Page 48 of The Wayward Son

“Okay. I have a very pregnant wife in the house stressing about the expected snowfall. She doesn’t want to get snowed in this close to her due date.”

“Maybe you should go stay in town.”

“In the Castle Springs Motel? I don’t think she’d be very comfortable there.”

“You could stay with Lucy. She’s got lots of room.”

“Maybe. I’ll run it by Ember and see what she says.”

“Go be with her. We’ve got this.”

Jake had fed about a third of the horses. Sawyer and Jade fed the rest and made sure they all had fresh water and the spare tank in the barn was full. They had a backup generator in the wellhouse to keep the pump running. But it didn’t hurt to have a backup to the backup. They had a lot of livestock to keep watered. They also brought out the gas heaters in case they needed them.

Sawyer looked around the barn. “I think that should do it.”

“So, are we going to get snowed in?”

“It’s possible. Dad will park a truck down by the road in case we need to get out. The roads are usually plowed pretty quick. But our half-mile of driveway isn’t. And the road to Sage’s house will be impassible if we get more than three or four inches.”

“So she and I might get snowed in at her house?”

“Yeah. Unless you want to stay here.”

She smiled. “I might just do that. Maybe I could stay in your old room. That’d be a bit of déjà vu.”

He shook his head. “My room is the new baby’s nursery.”

“Oh no.”

“But you can stay in Sage’s room. She took most of her stuff out of there. But there’s still a bed.”

“Okay. I’ll see what the weather does. I wouldn’t want to leave Sage all alone, though.”

Sawyer took her arm and headed for the barn door. “Sage will be fine. If she gets lonely, she can hike to the house.”

“Or I could stay with her and we could both hike to the house.”

“Or you could just stay here.”

She looked at him. “Sawyer. If you want me to stay here at the ranch, then just say so.”

“I want you to stay here at the ranch.”

She smiled. “Okay. Then that’s what I’ll do.”

Chapter fifteen

"Whose ghost did you think you'd find?"

With the storm coming in faster than expected, Sawyer and Jade decided skip the walk and make a quick trip to see J.T. and Joey while they still could. He confirmed with J.T. that they were at the inn, then headed out in the truck.

He looked through the windshield at the ominous clouds above. It wasn’t currently snowing, but it would be soon. Jade leaned on the steering wheel so she could see the sky better.

She wrinkled her nose and glanced at Sawyer. “Maybe we should go back.”

“It’s fine. If it starts snowing hard, we’ll leave. It’s close-by, and it’ll take a lot of snow to stop my truck.”

“Okay. I’ll trust your judgement. But I don’t really want to put it to the test.”

---