Page 17 of Deacon

“Nothing.”

The answer came too fast.

We both heard it.

Her eyes narrowed. “Mom.”

I exhaled and looked past her toward the hallway because it was easier than facing the girl who had my eyes and her father’s mouth. “It was only a nightmare. I’m fine.”

Jade folded her arms. “I heard you.”

Of course she had.

Heat crawled beneath my skin. The shame had little to do with her seeing me afraid and everything to do with what I had said.

Whatever I had buried deeply enough to survive the last seventeen years had apparently decided sleep was a reasonable time to throw open every locked door.

“What did you hear?” I asked.

Her expression softened a fraction. “You yelled, ‘No, don’t leave me again. Not before I can tell you.’”

The room went still around us.

I held my face carefully blank. “We had a patient last night,” I said after a moment, forcing my voice into something even. “It was a close call. The shift was rough, and I’m exhausted. My brain is taking everything I shoved aside at work and throwing it back at me while I sleep.”

Jade studied me for a second too long.

She had always been sharper than was convenient.

Finally, she nodded once, though the look in her eyes told me she believed only the pieces she could verify. “Okay.”

I attempted a smile. “Okay.”

Silence settled between us. It wasn’t heavy, exactly.

It was watchful.

Jade glanced toward the kitchen. “I’ll start breakfast.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I know.” She paused near the doorway. “But I’m hungry, and if I leave you alone in here too long, you’re going to think yourself into a bad mood.”

Despite everything, I snorted. “That’s rude.”

“That’s accurate.”

There she was.

I scrubbed both hands over my face and pushed the blankets from my legs. “Give me ten minutes.”

“Seven,” she called over her shoulder as she disappeared down the hall. “You move slowly when you’re emotionally compromised.”

“Teenagers are supposed to be less annoying before eight in the morning.”

“Single-parent households adapt,” she called back.

Seven minutes later, I found Jade commandeering both the stove and toaster with the easy ownership of a child raised by a mother who worked shifts and trusted her to be capable.