“I know.”
“Do you?”
Legend’s jaw flexes.
For one wild second, I think they might fight because of me. Then he looks away first.
Not submission.
Choice.
Again, that tells me more about Sophie’s place here than anything else could.
“I need five minutes,” Legend says. “Then she can sleep.”
Sophie looks at me. “Is that okay?”
No one has asked me that in so long that I almost don’t understand the question.
Is that okay?
I glance at August. He is half-asleep against her shoulder already, fingers tangled in his dinosaur. He is warm. Safe for this second. I can survive five minutes if he is safe.
I nod. “It’s okay.”
Sophie studies me for another heartbeat, then inclines her head. “Five minutes.”
Legend almost smiles.
Almost.
She leaves with August, and I watch until they disappear up the stairs.
The second my son is out of sight, the strength goes out of my legs.
I catch the back of a chair before anyone can notice.
Derby notices.
Of course he does.
He pulls the chair out with his boot. “Sit down before you fall down and make this more dramatic.”
“I’m not dramatic.”
“You cried over a dead wrestler in a biker yard while holding a kid and a pair of attempted-murder panties in your purse.”
I stare at him.
He shrugs. “Little dramatic.”
A laugh slips out of me.
It’s watery and awful, but it’s a laugh.
I sit.
Legend watches that exchange with an expression I can’t read.