Page 123 of Deacon

I kept my tone casual. “You good?”

She looked up immediately. “Yep.” Too quick. Too neat.

I tightened the lid on my mug and stayed where I was instead of letting her rush me past it. “That sounded suspiciously rehearsed.”

Jade huffed through her nose and took another bite of toast. “Maybe I’m just naturally convincing.”

“Maybe.” I let her have the joke before easing toward what I actually meant. “I meant after yesterday. With Matty. With all of that.”

Her chewing slowed. She swallowed, took a drink, then gave me the answer she had probably already decided on. “I’m fine, Mom.”

“Mhm.” I let the sound carry exactly how unconvinced I was.

Her eyes sharpened over the rim of the glass. “Dad handled it.”

That word still did something strange to me. Dad. It should have felt foreign after sixteen years. Instead, hearing her use it made something ache and settle at the same time.

Jade looked away first. “Uncle Matty said something awful,” she said, dry enough to make the whole thing sound easier than it had been. “Dad punched him for it. Uncle Matty gave a half-assed apology, stormed out to lick his wounds, and he’ll probably come back later with a more heartfelt version once he’s had time to realize what an ass he was being.” She shrugged and took another bite. “I’m good. It’s all good. I swear.”

She was trying so hard to spare me that my chest tightened. I stirred cream into coffee I had already stirred once. “That was a very polished speech.”

“You’re welcome.” Her dry little answer almost made me smile.

I didn’t let her joke me away from it. “It sounded prepared.”

Jade leaned back with a small eye roll. “You say that like I’m not gifted under pressure.”

A smile almost won. The worry didn’t move. “Jade.”

Her shoulders changed just enough to warn me I was getting close to the door she would slam if I pushed too hard. I changed direction. “You know you don’t have to protect me from your feelings, right?”

Her gaze snapped back to mine. “I’m not.”

I raised a brow and waited her out rather than argue. She dropped her head back as if the ceiling had joined my side. “I’m really not,” she said, and some of the polish finally disappeared. “It was bad, yeah. And weird. And I kind of wanted the floor to open up and swallow all of you for a minute. But I’m okay.” Her mouth twitched. “Also, if we’re being honest, watching my dad deck Uncle Matty was a little emotionally confusing.”

The laugh escaped before I could stop it. Jade pointed at me immediately. “See? You laughed. That means I’m coping.”

I shook my head, even though she had managed to loosen something in me. “That is not how that works.”

Her mouth twitched. “It should be.”

I shook my head, still smiling despite myself. “You sure you’re okay with all of this? The move. The new school. Your dad suddenly being around. Everything happening so fast.”

Her expression softened. “Mom,” she said, quieter now, “I’m okay.” The quiet certainty sounded more honest than the polished answers before it, but I still heard the part she wasn’t offering.

I kept my voice gentle instead of challenging her. “I didn’t say you weren’t.”

“You were definitely thinking it.” She knew me too well for denial to survive, and some of the tension in her shoulders eased because I wasn’t forcing her past what she wanted to say.

That pulled a breath of laughter from me. “That is unfortunately one of my gifts.”

Her smile turned real. “It’s fine. School’s fine. The move is fine. Dad is...” She paused, considering the word that came next. “A lot. But in a mostly okay way. Everybody can stop being weird now.”

Everybody. Me. Jackson. Dad. Matty. All of us trying to make a family crisis behave like something ordinary.

Jade reached for her phone and stopped herself halfway there. I noticed. She noticed me noticing. Her hand returned to her toast while she rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “You’re gonna be late if you keep staring at me like that.”

I picked up my bag but didn’t leave yet. “You know if any of that changes, you tell me.”