Catie emerged from her room ten minutes into the game and came to sit on the other end of the couch. Ten minutes after that, she was yelling at the TV, he was up on his feet in outrage, and it was a good thing that this apartment had thick walls because otherwise they’d have been dealing with noise control.

Catie woke at six forty-five, the world yet dark outside.

When she lazily picked up her phone to read the morning news, she saw that Ani had sent her a text at eleven the previous night, alerting her that a local designer was coming by at seven this morning to do a fitting.

Jerking into a sitting position, she rubbed her gritty eyes; she and Danny had stayed up late, arguing over the game—agreeing on some points, hotly contesting others.

While he was the rugby player, she’d grown up with the game thanks to his family, so she’d held her ground. And gone to bed so exhilarated and energized that it had taken her another hour to nod off. At which point she’d dreamed of a man with powerful thighs and wide shoulders who looked a little too familiar.

Shoving that glitch in her imagination to the back of beyond, she put on her legs with her eyes still half-closed. She could’ve left them off while she got herself sorted, but it was habit now. A habit she’d purposefully cultivated as an older teen after realizing how easy it would be to skip one day here and one day there until it just got too hard.

That kind of approach wouldn’t work for her and what she wanted from her career. Catie saw every day as a chance to practice, become better—not in the sense of working herself to the bone but of putting herself in the right frame of mind; for her, that meant her prostheses were a seamless part of her life.

Which was why her eyes snapped wide open when she felt a touch of swelling on her left stump. Her heart skipped a beat, her cheeks burning, then going ice-cold. She checked with careful fingers all the way around, exhaled a shuddering breath.

Nothing major. Just a slight touch of irritation.

She had no trouble attaching the prosthesis.

Sitting back up, she took a moment to allow her heart rate to ease before she headed to the en suite shower. She’d just emerged from the steamy enclosure when there was a knock on her bedroom door.

“Catie, some dude just arrived—he insists he’s here to dress you.” Danny’s voice was full-on suspicious.