Page 54 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“Just go,” Cross said, feeling numb in his fingertips.

That numbness kept spreading, too.

Catherine nodded once, and then darted to the walkway. Cross didn’t turn around until he heard the door shut and the tires of the SUV crunch on pavement. He sat down on the bottom front step of his home, and wondered why his chest hurt so fucking badly.

Why did it hurt to breathe?

Why couldn’t he unclench his fists?

Why were his eyes stinging?

Cross wasn’t quite sure how long he sat there, but his daze was finally interrupted by the front door opening and closing. A second later, Marc dropped down to sit beside him.

“Hey, principe.”

Cross didn’t say a thing.

He was too pissed.

Too numb.

Too everything.

“Yeah,” Marc said with a low chuckle, “that first one is a bitch, Cross.”

“First what?”

Marc smacked him on the back. “You’ll figure it out. So shit, why don’t you come chill with me for the rest of the day since your mother isn’t leaving the house again, and I’ll take you somewhere to get your mind off this, huh? I don’t think the boss would mind, considering.”

Calisto, he meant.

Cross cleared his throat. “Go where?”

Marc laughed. “A made man’s kind of place, principe. They’re good for distractions, and we all need one of those sometimes.”

13 months later …

“Catherine, I did not pay good money for that manicure for you to chew and pick it apart,” Catrina said sharply.

Catherine dropped her hands to her lap. “Sorry, Ma.”

Catrina eyed her daughter from the side, but quickly went back to paying attention to the road. “What is up with you this morning?”

“Nervous, I guess.”

“My God, why?”

Catherine made a noise under her breath, trying to sound dismissive.

She failed.

Miserably.

Catrina didn’t miss it. “Your friends are all still going to be there. It’s just tenth grade—you’re not actually going to a new, new school. It’s still the Academy. Bit of a shame you couldn’t have at least spent one year in high school with your brother at the same time, but it is what it is. I’m sure Michel might have made you more comfortable had he still been here.”

Except he wasn’t. Her brother had graduated at the end of the previous year. Michel was taking a year off before he headed to Detroit where he planned to live while he attended a university in Ann Arbor; he wanted to be a doctor.

Catherine almost found it ironic how two years after transferring into the Academy of Westforth, she was once again feeling like she had that first time around. Nervous, worried, and bothered. If she could just stay in ninth grade, where she was popular, then she wouldn’t have to prove her worth for a place at the table with the rest of the little trust fund bitches.