Page 12 of The Wayward Son

“I know. He said since it was paid for, he decided to go. He said he needed some time to clear his head.”

“That’s understandable, I guess.”

“Then he told me how lucky he’d been and that he was up about five thousand dollars.”

Sawyer laughed. “Paid for the trip, I guess.”

“I told him I had no interest in getting back together. That I was moving on and starting fresh.”

“Good for you.” He studied her for a moment. “Are you okay?”

She picked up her beer and drank some, then sighed heavily. “Yes. I guess I’m actually glad I talked to him. It gave me some closure on that whole ugly chapter of my life.”

Sawyer looked around the small kitchen. “Are you sure this is better? A seedy apartment in Missoula?”

“This is a much needed pit stop. Not my final destination.”

“Right. Of course. You are on to bigger and better things just as soon as you get hired at some tropical paradise.”

“Damn right.”

He looked at her bags. “Did you get yourself some clothes?”

“Yes. Not too much. I’ll eventually get my stuff from Spokane. It’s all in storage right now, waiting until I moved into Seth’s new house in Seattle. I gave up everything for that bastard, including my apartment.”

“So even if you went back to Spokane, you’d have nowhere to live?”

“Unless I wanted to stay with Aunt Joy.”

“Ouch. I’m sure you don’t want to do that.” He finished his water. “You’re welcome to stay here for as long as you want. And if you want to come to Castle Springs with me next week, that’s cool, too. I’m sure the family would like to see you.”

“Yeah, I don’t know about that. Even though my dad’s gone, I don’t have the best memories of that town.”

“I understand. But the offer stands. If not this time, then maybe the next. I’m back and forth.”

“Thank you. I’ll think about it. I would like to see your family. And meet Jake’s new wife.”

“If you can set the bad memories aside, there were some pretty good ones, too.”

She smiled. “Yeah. Every memory with you was a good one.”

Sawyer got another bottle of water, then went into the bedroom to shower. He selfishly hoped Jade didn’t get a job too soon. He dug through his closet for a clean shirt. It was time to do laundry again. He hated doing laundry. Growing up, it was one of the chores he shared with J.T. and Sage. Aside from keeping their rooms clean, there were three chores they switched off doing on a weekly basis. Dishes, laundry, and taking care of the trash.

This was in addition to their outside chores, of course. Mowing the yard around the house, mucking out stalls, gathering the eggs from the chicken coop, and feeding the horses and other animals. He didn’t mind doing that stuff, though. He even liked mowing the grass. And for seven months of the year, it was often covered with snow or had at least stopped growing.

But hauling clothes down to the laundry room in the basement of the apartment was not his favorite thing to do. He found a clean shirt and a pair of sweat pants and headed for the shower.

The hot water system in the apartment was barely adequate and often the water would start cooling off before he was ready to get out. Tonight was no different, and the water was turning cold as he was rinsing the shampoo from his hair.

He got out with a shiver and dried himself off. Then he realized he hadn’t brought underwear in with him. He wrapped the towel around his waist and left the bathroom.

Jade was standing by the bed, taking her new clothes out of the shopping bags. She looked at him and blushed. “Oh. My gosh. I’m so sorry.” She looked away.

“No. It’s fine. I just forgot something.”

“I’ll just leave and finish this up later.” She rushed out of the room without looking at him again.

Sawyer smiled.That was pretty cute.He got dressed, combed his wet hair, then left the bedroom. Jade was in the kitchen again, making a pot of coffee.

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