Page 12 of Revere: A Legacy Novel

Well, she wasn’t much of a girl anymore.

Very much a woman.

“Catherine,” Cross said with a smirk.

She swallowed her bite of food. “Cross. What are you doing here?”

He had business to do. A meeting with Andino that he was already five minutes late for. Apparently, none of those things mattered for the moment. Not when he had green eyes and a pretty smile just across from him.

Cross pulled out the chair at the table with a shrug, and sat down. “Business, bella. Nothing unusual.”

He swore he saw her shiver.

He pretended like he didn’t.

He still liked it, though. That was bad.

“It’s always unusual when Cosa Nostra families mingle.”

“And what do you know about that, hmm?” Cross asked.

“I know enough,” Catherine said, cocking a brow. “I was never an idiot, Cross.”

“No, that you were not.”

She quieted for a moment, and that gave him far too much time to think.

Leather jackets. Conch shells. Late nights. First times. Stick shift. Bloody smiles. High school. Fist fights. Sweet sixteens. Prom. Sex in soft sheets. Her voice in his ear. Romeo & Juliet. So much. Too much. Promises. Always.

He tried not to think about those things at all.

“How have you been, Catherine?” Cross asked.

She couldn’t seem to answer him. He knew that feeling. It had been too long, and he shouldn’t even be sitting there. He knew better.

Cross still didn’t move.

“You’re terribly quiet,” he said.

“Thinking,” Catherine admitted.

“Dare I ask about what?”

“You know what, Cross. The same thing I always think about whenever you’re around.”

How I broke your heart? How long it’s been? How stupid we were?

Cross opted not to ask those things. “You didn’t answer me. How have you been, babe?”

“I’ve been okay,” she replied.

Cross smiled, but he thought maybe she was only saying that for his benefit. “Still running for your cousin?”

“Maybe.”

Catherine had always been good at three things: loving him, hustling drugs, and lying. Cross doubted much of that changed.

“Sure you are. Why else would you be here?”