Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“Half a team will be plenty.” He grinned. “I mean, I gotta give my brothers some motivation to keep producing little mini-mes.”
“It’ll have to wait at least until after the Paralympics in three years’ time.”
“Done and done.”
She narrowed her eyes. “How did you just talk me into having kids with you?”
“By being adorable and charming and so sexy I fry your brain cells?”
A slow, slow smile. “Yeah, maybe. But I think it’s because you love me until I think I can do everything.”
“I do, you know. Love you. To the stars and into outer space.” No point in hiding his heart when she knew it was hers. “We just fit, princess.”
“Yes, hotshot, we do.” Then she tugged his head down and kissed him until his world spun. “I love you too. Right into outer space.”
EPILOGUE
RUN, CATIE, RUN!
Three years later, Danny stood in the stands of the Paralympic Games, all ice-calm focus and love. “Go, go, princess,” he whispered under his breath as the starter’s gun went off.
There she went, a bullet out of the gate.
It had been a long, intense road to get to this point, her training schedule and his often colliding and with long periods where they’d been apart from each other. But they’d always found ways to come back together, found ways to drive each other crazy from continents away. And never, not once, had their bond threatened to break.
Takuro, who’d become one of his closest friends, called him the luckiest man alive. “She loves you like the sun,” he’d said once in an awed whisper. “Such a love… It makes me believe in the stories of happy ever after.”
If Catie loved him like he was her sunshine, he loved her as if she were his air. The two of them, they weren’t into big public displays of affection or sappy social media posts—and had kept up their tradition of cheek and snark—but that they were a tight unit was simple, inalienable fact.
Whether he was playing for the Harriers or traveling as part of New Zealand’s national team, her love was a constant glow that kept him company. He’d found his joy in the game again, but it hadn’t just been the stint in Japan that had done it—it had been looking to Catie, and to Jake, and seeing that they both had passions outside of sport, something that gave their lives balance.
His decision to openly embrace his love of cooking had begun with a monthlong pastry course run by a local café, turned into him running a baking workshop at Catie’s camp, and these days his teammates often chowed down on his experimental efforts.
The experience had also taught him the importance of living his truth. As part of that, and with Catie with him every step of the way, he’d penned an article for the largest sporting website in the country, describing his drug assault, his resulting feelings of helplessness and violation, and the importance of dealing with those emotions so they didn’t become a shackle around his psyche.
In my case, he’d written, the police managed to track down the perpetrator and bring them to justice. That’s a fantastic outcome—but it took time. If I’d sat around stewing in my anger all that time, I wouldn’t be the Danny Esera you know today; the anger would’ve burned away at me like acid, breaking me down until it consumed me.
Finding a way—a healthy way—to handle things put me in the driver’s seat. Me, not the a**hole who decided to dose me. So yeah, I’m never going to apologize for talking it out with a therapist, and you shouldn’t either.
If anyone ever gives you grief about taking care of your mind and your heart, remind them there’s a reason for the sports psychologists attached to major teams: the people behind the teams understand that a high-performing athlete is a whole—body and mind and heart in equal measure.
The response to the article had been a groundswell of support. But more importantly, it had opened the door for others—especially young people who looked up to him—to feel okay discussing their own similar experiences. If Daniel Esera, one of the Top 3 Rugby Wingers in the World and Sexiest Player of the Year, could do it, so could they.
Turned out Danny didn’t mind his high public profile when it could do so much damn good. And from living his truth had come another passion—to work with youth sporting organizations throughout the country to put counseling services in place, or to upgrade and modernize those services to better suit the needs of the current generation.
As for Catie, her foundation continued to grow, and as well as her New Zealand camp, she now ran two camps in Australia and was in the process of setting up one in the islands. It would require more logistics since the future attendees were scattered across various Pacific Islands, but if anyone could do it, it was Catie. She’d also been talked into appearing on a local television game show thanks to the huge charity donation up for grabs, and though she hadn’t won, her wry humor had made her a huge fan favorite.