bled together, our pain
seeping through us, similar to how tears would leak from
our eyes. Maddox looked at me as if he was staring at
something he was about to lose.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I soothed gently, rubbing my
fingers over the back of his knuckles.
He was still shaking, but he wasn’t struggling to breathe
anymore.
I remembered my mother singing to me when I was a
child, a sweet lullaby as she’d put me to sleep. When I’d
suffer from my own panic attacks, my therapist told me to
play the lullaby on YouTube. It had helped calm me down. I
knew everyone rides out their panic attacks differently, but
maybe… maybe I could…
Right now, Maddox looked like a child who needed
someone to hold him.
So, I did.
I knelt between his thighs, so I was close to him, and
held his hands in my own. I continued to rub my fingertips
over his bruised knuckles, letting him feel my touch.
My lips parted, my heart ached and I sung him my
favorite lullaby.