Page 72 of Legacy

“What about us?”

Luna rolls her eyes. “You’re fucking. When did that happen?”

I ready my lie, but Tempe shakes her head.

“Don’t try denying it; Jameson already confirmed it’s true.”

My face blanches. “How does he know?”

“Soul probably. I think he heard from Havoc.” Luna scans the group of guys like she’s deciding how the rumor started.

“They’re gossips.” Tempe takes a sip of her drink. “They think we’re bad, but the guys are ten times worse. They can’t keep their mouths shut. Well… except for Ghost.”

Luna grins, passing a glance at her man, who is watching her over the crowd. He doesn’t look like he’s listening to a thing Steel is saying to him as he stares at Luna.

“You’ll get used to it. Nothing stays a secret for long at the clubhouse,” Tempe continues like it’s no big deal.

Like I’ll be here long enough that it will be something for me to get used to. Like this isn’t just a job to pass the time while I look after Margaret and figure out what I’m doing.

I shake that unsettling thought. “I’m just surprised.”

“That they gossip like teenagers?” Luna asks.

“That Legacy said anything.”

At the beginning of the night, it felt strange calling him by his road name. But the transition is becoming habit when I’m around his club. I understand that’s who he is to them, even if to me, he’ll always be Jesse.

“To be fair, I don’t think Legacy actuallysaidanything.” Luna smiles. “Soul has this way of getting it out of them regardless. From what I heard, it was a very eventful afternoon at Kings Auto when Soul asked Legacy for your phone number.”

“Not that he wants your number…” Tempe clarifies. “He just wanted to see how Legacy would react to it.”

“And how did he?” I shouldn’t be curious, but I am.

“Like a man obsessed.” Luna grins.

Butterflies kick up in my chest. They crawl my ribs and tickle my throat. I catch gazes with Jesse through the room, and I wonder if he can sense what we’re talking about.

“Your cheeks are giving you away right now.” Luna laughs, dragging my attention back to her. “I’m happy for you, Reagan. You deserve it.”

“I don’t know…”

“You don’t know what?”

“I’m not even sure if I’m sticking around.” I frown. “Or that he wants me to. We still haven’t talked about what we’re doing. As far as I know, we’re having fun while I wait for him to find Margaret’s replacement. Then there’s Bea…”

It hurts to swallow. Like thorns and rocks in my throat.

Bea is the most important person in the world to Jesse. He’d never let anyone close enough to hurt hisdaughter, and that’s what being in a relationship is. Letting someone in.

Tempe rests her hand over the back of mine. “I get what you’re saying, more than you know. When it was just me and Austin, I had a hard time imagining letting anyone in. Much less them wanting to take on the responsibility I came with. It goes both ways—the resistance and the fear. But you’ll never know if you don’t try. And Legacy’s a good guy. When Jameson and I were first going through it, Legacy was the one who helped open his eyes.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s ready for it himself.”

“You’re right; it doesn’t. But if he is, he’d be an idiot not to want it with a girl like you.”

A girl like me.

One who comes with so many problems that he had to take my phone away to get Lincoln’s contact information before he does something worse than what he’s already doing. Just this week, I got a notice of three new credit cards opened in my name. My best guess is that Lincoln stole my information from my employee file at the school. I know it was him because he texted with an ultimatum to come back, or he’d start doing worse than making me unemployable, and I believe him.

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