She’d pretended to be aggravated by the tasks given her—like peeling potatoes or chopping carrots—but secretly she’d felt like she’d been dropped into the middle of one of those perfect sitcom families. She hadn’t been able to believe her luck that she was being welcomed by them.

But she had—and she’d also learned to cook. A lot of dishes, she’d learned to cook with Danny. The two of them were so close in age that whoever was doing the teaching would often rope in both of them for the lesson.

“So you can feed yourselves as athletes without relying on anyone else,” Joseph had once said.

Catie was grateful for the lessons, but where she was a functional cook, Danny was brilliant, had always been the better of the two of them. “Danny.”

“You know what I studied at uni,” he muttered, folding his arms across his chest—unknowingly drawing her eyes to the veins that ran over his forearms. “That’s the field I’m meant to be going into after I retire from sport.”

Which wouldn’t be for a decade or more—he was in the prime of his life. As her body had begun to notice far too much for her peace of mind.

“BS.” Wanting to shake herself for her reaction to him, she took a sip of her smoothie, then began to butter the second half of her muffin. “Nobody in the family cares what you do post-sport so long as you have some kind of plan for it.”

That was a tenet with which they’d beaten Catie over the head too—figuratively speaking and with lots of love. Sport wasn’t forever, not at their level. They’d both run and play until they dropped dead, but at some point it wouldn’t be as highly paid professionals. The sponsorships would fall off as their influence waned.

If they were smart, if they saved and invested well, they’d be set up financially speaking—but they could also turn into emotional wrecks without direction if they didn’t know what to do with the rest of their lives.

“Reality of professional sport,” Gabriel had said to her once. “Don’t let it kick you in the ass. Be ready so you can take the next stage of your life by the horns.”

Which was why she didn’t get Danny’s reticence. “You want to open a restaurant or something?” she asked. “I mean, if Gabe’s still investing for you, you’ll have more than enough money.” Gabriel Bishop was also investing half of Catie’s retirement savings while Jacqueline was doing the other half.

The two had an unofficial contest going to see who could get the best returns, though they’d never admit it. They just tried to sneak bits of info out of Catie by talking about her overall portfolio.