Page 125 of Catch Me
It was more than a decade ago, but the sting of that day remains with me.
I turn away from Andreas to lean against the metal railing and stare off into the distance. The sounds of the city float up to my ears. When Andreas moves behind me, extending his hands on the railing, wrapping me up in the feel of his warmth, a hum releases from my throat.
“I understand why you don’t share them with the public,” I say, still staring into the distance.
He moves his hands to my waist, turning me to face him.
“You were raised with the assurance that family is too precious to use and exploit by the public. You’re all successful, yes, but that’s not what sustains you.”
My lips spread into a smile, but the expression on Andreas’ face tells me he sees the sadness behind the expression.
“When you’re raised to believe that image matters more than anything else, you start to believe it. What other people think, how they treat you, the respect you get is all conditional. That’s what it was like for me.
“If I performed the right way, got the good grades, smiled at the right time, studied in the perfect major in college, and got the right career or family, then everything was acceptable.”
I shake my head.
“It wasn’t okay to go after what I really wanted,” I confess. “It’s only now that I’m starting to realize how painful that’s been.”
Andreas takes my hands into his and kisses my knuckles.
“Conditional love isn’t love,” he says.
“No, it isn’t.”
A few beats of silence pass between us, staring into one another’s eyes. His shine so damn bright it almost hurts looking into them. But it’s the unabashed, unhidden love that lights them up that keeps me from looking away. It reaches deep down inside of me, silently whispering the answer to the question I’ve asked myself since I was a young girl.
Am I worthy?
CHAPTER 36
Ivy
“There’s more?” I quietly mumble as two more guests enter from the sliding glass door of Andrea’s parents’ home into the massive backyard where the party for his mother is happening.
“We made it!” the young woman from the pair shouts, holding up a huge light blue gift bag. “Where’s Aunt Patience?” She looks around eagerly, her golden-brown curls swaying as she whips her head around.
“Chloe’s here. Loud and rowdy as usual,” Kyle, Andreas’ oldest brother, grumbles, but obviously doing his best to hide the smirk from his face.
His wife, Riley, swats his arm. “Leave her alone. She’s excited to celebrate your mom’s birthday.”
“Yeah, twin. Leave my baby cousin alone,” Kennedy, Kyle’s twin, says as she attempts to rise to her feet. Her six-month pregnancy belly makes it a challenge.
But less than a second of Kennedy even appearing slightly uncomfortable, her husband, Dae, is at her side, helping her to rise to her feet.
“Chloe!” Kennedy waves with Dae still at her side.
“I like Aunt Chloe,” Kyle and Riley’s teenage daughter, Eve, says as she moves past the rest of us to meet Chloe and the man with her.
“Do not leave her alone with Chloe and Stasi,” Kyle insists.
Riley swats him again as the pair approach us.
The man beside Chloe is striking, and as tall as Andreas. He has the same light brown complexion that’s common among the family. I’ve met all of Andreas’ uncles and aunts, and all of them are interracial couples.
While Chloe looks open and grinning from ear to ear, the man beside her is closed off, stoic even. He also appears familiar. Like I’ve seen him before but can’t put my finger on it.
Andreas leans over and tells me in my ear, “That’s Chloe and Tristan. Tristan is Travis and Annalise’s third, and Chloe is their youngest sibling.”
