Page 176 of Always: A Legacy Novel

No one said anything.

She turned to her brother. “You didn’t, like … knock her up or something, right?”

Because she was pretty sure that would be bad.

Michel barked out a laugh. “No.”

Gabbie rolled her eyes, saying, “Well, this has been fun, but maybe it’s time to go.”

Catrina was quick to stand from her seat when it seemed like Gabbie was going to leave. “Please stay; this was just a bit of a shock, that’s all.”

Dante nodded. “Yes, stay.”

“Seriously, what did I miss?” Catherine demanded.

Her brother cleared his throat, and lifted his left hand for Catherine to see a gold band glittering on his ring finger. “Meet my wife, Catherine.”

Well, then …

Shit.

“Wait,” Cross said, tipping his chair back on two legs, “so he just came home married and with her?”

“Yeah, basically.”

Catherine balanced herself on Cross’s lap, straddling him while the music in the club pumped behind them. He was too young to be drinking, but he had a glass of whiskey sitting on the table that he had been nursing for a half hour. Catherine was supposed to be working, but she was waiting on Andino to show up first.

“My mother would kill me,” Cross said.

“You think?”

“If I came home married, and she hadn’t even met the girl? Fucking right, she would pickle my goddamn nuts.”

Catherine giggled. “That’s awful.”

“No, that’s me being nice because it would probably be worse.”

“After everything you put your parents through as a teenager, that’s what would send them into a rage, huh? You getting married without a word?”

Cross considered that for a moment. “Not both, just my mother. Cal wouldn’t give a fuck, as long as I was happy. After the pickling bit, Ma would calm her ass down, too.”

“Well apparently Michel did a bad thing,” Catherine said, “because I overheard them talking later, and I guess they can’t go back to Detroit now.”

Cross’s hands teased up her dress and skimmed her bare thighs as he asked absently, “What do you mean, bad?”

Catherine shifted on his lap again, feeling talented fingers slide along the line of her panties. If they weren’t in such a dark corner of the club, she might have told him to knock it off, but they were alone at the table for now, and her back was turned.

No one could see.

“I mean, she’s from a family like ours are, and—”

Cross let the chair fall to the floor, and his hands left her skirt. “Shit, seriously?”

Catherine pouted. “I liked where your hands were, you know.”

“Calm down, you’re going back to my apartment tonight, anyway.”

“Yeah, but right now you were working on something and I’d like to get back to that, Cross.”