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)
Though younger than him, Catie’d still felt like she couldn’t put her own problems on him when he had so many of his own. But if she called, she knew Harlow would respond at once. The same with Martha—the woman who’d watched over her as a child loved her to this day, as Catie did her. They still caught up regularly. Catie wasn’t about to take advantage of Martha’s generous heart, but she knew that Martha would never gainsay her if she asked for help.
And that was it, the whole sum of the people on whom she relied.
She loved her other friends, but she was the one they called in an emergency. Everyone other than Ísa, Sailor, and Veni just accepted that she’d look after herself. That’s what she’d taught people to accept, what she wanted them to accept. Only… Danny had never quite done that, had he? He’d somehow found an impossible balance between treating her as a fully capable adult while being there for her at the same time.
He’d baked her cookies because she was sad and angry and scared.
He’d pinned her against the wall for the best sex ever.
He’d tickled her without mercy when they had a tickle fight.
He’d shaken his head and told her to get out of her prostheses one day when he could tell they were bothering her. “I promise I won’t sell them on the black market, princess… though, come to think of it those are experimental, right? Maybe I’ll take up industrial espionage after all”—he’d begun to twirl a nonexistent mustache—“set myself up for life.”
She’d laughed despite herself.
So many moments, none of them in a stereotypical pattern.
Which was why she could message him, could suggest a visit.
He responded after his afternoon training session. Hell Yeah! Let me run this by team management and see if they’ll let me off on the training days too. Should be okay I think—we have that big gap because there’s a traditional holiday that all the local players go home for and not everyone will be back for training that week anyway. Message you once I have some news.
She smiled stupidly at her phone.
She was still smiling weeks later as she packed for the trip. She and Danny had decided to meet in Beijing as he wanted a bit more time to learn Japanese before he showed her around his adopted city.
“In Beijing, we’ll be equally lost,” he’d said with a laugh.
Odd that she, a woman who’d never liked being lost and who always wanted a roadmap, would be so compelled by the idea of being lost. But not just being lost. Being lost with Danny. This man who kept on upturning her world.
“He freaks me out,” she finally admitted to Ísa.
Her sister was sitting on her bed, keeping her company and offering comments on her clothing options as Catie held up various pieces. She’d left the kids with Sailor, who was apparently teaching them how to propagate plants.
While Connor was the more horticulturally inclined of the siblings, even mad-for-sports Emmaline enjoyed the small growing experiments. She was planning to gift her successful baby plants to friends.
“Danny?” Ísa smiled. “I figured. You’re not acting like my cool and controlled Catiebug. The last time you asked me my opinions on your clothes, you were fourteen and had a crush on that boy. What was his name?” She clicked her fingers. “Tae Lim, that’s it. You asked me to write a love sonnet for him.”
Catie groaned. “Do you have the memory of an elephant?”
Smiling the smile of a big sister, Ísa said, “The people who matter freak us out before we figure things out. It’s a law.”
“I hate it,” Catie muttered and threw a pretty top into the bag. She didn’t need to pack pretty tops. They were going to be climbing a remote part of the Great Wall, walking the streets of Old Beijing, and heading out to explore more rural areas.
But she didn’t take out the pretty top.
“I know.” Ísa’s voice was gentle. “Just remember that Danny isn’t Clive.”
Freezing, Catie looked at her sister. “I know that. I just…”
“Oh, baby girl.” Ísa rose and took Catie into her arms. “I could murder Clive for what he’s done to you—and I could murder Jacqueline for being party to it.” Her hug was warm and tight, the wild flame of her hair in Catie’s watery vision as she clung to the big sister who’d never let her down. Not once.
“Commitment is scary.” Ísa kissed her on the cheek. “Trusting someone is scary. Trusting someone who can hurt you? That’s scary to the power of ten.” A stroke of her hand over Catie’s unbound hair. “But when that trust is reciprocated? When that commitment goes both ways? It’s a wonder, Catiebug. A joy unlike any other.”
She pressed a kiss to Catie’s temple. “You’ve always been brave, little sister. Now you have to be even braver and risk not your body but your heart.” Another squeeze. “Don’t let your childhood shape your future. Don’t let those scars control you.”