Page 142 of Deacon

Ink stared at Evan for one long second, then turned and walked back toward his room without a word. A second later, something crashed against the wall.

Evan blinked. “That seems stable.”

Blue lost it, and I laughed with her, though the sound came out breathless around the edges. Jackson’s kiss still burned on my mouth. Jude’s name still sat like a stone in my stomach. Somehow Evan had managed to collect a date in the middle of all of it.

The whole day felt unhinged.

Blue admired the wrap on her wrist while Evan preened and Garrett lingered in the doorway like chaos was a language he spoke fluently. My thoughts kept slipping back to Jackson, then to Jude, and to the very different ways each man had managed to get under my skin.

I had no idea what Jackson planned to do about Jude. That should have worried me more than it did.

What worried me instead was how easily he had taken my discomfort and made it his concern too, how natural it had felt to stand against that wall while he told me I didn’t have to carry everything by myself anymore. The kiss had been dangerous enough, but believing him might be worse.

37

Lila

My father’s house looked exactly the same, which somehow made pulling into the drive worse. The porch light glowed against the last of the daylight, the flowerbeds were neat, and the hedges sat in the same straight line Dad had maintained for years. Usually the order of the place felt familiar. Tonight it looked like proof that a house could stay perfectly composed while the people inside it came apart.

Jade shut off her phone and slid it into her pocket before we got out. Considering that thing usually lived in her hand, the gesture told me she was more uneasy than she wanted to admit. I killed the engine and looked at her, taking in the black jeans, boots, dark top, and eyeliner that made her green eyes stand out. She looked entirely like herself, which should have reassured me more than it did. Lately I kept checking for signs that something had shifted.

“Ugh, are we sure about this?” I asked.

Jade looked toward the house before answering. “No.”

A laugh threatened but never quite made it out. “Honest answer.”

Jade’s mouth twitched. “You asked.”

“I did.” We stayed there another second, staring at the front door as if either of us expected it to make the decision for us. I had spent the week telling myself this dinner mattered. Peace mattered. Family mattered. Jade deserved a grandfather and an uncle who could love her without making Jackson the price of admission.

Hope had been doing a lot of heavy lifting lately. When we got out, I reached for Jade’s hand without thinking. She let me keep it all the way up the drive, and that told me enough. I made the decision somewhere between the car and the porch: if Dad or Matty made her feel caught between them and her father again, we were leaving.

Dad opened the door before I could knock. Relief crossed his face so quickly it stripped away some of the anger I had brought with me. For one second he wasn’t the man who had fought me over Jackson. He was just my father, looking at me and Jade like he had been afraid we might not come.

“Hi, sweetheart,” he said, and the softness in his voice made this harder than anger would have.

I tightened my hand around Jade’s for a second. “Hi, Dad.”

His attention moved immediately to Jade, his expression softening in the way it always did for her. “Hey there, princess.”

Jade gave him a small smile. “Hi, Grandpa.”

Matty appeared behind him, carrying so much of Dad in his face that the resemblance caught me off guard. Same dark hair, same broad shoulders, same tightness around the mouth when emotion was trying and failing to stay under control.

“Hey, Doodles,” he said quietly.

Jade’s expression stayed neutral. “Hey.”

I stepped inside with Jade beside me and turned to Dad before anyone could pretend this was an ordinary family dinner. “We need some ground rules first.”

His face tightened almost immediately. “Lila.”

“No.” I held his gaze and refused to let the sigh in my name do what it had done to me my whole life. “You do not get to sigh my name at me like I’m overreacting. Not tonight.” I tipped my chin toward Jade. “You are not allowed to say one negative thing about Jackson in front of her. I don’t care how you feel about him. I don’t care what history you think you have the right to be bitter over. He is her father, they are building a relationship, and she cares about him. You will not ruin that for her.” His jaw shifted, but I didn’t give him the opening. “She deserves to know her father after all these years, and if you can’t respect that, we leave. That simple.”

Dad looked ready to argue. Control had always sat in his bones in ways I understood too well, which was probably why we could hurt each other so efficiently. Before he could start, I turned to Matty.

“And you,” I said. “You will apologize to her for what you said.”