Page 144 of Deacon

She picked up the casserole dish and made a face at me. “Maybe.”

I shook my head because she had never stood a chance against a sincere apology. “I knew it.”

Jade adjusted her grip on the casserole dish. “He looked like somebody ran over his soul, Mom.”

I reached for the serving spoon. “That is not an excuse.”

“No,” she agreed, already smiling. “But it is kind of pathetic.”

That got me laughing again, which at least loosened some of the tension before we carried dinner out.

The table looked exactly as it had through years of family meals, right down to Dad’s insistence on cloth napkins nobody had ever successfully explained. Only the silence had changed. It wasn’t angry at first. Just careful, with everybody passing dishes and exchanging low thank-yous while the scrape of forks seemed louder than it should.

Dad finally looked at Jade. “So how’s the new school?”

She straightened a little. “I love it.”

The answer came quickly enough to ease something in the room. “The art program is great,” she went on. “I’m making friends. People there are way nicer.” Dad and Matty looked at her at the same time.

Matty leaned slightly toward her. “What do you mean, nicer?”

Jade glanced at me, and I watched her realize she had stepped into something larger than she intended. She looked down at her plate before answering. “Um. The kids here weren’t always great.”

Dad frowned. “How so?”

“People talked. Parents, I mean. About Mom being a single parent for all those years. About how she wouldn’t say who my dad was. So there were rumors.” She moved her fork through the casserole without eating. “The kids heard their parents say stuff and then it all kind of landed on me.”

Dad’s palm hit the table hard enough to jump the silverware. “What?”

Jade flinched, and my whole body went rigid. Dad looked at me, shock already turning toward anger. “Did you know about this and not tell us? You let that happen to her and didn’t say a word?”

“Dad—” Matty started, but I wasn’t interested in being managed from either side.

“I only found out just before we moved. But yes, it is one of the reasons we moved. To get her away from the toxic culture of this town.” Years of frustration sharpened my voice before I could contain it. “God, have you not paid attention to this place all these years? How godly everyone acts on Sundays and how mean and gossipy they are the rest of the week? How they look down on anyone they think is beneath them?”

Dad’s face darkened, but I was past caring.

“This town is full of stifling bigots,” I said. “Half of them have dirty secrets in their own closets. I know that from working in the hospital. I’m sure you know it too, Matty, from the station. But they still walk around acting like they’re morally superior to everybody else.”

Dad opened his mouth, anger gathering again, but Jade cut across it with more calm than any of us deserved.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said firmly. “We don’t live here anymore. I don’t have to deal with it anymore.” She sat straighter. “I love the school I go to now. I love the people there. The community in Bay of Saints is great. I’m happy there.”

The anger drained out of Dad almost visibly. What replaced it looked older and harder to fight. Regret, maybe. The realization that something had been hurting Jade under his nose while the rest of us were busy with our own battles.

Matty reached across the table and covered her hand. “That’s all that matters, Doodles. Your happiness. That’s all that ever mattered.” His attention shifted to me. “Yours too. Both of you.”

The sincerity landed somewhere I wasn’t prepared to examine over casserole.

Dad cleared his throat and looked down at his plate. “I, uh... bumped into Jude on Friday when I was at the hospital for my checkup.” His fork moved through his food without purpose. “I invited him to dinner, but he said he couldn’t make it.”

I groaned before I could stop myself. “Dad. I really wish you would stop inviting him. I have no intention of ever dating him. I am not interested, and I never will be. Besides, he has a girlfriend.” Both men looked up. “In Bay of Saints, apparently,” I added. “Strange enough.”

Matty’s expression shifted. He looked at Dad, then back to me. “I’m kind of surprised either of you have even seen him recently.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“Because he took a sabbatical from work.” Cop focus replaced the remnants of dinner tension in his face. “No one’s heard much from him in a while. He was supposed to come back last week, but he didn’t. Left a message saying he needed the time extended.”