Page 138 of Deacon

Ink stayed bent over her wrist, machine buzzing low in his hand. For a moment he looked absorbed enough in the tattoo that I let myself pretend Blue and I had privacy.

“It was fine,” I said.

Blue lifted a brow. “Fine in a real way or fine in a Lila way?”

I sighed. “It was awkward at first.”

Blue waited a beat. “And then?”

I shifted deeper into the chair. “And then less awkward.”

Her brow lifted. “That sounds promising.”

“It sounds like coffee,” I said, though I kept talking because Blue had always been good at turning silence into an invitation rather than a demand.

I told her Mason had already been there when I arrived, that he remembered my drink, and that we had spent the first few minutes negotiating the strange territory between former intimacy and possible coworkers. Blue listened without interrupting, and Ink stayed quiet enough that I stopped thinking about him.

“He said he wanted to make sure there wasn’t going to be any discomfort if he interviewed and ended up at the new ER,” I said. Saying it aloud made the meeting sound simpler than it had felt.

Blue’s expression stayed neutral. “That’s reasonable,” Blue murmured.

“Yeah.” My finger traced the edge of the chair arm. “It was.”

She waited, which was somehow more effective than asking. “And?”

“And we talked. Wicker Falls. Work. Old people. Old nonsense.” I let out a breath. “Then he told me he respected the way things ended, even if he had wanted more than I did.”

Blue’s eyes softened. “That had to feel weird.”

“It did.” I looked down at my hands. “He asked if there was someone else.”

The question had been sitting inside me since the coffee shop, heavier now that I had said it aloud. Blue’s expression gentled. “What did you say?”

“The truth. Mostly.” I rubbed my thumb across my palm. “I said there’s someone from my past I’m not over.”

Blue was still for a beat before she nodded. “That seems fair.”

I looked away from her. “It felt crueler than I expected.”

Blue’s voice stayed gentle. “Truth usually does when somebody wants a different ending.”

I gave her a look. “That is not helpful.”

A small smile touched her mouth. “I know.”

I should have stopped there. Instead, the other part came out. “He said he still wanted to be friends,” I admitted. “And then Jude showed up.”

Blue’s whole face changed. “Again?”

I nodded. “At the coffee shop. Just... there. Like it was the most natural thing in the world.”

Her brows pulled together. “Lila.”

I exhaled through my nose. “I know.”

“No.” Her voice sharpened. “He just popped up out of nowhere again? It’s really creepy that he always seems to be somewhere you are when he lives and works in Wicker Falls.”

The tattoo machine stopped.