Page 26 of Forging Legacy

“Okay, okay. Wow.”

“Are you blushing, Fern? I wish I could see. Snap a picture.”

I hear someone come up the stairwell and turn to see a red-faced student huffing and puffing a bit. Hopefully, they see me in a similar state and assume I also took the stairs up here. “You have to stop talking that way.”

“Meet me at my apartment tomorrow?”

I bite my lip. “What do I even bring?”

Wyatt laughs. “Strip of condoms and a bottle of lube?”

“Wyatt!” I swear I’m going to pass out if he keeps talking this way.

He laughs again. “Just comfortable clothes. There are sheets and towels at the house. I’ll take care of all the food and everything. Including you …”

We hang up, and I immediately call Thora, who texts me that she picked up a bartending shift and can’t talk. I feel this counts as an emergency, so I make my way to the bar on Forbes Avenue, where I first met Wyatt Moyer on New Year’s Eve.

Thora is slinging bowls of soup and pints of dark beer to the lunch crowd, and I make my way up to the bar, grabbing a stool at the far end, hopefully out of earshot of … well, everyone.

Thora’s brow furrows when she sees me, and she slides a menu my way along the bar. “What are you doing here? You never spend money.”

I lean forward. “I have to tell you something.”

She bites her lip. “Bowl of soup?”

I glance at the prices on the menu. “Cup of soup.”

She nods and disappears, serves a bunch of food and drink to some other patrons, and makes her way back to me, where she starts rinsing glasses. “What happened?”

I tell her about my chat with Professor Yoon and Wyatt’s indecent proposal. She grins. “I did see him at the clinic. He left there pretty happy. He had some weird thing about his name?”

I wave a hand. “That’s not our business. The point is he wants to …” I don’t even know how to describe what he seems to be offering.

She leans across the bar and takes a bite of my soup. “He wants to sex you up in a fancy-ass ski chalet where nobody is going to interrupt you.”

“I’m sure it’s not a chalet.”

Thora arches a brow. “You really haven’t looked up his family at all? They’re, like, super famous Pittsburgh royalty.”

I frown at her. “I had no idea.”

She nods. “I’ve been doing a little stalking action on his cousin Odin, arguably the hottest Stag.”

I recoil. “Odin? He’s …” obnoxious … loud … not Wyatt … I’m not sure how to finish that sentence.

Thora pats the bar. “He’s in my argument class. I’m supposed to work with him on the next paper.”

I laugh. “Well, you’ll like that. He’s an athlete so you can probably–”

“Boss him around? Take over the project entirely.” She beams. “You know me so well.” A bell rings from the kitchen, and Thora rushes off to grab another order, shouting over her shoulder. “It’s okay if you’re smitten with Wyatt. There are way more sexy dudes in his family, though, for the rest of us. And you should definitely go to theWinter Palace. Do it for the rest of us, toiling away behind the bar.” She leans back and presses the back of her hand to her face like a fainting Victorian woman.

I roll my eyes at her and finish my soup.

Chapter20

Fern

I jumpwhen my mom rests her hand on my back. And then I groan. “What time is it?”

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