Page 44 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“Do you want to check out that new boutique on Fifth Avenue?”

“She’s not even listening to you.”

“Catherine?”

Catherine sat in the backseat of her mother’s SUV and watched the buildings fly by. Since it had started snowing the weekend before, it seemed like it wasn’t going to stop. But that was okay, too, because the snow reminded her of Cross.

And his kiss.

She didn’t mind.

“Seriously,” Catrina said in the front seat, “it’s been like this all week. You talk, but she doesn’t hear. You pretty much have to get right in front of her face and make her look you in the eyes to get her to speak.”

“Oh?” Kim asked.

“Michel was never like this at that age. I don’t know.”

Catherine wasn’t really listening to her mother and aunt’s conversation. She was too distracted by better things in her mind to care.

“Gio said Dante mentioned something about a little boyfriend,” Kim said.

“I wouldn’t call him little, even if he is only fifteen. Give him a couple of years, the boy isn’t even done growing yet.”

“A Donati, huh?”

“Better than a Calabrese.”

Kim laughed. “That’s true.”

“He’s something else, though. I seriously think if you could just imagine our husbands at that age, but all their personalities mixed together, that would be Cross Donati.”

“She didn’t stand a chance,” Kim murmured.

“Pardon?”

“Catherine didn’t stand a chance if that’s what he’s like. But hey, first loves are like that anyway.”

“Like what?”

“That, Cat. Like that.”

“I never got to be a teenage girl, Kim, not a normal one. I didn’t have a first love until I was an adult woman that already experienced life, so cut me some slack here. I don’t even know how to deal with this, honestly.”

“You don’t deal with it,” Kim said quietly, “she does. That’s how it works.”

“But—”

“She’s only thirteen, Cat. This is what happens to thirteen-year-old girls.”

“Almost fourteen, now.”

“Whatever, the point is, she’s normal, and so is this.”

“Fine, but what am I to do when she’s not like this?” Catrina asked. “When she’s not happy, or off lost in her own head. I’ve never dealt with a broken heart, especially not as a teenage girl. I won’t know how to make her feel better.”

“Even if you did, you would know you couldn’t make it better to begin with. He either breaks her heart, or she breaks his. Either way, it hurts. First loves are never meant to last. They’re meant to teach you how to prepare for the next one. She didn’t stand a chance—no girl her age does. It feels good for a while, you learn a bit about love and physical affection. Then you get to learn how to pick the pieces of yourself up off the floor when it’s done.”

“Well that sounds awful.”