All Chapters of Catch Me, Maybe: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

A little after one in the afternoon, Riley was pacing back and forth across the entrance hall. “Are they here yet?” “Not yet,” Marcus said from nearby. “Isn’t this taking kind of long?” “You never gave them an exact time.” “I said after lunch.” “That is not an exact time.” “You’re so picky.” “You’re so vague.” Riley looked toward the enormous front doors. She couldn’t see the gates from here. They were way too far away. “I’m going to the gate.” “Wait.” “Why?” “Someone has already been sent to meet them.” “Who?” “Security.” “You need security to meet my friends?” “At this house, yes.” “Your normal is still broken.” Something came through Marcus’s earpiece. He

It was late afternoon.Riley stood outside the front entrance, waving until the car carrying Jax and the others disappeared beyond the gates.“We’re coming back!”Jax’s voice carried from the distance.“Next time we’re staying over!”“You don’t get to decide that!”“I’m reserving the closet!”“Benji, absolutely not!”The car vanished from sight.Riley lowered her arm.“...It got quiet really fast.”“They’re a lively group.”The voice came from beside her.Charles.“They’re loud, aren’t they?”“No.”Charles smiled.“I think they’re good friends.”“Yeah. They are.”“That’s the first time I’ve seen you laugh like that.”“You met me yesterday.”“I can still tell.”Riley felt a little embarrassed and looked toward the garden.“Want to take a walk?” Charles asked.“A walk?”

The next morning, Riley stood outside the mansion, staring at the black car waiting in front of her.“...We’re taking this?”“Yes.”Marcus stood beside her.“Don’t you have another one?”“We do.”“Then let’s take that.”“Why?”“It stands out.”“They all stand out.”“I mean a normal car!”“I’m not sure Charles owns anything that qualifies as normal by your standards.”“That is such a rich-person thing to say.”Riley stared at the car.It was about as big, black, and expensive-looking as the one that had taken Jax and the others home yesterday.“If I show up in my neighborhood in this thing, people are gonna talk.”“Who?”“Everyone.”Marcus opened the rear door.“Give up.”“Haven’t you been saying that a lot lately?”“I’ve learned quickly.”“Stop growing as a person.”◇Th

It was a little after three in the afternoon when Riley returned to the mansion.As she stepped into the entrance hall, she adjusted the cardboard box Tasha had handed back to her.“Isn’t that heavy?” Marcus asked.“It’s just photos. It’s light.”“You let Jax carry it earlier.”“He grabbed it on his own.”“I see.”“What’s that look for?”“Nothing.”“You don’t even live here and you’re starting to say that too.”“It’s convenient.”“You admit it!”Marcus kept walking deeper into the house.Riley started after him, then stopped.“Is Grandpa here?”“I believe he’s in his study.”“Okay. I’m going to see him.”“Need directions?”“I know where it is now.”“Are you sure?”“...Probably.”“I’ll come with you.”“You have zero faith in me!”◇In the end, Marcus came with her.

The next morning, after breakfast, Vivian led Riley toward the far end of the second floor.It was the opposite direction from the hallway that led to Riley’s room.“There are rooms over here too?”“Of course there are.”“I’m definitely still missing entire sections of this house.”“This isn’t a house you can memorize in three days.”“Please stop saying things like that as if they’re normal.”Vivian stopped at the very end of the hallway.A white door.It looked almost exactly like all the others.“This is it.”Riley stared at the door.“You kept her room all this time?”“The room itself has been redone more than once. Not all of the furniture is exactly where it was back then.”Vivian rested a hand on the doorknob.“But we never threw away your mother’s things.”She opened the door.◇Riley’s first thought was—“.