Which reminded her to take another bite of hers. After swallowing it down, she said, “But I’m also terrified.” She hadn’t admitted that to anyone, but it wasn’t hard to tell Danny—he’d known her through some of the toughest years of her life, when growth spurts messed with the fit of her prostheses and left her struggling.

“What Posey’s dealing with now? It could be my future too.” That was what people didn’t realize—being fitted with the perfect prosthesis and learning to use it wasn’t the end of the story. “I’ve always known that complications could happen. My doctors prepared me. But I’ve become so used to living my life as I want. I hate the idea that it could be ripped out of my control all over again.”

She stuffed the rest of the cookie into her mouth before she could start crying. She felt awful for her pity party when she’d suffered a minor injury in comparison to her friend and mentor’s months-long ordeal to get back on her feet, but she couldn’t stop the panic that fluttered inside her.

“I should probably say something uplifting about how I know you’ll conquer all obstacles, blah blah,” Danny said. “But we both know that would be soft-pedaling it. Injuries can end our careers. Lifetime of dreaming and working toward a single goal, and it’s all over in a heartbeat.”

Danny, she thought, had witnessed that firsthand.

It was as if he’d read her mind, because he said, “I mean, Gabe came out of his injury swinging, but it wasn’t his choice to take another path. Not before the injury. We’re at the mercy of our bodies, and it’s fucking scary.”

She glanced at him, picking up an edge in his voice. “Danny? Has something happened?” His form on the field had suffered a few glitches of late; he remained brilliant but wasn’t the blazing star people expected.

Catie had thought nothing of it, figured he was just having a few off games. Happened to everyone. And Danny at his worst was better than most players at their best. The one thing she hadn’t considered was that he might be struggling with an unseen physical issue. “Are you dealing with an injury?”

16

ONE NIGHT ONLY

Danny shook his head. “A couple of the other guys just got benched for concussion-related problems and at least one might not be allowed back.” He exhaled. “It’s just… I feel like we only have a finite time to make our mark, and then it’s all over.”

He got it, at least when it came to the sporting side of things.