Legend also says nothing, which means I may live through this.
Jeremy looks from me to Amelia. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“You’re telling me my wife came here for you?”
“Looks that way.”
Amelia makes a tiny sound behind me. It might be outrage. It might be panic. It might be both.
I keep my eyes on Jeremy.
He stares at me for a long moment, then laughs under his breath. “No. No, that’s not possible.”
The insult ain’t in the words.
It’s in the way he says them.
Like Amelia couldn’t possibly choose a man like me unless she was broken, stupid, or being forced.
My grin gets meaner.
“Careful,” I say.
Jeremy’s lip curls. “She doesn’t even know you.”
“She knows enough.”
“Amelia.” His voice sharpens. “Tell this man to stop embarrassing you.”
The old command is there.
Not loud. Not obvious to anyone who hasn’t lived under a man’s moods.
Amelia hears it.
Her shoulders jerk.
Then something incredible happens.
She steps out from behind me.
Right into the rain.
Right into view.
She doesn’t touch me. She doesn’t have to.
“He’s not embarrassing me,” she says.
Jeremy’s face changes.
Because he expected obedience.
He got a woman with too much fear and just enough backup to turn it into defiance.
“Amelia,” he warns.