Deciding she had the self-control to wait for Danny, she set the table for lunch, then made a couple of smoothies. She knew the kind Danny drank while he was training, and it wasn’t hard to put together with the ingredients on hand. She was just placing his green concoction by his plate when he stepped out of his room.

His hair was damp, his body clad only in a T-shirt and a pair of old shorts that barely covered half his tattoo. Jerking her misbehaving eyes up to his face, she smiled. “You look cheerful. Good news?”

“Yeah.” Padding over to the kitchen area on bare feet, he grabbed the butter as well as a side dish of fresh salad he’d prepared at some point, added both to the table. “Talked to my Harriers coach, and he’d already talked to management beforehand. They made the call to touch base on this with the national team too.”

Blowing out a breath between smiling lips, he said, “In summary, my medical records came through, the doctors and Vili backed me up, and apparently the fact I filed a police report was the icing on the cake. I’m good.”

Joy sparked bright in her veins. Not thinking about it, she threw her arms around him. “That’s great, Danny.”

Wrapping his own arms around her, he lifted her off her feet in a huge bear hug. Catie normally hated being treated this way—but the men of the Bishop-Esera family were an exception. Maybe because when it came time to talk sport, they never talked down to her. They discussed her career with the same dead seriousness they discussed the rugby careers of Jake and Danny.

After Ísa hooked up with Sailor, Catie’d had a Bishop-Esera presence at every one of her meets. One time, when Ísa and Sailor couldn’t come because Ísa was wayyyyyy pregnant with Emmaline and about to pop, it was Joseph and Danny who’d driven down to the meet, complete with a giant homemade fluoro-orange banner to cheer her on.

It had been horribly, wonderfully embarrassing. Her friends had teased her for days. And she’d loved every minute of it.

“Put me down, you animal,” she said, but she was laughing.

Grinning, Danny put her on her feet with a care that was kind of annoying for reasons she couldn’t quite put into words. “I have excellent balance,” she muttered.

“I know,” he said easily.

“Ugh.” She pushed at his shoulders before she walked away.

He threw up his hands. “What did I do now?”

“Nothing.” Except be annoyingly even-tempered. It was unnatural. Surely he should have some off days, some days where he was moody and temperamental? That was how people were—they weren’t just cheerful all the time.

Or maybe golden boys were.

“Do we eat or what?”