“I can’t believe you managed that with the few ingredients we picked up yesterday.” She patted her stomach. “I’ll have to watch the food belly when we live together.”

She didn’t even realize what she’d said until his eyes burned hot.

“Trust me, I’ll make sure you exercise it off.”

She might’ve panicked had he pushed at her inadvertent slip, but he let it go with that.

The idea of living with him lingered.

And Catie realized she wasn’t against it.

She gulped. “More coffee.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” he said with a grin. “So what do you want to do today? I have our list of things we looked up and that electronic portfolio you made up.”

Catie parted her lips, went to say they could go down the list. Then hesitated. Because this was Danny. Easygoing Danny who didn’t often ask for anything. “How about you choose,” she said. “Let’s treat this as the start of your travel adventure.”

“Yeah?” Danny’s smile went lopsided. “In that case, we could just wander the streets of Old Beijing. I really like looking at the old buildings and checking out the little shops—we can explore until we get a little lost.”

“You want to get lost on purpose?” Catie took a fortifying gulp of coffee. “Come on then, let us go horrify ourselves.”

Laughing, Danny rose with her and wrapped her up in a hug, big and warm and of home. That’s what Danny felt like, she realized with a lump in her throat. Home.

32

LOST IN BEIJING

Catie was ready to get off her prostheses by the time they wandered into a tiny little restaurant down what might’ve been a dark alleyway if everyone hadn’t been awake and energetic and going about their business. Just a few minutes earlier, they’d walked past a small square where a group of elderly people had been flowing into the graceful forms of tai chi.

“I thought New York was the city that never slept,” she said as a harried member of the waitstaff waved them to an open table in the narrow place filled with the smells of soy sauce, ginger, and things fresh and green.

“Yeah, looks like Beijing didn’t get that memo,” Danny said, stretching before he took a seat.

She saw three women at the table next to theirs give him surreptitious looks before whispering to each other with smiles on their faces. The kind of smiles that needed no translation: they said that dude was hot. A moment later, two of the women looked at Catie—who’d worn shorts today—then back at Danny, and put their heads together again.

“Why are you rolling your eyes?” an oblivious Danny said as he grabbed his seat.