Page 154 of Joker

Joker, the absolute menace, just looks at Amy and says, “You got homework or something?”

“School’s out for summer,” she says with the smug confidence of a child who knows she’s untouchable.

“Then go bother your father.”

Amy grins. “Already did.”

Of course she did.

Emma is still smiling when she catches my eye over Jason’s head, but there’s something gentler under the amusement too.

Something knowing. Something kind. Not pity. Never that. Just warmth. Like she sees exactly what’s happening and, instead of warning me away from it, is quietly telling me I’m safe to let it happen.

That should be terrifying. Instead, it feels like one more tiny place to rest.

***

By lunch, the whole clubhouse seems to know. Not in some dramatic announcement kind of way. Just in the way places like this always know things before they’re formally said out loud.

There are looks.

Smirks.

A little too much amusement in the brothers’ faces every time Joker passes by and I happen to be somewhere in his line of sight.

And the women?

The women are even worse.

Mac catches me in the laundry room and, after handing me a folded towel I definitely did not ask for, says casually, “You know he was glaring at Blaze from across the lot because you were laughing at something he said, right?”

I stare at her. “That’s psychotic.”

She grins. “It’s kind of adorable, actually.”

I choke on my own disbelief. “No. No, it is not.”

Mac just shrugs, dark hair pulled up off her neck and mischief written all over her face. “Agree to disagree.”

Then she leaves me standing there with a basket of towels and a heartbeat that feels suspiciously like it’s trying to climb out of my chest.

Kya is no help either. When I run into her later in the common room while Casey and Gio are arguing over crayons like it’s life or death, she glances toward the porch where Joker is fixing something on one of the kid bikes while Lexi hovers close enough to be practically attached to his leg and says, “You’re in trouble.”

I look at her warily. “Why?”

She arches a brow. “Because that man would probably set a city block on fire if you looked mildly unhappy.”

My mouth opens. Then closes.

Because honestly?

That feels less like a joke every day.

Kya sees the exact moment that thought lands and grins into her drink. “Yeah,” she says. “Exactly.”

I hate all of them.

Mostly because they’re right.