Page 88 of Deacon

“Lila.”

Dad packed years of expectation into my name. He had always loved us through protection and an unwavering belief that he knew best. Somewhere along the way, I had let concern become permission. I was done asking for it.

“I’m a grown woman. I’m not asking permission to accept a new job and move, Dad. I’m telling you what’s happening.”

His jaw tightened. Saying the words felt better than swallowing them.

“We’ll still have Sunday dinners. We aren’t disappearing. You don’t have to like the move, but you do have to accept it.”

Dad held my gaze, irritated but short on arguments. Matty shifted the conversation somewhere practical. “When?”

My shoulders eased. “A few days. I need Jade’s records transferred and her enrollment finished. Evan and I have two days left at Wicker Falls Memorial.”

“That soon?”

The speed probably sounded reckless from his side of the table. From mine, every delay felt like another chance to stay stuck. “Yeah.”

Matty absorbed that before nodding. “Then I’ll help you move.”

The offer loosened something in my chest. Dad’s sigh carried plenty of complaint, but his next words mattered more. “I’ll help too.”

Jade glanced at me, surprise and amusement fighting for space in her expression. I was still getting used to Dad giving ground. “I’d appreciate it.”

That ended the fight, at least for dinner.

Conversation found its footing under Evan’s supervision. By dessert, Jade had another slice of pie, and Matty asked about the art program as if catching up emotionally to a decision already in motion.

Dad stayed quieter. Unhappy, certainly. I could live with unhappy.

I left feeling more wrung out by family than I ever did after a hospital shift.

Back in the car, Evan let the silence hold just long enough to become suspicious. “Well. That was intimate, tense, and full of hidden rage. I assume this is what Southern Gothic families do instead of recreational sports.”

Jade laughed first. Mine followed before I could stop it.

Apparently satisfied, Evan settled back. “Good. Because if either of you started crying, I was prepared to make your father deeply uncomfortable on purpose.”

Jade turned toward him. “You didn’t already?”

He considered that with appropriate seriousness. “Excellent point. I would have escalated.”

Our laughter followed us down the street, tired but genuine, and the strain finally eased.

The move still carried complications. So did the new job, Jade’s new school, and the strange way Bay of Saints had shifted from the edge of my life into whatever came next. But the decision was mine.

I had said it aloud at my father’s table, held my ground, and left without surrendering a single piece of myself.

24

Lila

Moving day had barely reached noon before my father had sighed at least six times in the particular way that meant he wanted credit for not making things harder.

Matty handled himself better mostly because the furniture gave him somewhere to put his frustration. Between the two of them, the sofa, dining table, bedframe, dresser, and heavier shelves were already inside. Boxes still crowded the walls, but the apartment had crossed from empty to ours. That mattered.

Jade and I had never lived anywhere this nice. Hardwood floors caught the light from big windows. The kitchen had enough counter space to use without shuffling everything around, and the hallway outside stayed blessedly quiet. Evan’s unit was only a few doors down and around the corner, while Blue was across town on the Saints’ compound, a sentence that still sounded faintly ridiculous in my head.

Yet here we were. Bay of Saints. My father carried a side table into my living room, Matty muttered at a bookshelf, and Jade unpacked kitchen towels like this had always been the plan.