“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.”

Sniffing into her sister’s neck, Catie told herself not to cry. “I love you, Issie,” she managed to rasp out.

Ísa stroked her hair again, pressed another kiss to her temple. “Your love is a fierce, wonderful, precious thing. So is Danny’s. He knows how to love. If he loves you, you’ll never doubt it. That’s how the Bishop-Esera men do things. Give him a chance to show you.”

Ísa’s words spun in Catie’s head as she set foot outside her arrival gate at Beijing airport. Because there was Daniel Esera. With a giant heart balloon. Her flesh and blood heart went pop, and then she was moving as fast as she could to him.