Page 34 of Deacon

“Right now, I want you to go home and sleep. You have tomorrow off, so stay away from this place for one day and take care of yourself.” He squeezed my shoulder. “I’ll call Blue, and we’ll schedule a chaos council.”

Something inside me softened despite everything. I rested my head against his shoulder for a moment as we walked. “Sounds good.”

He kissed the top of my head as though I were both fragile and deeply irritating. “Good, because you look one bad cup of coffee away from fighting God in the parking lot.”

A rough laugh left me, but it was real.

The quieter part of the hospital did nothing for the ache in my chest. Jackson remained upstairs, suspended somewhere between silence and waking, and part of me stayed beside him no matter how far I walked.

But Evan’s arm rested around my shoulders, and going home didn’t feel quite so much like leaving.

10

Lila

My day off started with pounding on my apartment door loud enough to rattle the frame, which told me two things immediately: Evan had arrived, and he had no intention of beginning the day quietly.

I was still wearing leggings and one of my oldest sweatshirts when I opened the door, coffee in hand, and found him leaning against the frame in sunglasses large enough to qualify as a disguise and a scarf that had no business existing in weather like this.

From the couch behind me, Jade looked up from her sketchbook, caught sight of him over my shoulder, and said, “Guncle Evan, you look like a recently divorced magician.”

Evan clutched his chest and swept inside as though he had been welcomed into a palace instead of my apartment. “Gemstone,” he said, his voice thick with emotion, “your cruelty only enhances your beauty.”

“Good.” Jade grinned. “I was aiming for devastating.”

He crossed the room and bent to kiss the top of her head with all the ceremony of visiting royalty. She tolerated it with the long-suffering patience of a girl who had known him long enough to enjoy his attention while pretending she absolutely did not.

“You look suspiciously pleased with yourself.” Evan narrowed his eyes at her. “I don’t trust it.”

“That’s because I have news.”

He drew in a sharp breath. “Scandal?”

“Horror,” she corrected.

I had barely reached the kitchen counter with my coffee before Jade sat straighter and announced, “Lewd Jude had the nerve to finagle himself an invitation to family dinner.”

Evan froze halfway through removing his scarf. “No.”

“Yes.”

His expression turned stricken. “No.”

She nodded gravely. “Yes. Grandpa turned dinner into some twisted parent-trap situation for Mom and Jude.”

Evan pressed one hand to the wall as though he needed help remaining upright. “I need a moment.”

“You and me both.”

I leaned against the counter and watched them with the exhausted affection of someone who had lost control of the conversation the second it began. Evan had disliked Jude on sight years ago and had only grown more theatrical about it with time. Jade had inherited my instinct for annoyance and sharpened it into an art form. Together, they were a menace.

“He brought wine,” Jade added darkly, presenting it as final proof of his character.

Evan’s mouth fell open. “Of course he did.”

“And Grandpa kept trying to force common interests into the conversation like he was hosting a deranged matchmaking special for people with baggage.”

A noise of genuine pain left Evan. “Your grandfather remains committed to psychological warfare.”