Page 89 of Deacon

“Okay,” I said, taking in the remaining furniture. “Once the last big stuff is in, you two are done.”

My father stopped fussing with the couch. “Done?”

He heard rejection where I meant independence. “Yes.” I crossed my arms. “I only needed help with the furniture. After that, Jade and I can deal with boxes and unpacking. We need to get used to the place ourselves.”

Matty gave me the same expression he used whenever my decisions offended him personally. “That’s stupid.”

I refused to let him make common sense sound reckless. “That’s reasonable.”

His expression said I had somehow proven his point. “That’s stupid,” he repeated.

My father joined him with one warning packed into my name. “Lila.”

“No.” I pointed at both of them. “You helped. I appreciate it. Truly. But once the furniture is in, you go home. Jade and I can handle the rest.”

“Why?” Matty demanded.

Because if they stayed, this place would become an extension of Wicker Falls before Jade and I had a chance to claim it. Dad would find concerns. Matty would hover. At thirty-five, I wanted one move that belonged to me without family supervision pressing in from every wall.

I gave them the answer they hated most. “Because I said so.”

Jade emerged from the kitchen with paper plates tucked against her hip. “I support this decision.”

Matty pointed at her. “Traitor.”

She smiled sweetly and kept walking, leaving him to grumble his way through the last chair.

A few minutes later, the kitchen was empty. I found Jade through the living room window, down near the truck talking to the boy we had met yesterday. Cage. Tall and lean, blond hair falling across his forehead, dressed in dark clothes, leather, and boots. Jade wore the small, careful smile she used when she wanted somebody to know she was interested without ever admitting it.

Matty appeared beside me. “Who’s that?”

I kept my attention on the lot. “Oh. That’s our neighbor. Jade met him yesterday when we came to pick up the keys. I think his name is Cage. He lives in the apartment across the hall from us.” His proximity to Jade clearly bothered Matty already. Mine didn’t. “I think it’s nice that she has someone around her age already that’s close by.”

Matty’s mouth tightened. “Kid looks like he belongs to an MC.”

The comment scraped at nerves he didn’t know were already raw. Cage was obviously a teenager, but the leather and easy confidence suggested he had grown up around men who wore both naturally. “I think his father does,” I said. “He’s obviously too young.”

Then Matty’s judgment reached the wrong place. “Is that an issue? You once had a best friend that belonged to an MC. You didn’t have a problem with him belonging to one.”

His expression changed before he answered. “You don’t know anything about Jackson and the MC he belonged to, Li. He didn’t want to be there. He had plans of getting out.”

Jackson’s name still found the tender places no matter how many years sat between then and now.

Matty kept going. “But what does it matter. He abandoned us. Left without a word. It was probably because of the MC. Don’t let her get wrapped up in that world.”

Heat climbed fast. He knew one club from years ago and thought that gave him the right to judge all of them, including men who had become part of my life before I understood exactly how much they would matter.

“You don’t know anything about this club, Matty.” The edge in my voice matched the one inside me. “Not all clubs are bad. Keep your biases to yourself and don’t push them onto my daughter.”

He blinked at me. “Jeeze,” he said. “I’m just trying to take care of her and you.”

That was the problem. He still heard love and responsibility as the same thing. “For the last time,” I snapped, “we don’t need you to take care of us. We can take care of ourselves.”

His face hardened. “Fine.”

He left the apartment hard enough for the door to strike the wall, then redirected his temper toward the next piece of furniture downstairs. Cage had disappeared by then. Jade was at the truck with a smaller box, watching me with concern until I gave her one quick shake of my head.

The next half hour settled into the particular quiet our family had perfected after an argument. Dad focused on where furniture belonged while Matty worked without meeting my eyes. Jade kept herself outside the blast radius, a skill she should never have needed to learn so well.