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)
“He came back into our life toward the end of his,” Sailor had told her. “Though I could allow that, allow compassion for a dying man, I couldn’t forgive him for all that he’d done. Trust was never going to happen between us.”
He’d squeezed her tight against the protective warmth of his chest. “I loved him as a kid, really loved him, even when he broke promises, even when he was never there when he said he would be.
“It’s okay to love the screwed-up people in our lives, Catie. But you have to also understand that they are who they are and learn to stop expecting them to change—that’s the only way you can survive without being hurt over and over again. You have to learn to create a distance between their actions and your heart.”
Catie adored her brother-in-law. It had taken time and a few more knocks, but she’d taken his words to heart. As she had her mother’s.
“Clive was a mistake,” Jacqueline had said to her once, then, in a rare moment of softness, added, “The only good thing I ever got out of that relationship was you.” A touch of Catie’s hair. “But don’t pin your hopes on him, Catie. He’s just not built to treasure them.” Sadness in her voice.
Catie had taken her mother’s hand, and they’d stood there, staring out the plate glass window of Jacqueline’s penthouse apartment in Auckland city, a rare moment of sympathy between mother and child.
But Danny wasn’t like Gabriel and Sailor. He’d grown up with not only two loving parents but two amazing big brothers. She couldn’t expect him to understand what it was to have a gambling addict for a father, an addict who’d nonetheless been there for her at the worst possible time in her life—he hadn’t ducked out to gamble even once.
Nothing was uncomplicated when it came to her relationship with Clive.
“Catie,” Danny began.
“I’m going to use the gym for a bit. Don’t join me.” She made the last an order before she headed to her room to change.
Danny was nowhere in sight when she reappeared, so she figured he’d headed into his bedroom, but the whole apartment smelled delicious. Whatever he still had in the oven was making her stomach rumble despite her cookie feast.
“Exercise first.” It wasn’t only about maintaining her athletic strength but about keeping a healthy body overall because it all fed into her speed and skill on the track. It also helped stave off injuries—though nothing was guaranteed.
She pushed thoughts of her mentor Posey’s latest injury out of her mind and strode to the gym on her running blades. They weren’t the ones she used on the track, rather a pair she’d had customized for gym or treadmill use—she always packed one set of blades no matter where she traveled or for how long.
Sometimes it felt like she was flying when she ran full-tilt on her blades. No limitations, no stopping her. She was the wind.
She kept that mantra uppermost in her mind as she walked into the spacious gym area and got to work. Just because she was a runner didn’t mean she didn’t also need upper-body strength—especially as a double lower-limb amputee. She did a lot of work with her upper body when she wasn’t wearing prostheses. The latter was a rare occurrence these days, but Catie wasn’t about to be caught flat-footed—no pun intended.
Her lips quirked at the unintended joke.
Her mood got better with each rep and each lift until she felt more even-keeled at last. Movement always did this for her. It had been her inability to move that had most badly impacted her after the accident. She’d talked a good game, but she’d been so scared she’d be stuck in a bed forever, her body mangled beyond repair.
She’d been so lucky that her therapist back then had figured out the truth and the hospital physiotherapist had managed to put together a program that she could do from her bed until she was in a position to progress out of it.
At first, given her injuries, it had been as basic as simply squeezing a soft foam ball with her left hand, then her right, for a specific number of reps. Sounded like nothing, but it had meant everything to Catie to reach those goals—then blow past them.
“Ahem.” A knock on the side of the wide doorway that led into the gym area. “Is it safe, Small Dragon? Do I risk being crispy-fried?”
She would not laugh.
Stomach aching from the strength it took to hold in her mirth, she gave Danny a haughty look and saw that he was in workout gear too. “What do you want?”
“Figured I could warm up while you cool down.” Scuffing at the floor with his sneakered foot, he lifted his shoulders in a shrug, his expression sheepish. “I usually work out with the team during the season or with one of my brothers during downtime.”