Page 116 of Deacon

I didn’t even consider it. “You’re not getting coffee.”

“That was for me,” he called back, amusement already creeping into his voice.

“I know.” The answer made Jade snort, which was almost worth Jackson’s presence by itself.

I turned and braced one hip against the counter, catching his eyes over her head. “There’s juice in the fridge.”

His brows lifted. “For me or her?”

“For whichever one of you is thirstier.” The second the words left my mouth, I knew better.

His gaze held mine, heat sliding through it with slow intent. “Dangerous thing to say to me, Princess.”

Jade made a face before I could recover. “Can you two not be weird for, like, ten minutes?”

I straightened, suddenly aware of every inch between me and the living room. “We are not being weird.”

Jackson betrayed me without hesitation, his innocence far too convincing. “You hear that? We’re not bein’ weird.”

Jade bit into her donut and gave us both the same unimpressed look. “Sure.” Apparently sarcasm was one more trait we had successfully passed down.

I pointed at her. “You’re awfully mouthy for someone eating my groceries.”

“These are his groceries,” she said around a smile, immediately siding with the enemy.

Jackson leaned back, entirely too pleased with himself. “That’s right.”

I should have been annoyed. I was. But something softer slipped in around it, because the three of us were arguing over donuts and juice as if this were normal. That was the danger of Jackson. He could make impossible things feel ordinary, and ordinary had always been what I wanted most.

He stayed for more than an hour, long enough for Jade to settle completely into his company. They ended up shoulder to shoulder over some ridiculous mobile game while he accused her of cheating and she called him old. I stopped pretending his presence didn’t alter the apartment.

Eventually Jade stood and stretched. “I’m gonna go get dressed before Cage comes by.”

Jackson’s head lifted immediately. “Cage is comin’ over?”

She went still for a fraction of a second, then recovered. “Yeah. We were gonna hang out.”

The corner of his mouth twitched around the word, protective suspicion surfacing immediately. “Hang out.”

Jade heard exactly where this was headed. “Oh my God,” Jade muttered. “Don’t start.”

His expression turned offensively innocent, fooling absolutely nobody. “I didn’t say nothin’.”

“You didn’t have to.” Jade had already learned to hear everything he left unsaid.

He looked at me like he expected backup. “You hear that? She can hear attitude now too.”

“I believe it,” I said, because I had spent years living with hers.

Jade narrowed her eyes at both of us. “You’re the worst.” Then she disappeared down the hall before either of us could prove her right.

The apartment changed in her absence. Jackson had come for Jade, but he had also stayed, and the quiet between us made that impossible to ignore. I folded the dish towel once before setting it down rather than strangling it in my hands.

I finally said it. “You do realize you don’t have to turn every visit into some kind of campaign.”

His mouth twitched, though the humor didn’t quite reach his eyes. “That what you think I’m doin’?”

I crossed my arms. “You spend time with your daughter, which is good. Then you keep hanging around my kitchen looking at me like you’re trying to wear down my resistance through eye contact alone.”