Page 48 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“Doesn’t matter.”

“It kind of does because you—”

“Don’t care about that,” Cross interjected, unbothered.

Catherine shifted on him again. “I think you do.”

“Not unless you do.”

Her embarrassment seemed to bleed away. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

Catherine nodded. “Okay, Cross.”

Cross groaned when Catherine’s phone started ringing in her bag. He liked her right where she was, but she rolled off him with a laugh to find the damn phone, and tossed the blanket back at the same time. She picked up the call without even looking at the caller ID.

“Hello?” she asked.

“Where in the hell are you?”

The guy on the other end of the call was so loud, Cross had heard his question loud and clear. Catherine stiffened. “Johnathan?”

Cross sat up straight.

“I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on you and your brother this week, and the first time I take a day to do my shit, you fuck off somewhere. You know the rules, Catherine.”

“I just went with some friends to the beach,” Catherine said quickly, “I’m sorry, John.”

“Where are you?”

“Jacob Riis Park.”

“Don’t fucking move,” the guy barked. “I will be there in thirty.”

Catherine hung up the phone and stared out at the water again.

Cross rested back on the blanket. “Who is John?”

“My cousin. He’s kind of like … my babysitter. I skipped out on him earlier when he left to do some things.”

“You should have told me.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, well, I didn’t.”

“Still the best day of summer?”

Because he was pretty sure she wouldn’t be let of the house for the rest of it.

Catherine didn’t even think about it. “Yep.”

Chords flew out of the black Stratocaster under Cross’s handling. He hated the scales to warm up the guitar and his fingers, so he’d made a musical game of the same chords without the boring sound they usually provided. Cross just finished the warmup when the noise started from his step-father’s office across the hall.

“Why? Why, why, why, Cross? Cristo.”

Cross didn’t even bother to move.

Calisto would come to him.