When she checked Danny’s schedule using their shared online calendar, she saw that he had one game toward the start of that period, then a full week off. Only two days training the week following. Add in a buffer for travel and recovering from jet lag and they could have almost two whole weeks together.

Despite all her resolutions to be better than her fear, it still took incredible willpower on her part to send him a message with all the details of a possible trip. That was a cowardice too—writing rather than calling—but she could only go so far so quickly. Even just asking had made her break out in a cold sweat.

Asking for things meant people could turn you down, could reject you.

The only people from whom Catie ever asked anything without fear were Ísa, Sailor, and Laveni. Ísa because Ísa was her rock and the core of her family and the reason Catie was in any way a balanced adult. Sailor because he’d come into her life at a time when she’d still had a few threads of trust left in her—and he’d shown her that he’d never breach that trust.

And Laveni because her best friend had been with her since they were in kindergarten—they’d grown up together, each having the other’s back. Of all her friends, Veni was also the only one who hadn’t, in some way, treated Catie differently after her accident. She’d moaned about school during her hospital visits, grabbed notes for Catie so she wouldn’t fall behind, smuggled in nail polish to do her nails, and otherwise been totally normal.

Catie trusted Harlow too, but their relationship was different from the one they both had with Ísa. Because of his own upbringing and the involvement—or lack thereof—of his biological parents, Harlow had always been hungry for his stepmother Jacqueline’s approval. That hadn’t altered when she became his ex-stepmother.

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.