Page 148 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“You’re sure that’s what they called her?” Cross asked.

“Yep.”

“And she’s dealing?”

Jade rolled her eyes. “That’s what I said.”

“No, you didn’t specify who you bought from.”

“Well, Andino,” Jade said, like it should have been obvious.

“So then Catherine isn’t dealing,” Cross replied.

“No, she is. It’s just the guys like her, you know? Pretty like an angel, but smiles like a devil. She isn’t here for me to look at.”

Huh.

Cross wasn’t sure he believed that nonsense, or if he liked it. Not that he had any business liking anything Catherine chose to do or not do. That was all on her.

Zeke shot him a look. “When did that happen?”

“I don’t know,” Cross said honestly. “We split up a couple weeks before school ended. I’m more interested in why, I guess.”

“Her brother was heading to Detroit in the summer, right?”

“Yeah.”

“He was still supplying up until he left, and now he isn’t; there’s your reason why,” Zeke murmured, leaning back on the hood to get comfortable again.

“That’s not Catherine’s thing.”

“Wasn’t,” his friend corrected. “Anything can be anyone’s thing, Cross, as long as they find a good enough reason to do it.”

Right.

Curiosity killed the cat, idiot.

Nah, curiosity was going to kill Cross because he couldn’t mind his own business.

Music blared from the system set up in the trunk of a souped up, fifty-seven Mustang. Cross gave the car a look as he passed it by, but his gaze didn’t linger on it for long. It couldn’t, not when he caught the sight of Catherine Marcello in his peripheral vision just twenty feet away.

The skirt of the sky-blue sundress Catherine wore spun wide around her knees, showing off a quick flash of smooth thighs, as she turned to laugh at something her cousin said. Cross wasn’t paying any mind to Andino at all, only Catherine. Wedged heels made her look taller than she actually was, and gave him a great view of her legs. Delicate collarbones peeked out from the opened jean jacket covering her shoulders, and the long rope of pearls hanging low to rest on the top swells of her tits.

Cross wasn’t sure why, but he glanced at her hand.

He wanted to see, to know …

Sure enough, she wore those white-gold knuckles he had made for her sixteenth birthday.

And that made him smile.

Maybe it should have pissed him off, or at the very least, irked him. It didn’t. At all.

Cross moved in between another parked car, noting the opened cases of beer in the back, and ignoring the girl reaching for him as he passed. His gaze darted back to Catherine’s position only to find she was talking to someone new. A guy.

He understood what Jade meant in that moment.

Catherine looked every inch sweet and innocent and pretty. All she had to do was smile at the guy leaning in just a little too close for Cross’s liking, and the guy didn’t seem to notice anyone else was even around them.