Page 181 of Deacon

He looked back. Whatever had hardened in his face eased when he saw me. “I got it.”

I let him. Getting off the couch still hurt like hell, and after what had happened, I understood why a knock at my door could turn him into the man who had come through Jude’s house with a gun in his hand.

Cage stood on the other side with a white bakery box in one hand and a drink carrier in the other. His hair was a mess, his eyes shadowed, and his shoulders looked too tight for a boy his age. The moment he spotted me past Jackson, relief loosened something in his face while guilt pulled everything else taut.

Jackson stepped aside, and Cage entered with the careful quiet people used in hospital rooms. “I brought some of Jade’s favorite yums,” he said, his voice rougher than usual.

I smiled because he looked like he needed permission to breathe. “I see that.”

He set everything on the coffee table and glanced toward the hallway. The look would have been subtle if I hadn’t once been sixteen myself.

Jade appeared in her doorway almost on cue, wearing leggings and one of my oversized sweatshirts, her posture broadcasting that she absolutely had not been waiting for him. They looked at each other, and Cage’s face changed first.

“Well,” Jade said, leaning against the frame with studied indifference. “You look terrible.”

Cage let out a breath that almost became a laugh. “You look alive, so I’ll take it.”

That wiped the teasing straight off her face. She crossed the room and wrapped both arms around him before either of them could decide whether they were ready for that much honesty. Cage froze for half a beat, then held her like he had spent the last day keeping himself together for exactly this.

Jackson looked away. I didn’t. After the night we had all survived, I had earned the right to watch my daughter cling to a boy who had been terrified he might never see her again.

When Jade finally stepped back, she swiped beneath one eye and immediately reached for attitude. “If you say anything about that, I’ll deny it.”

Cage’s expression went solemn in a way that fooled nobody. “I didn’t see shit.”

“Good.” She glanced at the bakery box, grateful for the easier subject. “You brought yums?”

His mouth twitched. “I’m learning.”

The smallest smile touched her face before she jerked her head toward the hallway. “Come on.”

Cage looked at me first, then Jackson, asking without making either of us force him to. I gave him a nod. “Go.”

Jackson followed it with one of his own, though naturally he couldn’t leave well enough alone. “Door stays open.”

Jade groaned. “Oh my God.”

He lifted one shoulder. “We survived you being fake kidnapped. I’m not losin’ you to teenage hormones too.”

“Dad.” The word came out fast and automatic.

The room paused around it. Jade blinked. Jackson did too. Even Cage looked like he had just witnessed something sacred and was trying not to stare.

Jackson recovered first, because of course he did. A slow grin spread across his face. “You call me that again and I’m gonna get real emotional.”

Jade pointed at him. “Don’t make it weird.”

His grin widened. “It was already weird in a sweet and sentimental way.”

“Now it’s worse.” She grabbed Cage’s sleeve and hauled him toward her room before Jackson could turn one accidental Dad into a full ceremony.

The door stayed cracked because apparently fatherhood had taken him less than twenty-four hours to weaponize.

Jackson dropped onto the couch beside me and reached for my hand. “You okay?”

I looked toward the hallway, where Jade’s voice had already dropped low enough to tell me the bravado was gone. “Yes.” My fingers curled around his. “And no.”

He huffed a quiet laugh. “Fair.”