This Fearless Girl (St. Clary's University #2) - E. M. Moore Page 0,42

kiss your mother goodbye.”

Stone gets to his feet, hands turned to fists. “No.”

“You know it’s the right thing to do.”

Stone seeks me out and then glances toward Lucas again. “You only want her for yourself.”

Lucas pushes to his feet, fists clenched at his sides. They almost mirror each other in height, and right now, the angry stares they’re giving each other makes my stomach tighten.

“Calm down,” Wyatt snaps at the both of them. “This isn’t helping.”

“I’m not giving her up,” Stone growls through a clenched jaw.

Lucas snaps right back. “No one’s asking you to.”

Wyatt leans back on the couch, crossing his arms behind his head like he doesn’t have a care in the world. “Don’t worry, you two. I can keep Tits company.” He wags his brows at me.

The simultaneous death glares they give him make me nervous for Wyatt in his current state. He can’t get into a fight right now, it’ll set us all back from our real goal.

I swallow the hard lump in my throat. “They’re right, Stone.” It’s not as if we were careful either—in a car; in a public place; in the waning hours of day.

Stone roars, picking up the first thing he can find and throwing it against the wall. It smashes to pieces as he strides from the room.

“Fuck. That was my phone,” Wyatt gripes, running his hand over his head. He always looks semi-naked to me when he doesn’t have his hat on. Not that I’m complaining. I’m good with a naked Wyatt.

Lucas looks over at me. “He’s good. He just doesn’t like to be told no.”

“One of the fun qualities you get from growing up with a silver spoon in your mouth,” Wyatt deadpans, still looking at his broken phone on the floor in dismay. “Speaking of which,” he turns to me with a grin, “you telling off Rissa was hot as hell. I want to have a front row seat the next time.”

“Put me in a room with any of those people again and it’s bound to happen.”

“Noted.” Wyatt winks at me. “Those people hardly suffer Lucas and me, so I knew they were going to have a problem with you.”

“Because I’m poor?”

Wyatt shrugs as if to say pretty much.

I shake my head. “What is with parents telling their kids how to live? Who to marry? Is it the money Lance wants?”

“In this case? Yes,” Lucas answers. His shoulders slowly relax, but his gaze still shifts toward the hallway Stone escaped through.

I smirk. “My dad made me promise I’d have kids,” I relay, leaning back on the couch. “He said the Wilder name had to continue on.”

“Do you want kids?” Lucas asks.

I shrug, face heating. This suddenly turned way more personal than I meant it to. Honestly, I’d planned on doing what my dad made me promise. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get to the kids part since no guys in Clary ever looked at me, but that part was the least of my worries.

I still have an intense desire to find the treasure—I didn’t even need the extra incentive Cole’s giving us—but I won’t bring a kid up in the conditions I lived in. Secluded. Poor. When I was growing up, I feared people. I won’t do that to a child.

A lot of things would have to change before I’d feel comfortable bringing a life into this world.

My whole life, all I’ve done is look forward to something. It would be nice to live in the moment for once without being buried by troubled thoughts and always wishing for a better future.

15

The first week back to classes after Dickie’s death was only made better because the guys stuck by my side. It went by in a blur of angry faces, fuzzy lectures, and frenzied attempts to finish up schoolwork while our main focus was the map.

After Friday’s last class of the day, it felt like the four of us stumbled down the stone steps of the college, exhausted. “I need to sleep for a week,” Wyatt mutters.

He’s not wrong about that. He’s been getting better all week—he can even walk without a limp now, and I rarely see him cringe in pain anymore. That could mean one of two things: he’s either recovered well or he’s hiding it because he knows we leave for the mountains early in the morning.

On Wednesday, a package was waiting for us when we arrived home. It was a pair of high-tech metal detectors. We practiced in the back of the