Danny was nowhere in sight when she reappeared, so she figured he’d headed into his bedroom, but the whole apartment smelled delicious. Whatever he still had in the oven was making her stomach rumble despite her cookie feast.

“Exercise first.” It wasn’t only about maintaining her athletic strength but about keeping a healthy body overall because it all fed into her speed and skill on the track. It also helped stave off injuries—though nothing was guaranteed.

She pushed thoughts of her mentor Posey’s latest injury out of her mind and strode to the gym on her running blades. They weren’t the ones she used on the track, rather a pair she’d had customized for gym or treadmill use—she always packed one set of blades no matter where she traveled or for how long.

Sometimes it felt like she was flying when she ran full-tilt on her blades. No limitations, no stopping her. She was the wind.

She kept that mantra uppermost in her mind as she walked into the spacious gym area and got to work. Just because she was a runner didn’t mean she didn’t also need upper-body strength—especially as a double lower-limb amputee. She did a lot of work with her upper body when she wasn’t wearing prostheses. The latter was a rare occurrence these days, but Catie wasn’t about to be caught flat-footed—no pun intended.

Her lips quirked at the unintended joke.

Her mood got better with each rep and each lift until she felt more even-keeled at last. Movement always did this for her. It had been her inability to move that had most badly impacted her after the accident. She’d talked a good game, but she’d been so scared she’d be stuck in a bed forever, her body mangled beyond repair.

She’d been so lucky that her therapist back then had figured out the truth and the hospital physiotherapist had managed to put together a program that she could do from her bed until she was in a position to progress out of it.

At first, given her injuries, it had been as basic as simply squeezing a soft foam ball with her left hand, then her right, for a specific number of reps. Sounded like nothing, but it had meant everything to Catie to reach those goals—then blow past them.

“Ahem.” A knock on the side of the wide doorway that led into the gym area. “Is it safe, Small Dragon? Do I risk being crispy-fried?”

She would not laugh.

Stomach aching from the strength it took to hold in her mirth, she gave Danny a haughty look and saw that he was in workout gear too. “What do you want?”