She Called the Bride the Help, So I Read the Bill Aloud novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Vote

Reuben's POV

I had told her I would stay on the bandstand with my mouth shut.

I had meant it when I said it, and I kept it exactly as long as nobody laid a hand on her.

The bass was in my arms when Priscilla Claiborne closed her fingers around Joelle's wrist.

I saw the wrist go white. I saw Joelle's whole body pulled forward against the lectern.

I laid the bass down on its side on the stage, gently, so that the neck would not crack.

That was the last careful thing I did.

I came off the stage in three steps and crossed the grass, and two hundred forty people turned their heads to follow me.

"Take your hand off her," I said.

I did not say it loudly. I did not need to.

Priscilla looked at me with a glassy, furious face.

"You are an employee," she said. "Go back to your instrument."

"Let go of her wrist, ma'am."

"Reuben."

It was Joelle.

She had not raised her voice either.

She stood with her arm in Priscilla's grip and her chin up, and her eyes came to me, and they were perfectly clear.

"I have it," she said. "Please."

I stopped a step away.

It was the hardest thing I have ever done with my hands.

Everything in me wanted to take that woman's fingers off her one at a time, and I stood there with my fists open at my sides.

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