Page 81 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“Slow down a bit,” Cross said, “and we’ll put it back in first. It’s basically the same thing.”

They repeated the process twice more, shifting up a gear, and then going back down. Cross took his hand off Catherine’s on the shifting lever to let her shift herself, when she heard the engine’s sound change, and without his direction.

It was only once he had them safely stopped, that Catherine finally let go of the wheel and shifting lever.

“I did it.”

“Sort of,” Cross agreed.

Her elbow came back to hit him again, but he caught it, tucked it into her side, and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek before he could think better of it.

Catherine stilled on his lap. “Was that my congratulations or something?”

Cross laughed and kissed her cheek again. “Or something.”

Her head turned just enough to catch his gaze under the Rover’s interior light. “Cross?”

“What?”

“Did I really break your heart?”

“Completely,” he admitted.

“I didn’t mean to.”

“Yeah, I didn’t mean to let you, either. Not entirely your fault, I guess.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

He shrugged it off. “Doesn’t matter.”

Like a quick little kitten, Catherine turned on his lap so that she faced him.

“I’d like to kiss you,” Catherine said suddenly.

“Then you should definitely do that.”

She met his gaze, held it long enough to quiet him, and then kissed him without saying a thing. It was not like the kisses he remembered—she wasn’t as tentative or hesitant, but instead, knowing and confident. Her fingers fisted into his jacket while her tongue slipped in to war with his. She still tasted like sweetness, cherries, and heat, though.

Not entirely the same.

But still so damn familiar.

Cross smirked against Catherine’s smiling lips as she pressed another soft kiss to his mouth.

“I am sorry,” she whispered. “It does matter.”

“It doesn’t matter at all as long as you don’t do it a second time, babe.”

“What does that mean?”

Cross kissed her again, and she didn’t shy away. She sighed sweetly when his fingers tangled into her silky-soft hair.

He didn’t entirely know what he meant.

Not them, her, or why he found all of this so damn easy when everything else with anyone else was so fucking hard.

“Cross?” Catherine asked, her lips grazing his with her words.