Page 113 of Deacon

For a second he seemed to weigh whether to say more. Then his voice dropped. “Ever since my mom died, it’s just been weird, harder maybe.”

The words were quiet, but grief carried through them anyway. Jade curled tighter around the phone. “Cage...”

He exhaled into the line. “Yeah.” She wished she knew the right thing to say and understood there probably wasn’t one. “I don’t know…I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

His answer came just as softly. “Me too.” There was no anger in it, only a tiredness that made Jade wish she could do more than offer words through a phone.

Jade traced the seam of her comforter with her thumb. “I don’t really know what to say. But... if you ever want to talk about her, or about anything, I’m here. I mean that.”

The pause that followed felt less guarded than the ones before it. “That means a lot.” Cage hesitated before adding, “Thanks.”

Maybe that was why Jade found herself saying more than she had planned. “I think maybe that’s why it feels weird when people are gone. Not just because they’re gone. Because everything around them changes shape too. I didn’t know my dad, so I couldn’t miss him the way you miss somebody you remember. But I think I still felt the space where he should’ve been. My mom did too, even if she never said it. And now that he’s here, it’s like something in the air around her settles when he’s close. They’re still a mess, obviously, but... I don’t know. They make sense together. Like the shape of things feels less wrong when he’s in it.”

“Yeah,” Cage said quietly. “Exactly.” Hearing him understand without needing her to explain it twice eased something in her. Not all of it. Enough. She could hear movement somewhere on his end, home sounds in the background, and for a few seconds it felt oddly intimate to know he was somewhere ordinary while she sat in her room saying things she hadn’t said to anyone else.

Cage let the quiet breathe before turning the question back on her. “What about you?”

Jade stilled. “What about me?” She knew exactly what he meant, which only made the question harder to answer.

“You sound like you’ve got something sitting heavy on you too.”

Her fingers tightened around the phone. The unknown texts flashed through her mind alongside the strange pressure of Deacon suddenly being part of her life and how family day had managed to feel confusing and good at the same time. “It’s just... stuff,” she said after a minute.

He heard the dodge for what it was. “Family stuff?”

“Kind of.” Even that small admission made the phone seem heavier in her hand.

Cage didn’t press. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“I know.” That was exactly why talking to him felt easy. He never made her feel stupid or too young, never demanded every piece of the explanation before believing what she felt. With him, she could just be.

His voice came quieter when he asked, “You wanna do something tomorrow?”

Jade stilled, then smiled before she could stop herself. The question was so normal it almost hurt after the texts and the secrets and everything else she had been carrying. “Like... what?”

“I don’t know. We could hang out. Walk somewhere. Grab something to drink. Sit in the courtyard and make fun of people. Whatever.”

She stared at the ceiling as if that might somehow hide the grin from a boy who wasn’t even in the room. “Yeah,” she said, aiming for casual and missing it by a little. “I’d like that.”

His answer came easy, without hesitation. “Good.” The warmth in that one word sent a ridiculous little rush through her.

She rolled onto her back, one hand resting over her stomach like she could physically settle the feeling there. “Okay. Cool.”

“Cool,” he echoed, and she could hear the smile in his voice. Then his tone settled into something steadier. “Text me when you want me to come by. Or call. Whatever.”

It sounded like more than making plans. It sounded like he wanted her to know he would show up if she needed him. “Okay,” she said, softer this time.

Their goodbyes had barely started when Lila knocked to threaten bodily removal from the bedroom if Jade missed dinner, which made Cage laugh and kept the mood light until the call finally ended.

The quiet afterward felt abrupt. Jade stayed on the bed with her phone in hand, letting herself hold on to the good parts for another minute. Cage. Tomorrow. The way talking to him made her feel steadier and more like herself. Then Deacon. Her father. The word still felt strange, but not nearly as strange as it probably should have. She had adjusted to him too quickly, almost as if some part of her had recognized where he fit before the rest of her caught up.

Family day had done that too. The clubhouse had been loud and full of leather, men, Old Ladies, and enough bikes to make the place feel dangerous at first. Then she had noticed the children weaving through tables and adults keeping track of them without seeming to try. That was the part she hadn’t expected, the family tucked inside everything people outside the club would probably judge first. Deacon had belonged there. More than that, he had seemed happy she was there, as if her being beside him in that world made sense to him too.

For a little while, that memory sat warm in her chest. Then the texts came back.

Jade unlocked the phone. Cage’s name at the top of her recent calls did nothing to change what waited underneath.

Unknown: You looked real happy today.