Page 40 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“Oh, no. It’s very true. He made it clear.” Cross shrugged like it didn’t make a difference. “Who gives a shit, though?”

“Thank you for coming over today.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Catherine rolled over to her stomach. “Better things to do, maybe.”

Cross didn’t look away when he said, “You’re the better things I’m doing, Catherine.”

Well, then …

“But hey,” he added quickly, “I did get an okay for something else, which was mostly why I came today anyway. My step-father decided to punish me in a new way because he’s an asshole.”

She had no idea what he was talking about. “What?”

“Winter Formal. I had to ask your dad if I could take you. He looked like he wanted to kill me while he said yes.”

Catherine grinned.

All she heard was Winter Formal.

The rest didn’t matter.

The way she knew Cross, dances and school functions, proms or whatever else, they just didn’t seem like his thing. He’d much rather hang out with his older friends, or drive around the city on a day he skipped school. He didn’t do a lot of the things people their age did—he got bored with it, and couldn’t be bothered.

But apparently, he was doing this.

Likely for her.

Only for her.

“Really?” Catherine asked quietly.

“I mean, if you want to go.”

She bit her bottom lip, peering up at him. “With you.”

Cross cocked a brow. “Who the hell else would you go with?”

No one.

Just him.

Catherine pushed up to her knees, leaned forward, and caught Cross’s mouth with her own. He laughed at her surprise move, and then pulled her closer. She only heard the quiet rap of knuckles against her bedroom door before it was pushed open. Cross took a quick step back, putting a good foot of space between them just in time.

Dante peeked in the bedroom. “Door stays open.”

Catherine glared at her father.

“Yeah, it was open,” Cross said. “I mean, technically. It wasn’t latched.”

Dante stared hard at Cross, then sighed and turned away. Catherine was sure she heard her father mutter, “He is worse than his father says; that kid is going to fucking kill me.”

Guessing by the way Cross was grinning—all his arrogance and pride shining through—he had heard it, too.

“All the way open,” Dante called from the hallway.

“He should have said that before, that’s all.”