“Idiot,” she whispered, wanting desperately to talk to him. Are you allowed calls?

Her phone rang in her hand a moment later. “Why are you awake?” Danny whispered.

She took what felt like her first breath of air in months. “Why are you whispering?”

“Nurse was very strict, told me to rest. I fear her wrath.”

Cheeks aching from her smile, she said, “You’re feeling better.”

“Yeah.”

“Did they pull the tooth?”

“No, the old repair was good, just got cracked—maybe in a recent game. Docs say I can have it redone after they spring me. Area’s still a little tender, but I’ve done worse with overenthusiastic brushing of my teeth.”

He was downplaying things so she wouldn’t worry. Pure Danny. “You have to message your parents and brothers. They’re worried and probably not asleep either.” Danny might be an adult, but he was also in the hospital in a country halfway around the world.

“I’ll do it now,” he said. “We can keep talking.”

So they did, and toward the end, he said, “Sorry to stand you up, princess. We good?”

“Yes,” she said but sat there staring at her phone long after he’d hung up.

Danny was literally in the hospital, and he was worried about her reaction to the fact he’d missed their call.

Her entire face went hot, then cold.

He shouldn’t have to worry that she’d freak out because of an unavoidable emergency on his end. Yet he did… because Catie had done nothing in this relationship to make him think otherwise. She’d kept him at a distance, never quite committing.

I just worry that because Danny’s so even-tempered and easygoing, we forgot to watch out for him as much as we should have…

Alison’s words from that barbeque what felt like a lifetime ago came back to haunt her. Danny, calm and laid-back and funny. Danny, who could be relied on by family and friends. Danny, who never demanded anything from the people he loved.

Catie understood Alison’s worry at last.

It wasn’t that Danny was consciously self-sacrificing or a pushover. That type of personality would’ve never meshed with Catie’s. No, Danny had his dreams and he knew how to aim for them. He could be incredibly stubborn when he felt like it. But he was also generous by nature, generous enough to always be the one to reach out to Catie… because he knew she couldn’t.

Swallowing the big lump in her throat, her back braced against the headboard of her bed, she clenched her hand around her phone. Was this the person she wanted to be? A woman who never committed, never allowed a man—never allowed Danny—to depend on her commitment? Didn’t that make her just like Clive?