Page 111 of The Wayward Son

“Yes. Very much so.”

“Hmm. Dad’s whole…dadness has always seemed unattainable to me.”

“You and J.T. are both Jake O’Connell’s sons. All the way.”

Sawyer sighed. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”

She patted his arm. “Go get some sleep. You’ve got hay to unload tomorrow.”

“Yippy!”

Chapter thirty-one

"Is this your weird spidy sense kicking in?"

When Jade came into the kitchen and found Sage already up, she seemed surprised.

“What are you doing up so early?”

Sage poured Jade some coffee and handed the cup to her. “I decided to help you guys this morning.”

“Oh. That’s…nice of you. But it’s not necessary. There’s not really that much.”

“It’s fine. I don’t mind. I’m kind of glad Sawyer is back for good. Just don’t tell him I said so.”

“Your secret is safe with me.”

“I thought I’d run into town first and get some bear claws for him. You can come with me, or I can drop you off at the barn.”

“Um…why don’t you drop me off? I’ll make sure he’s up and is ready to go.”

“Okay. That’s probably a good idea. He seemed pretty wiped out last night.”

“Yeah. It’s been a busy few days.”

Twenty minutes later, Sage dropped Jade off at the barn, then headed into town to visit her favorite bakery guy.

Sawyer slept soundly all night until he was awoken by a knock on his door. He got up and opened the door a few inches, then all the way when he saw it was Jade.

“Why’d you knock?”

She stepped into the room. “Your dad is in the barn feeding the horses.”

Sawyer closed the door. “There are too many O’Connells running around here.” He took her in his arms and kissed her.

She leaned back and looked at him. “There’s going to be another one soon. Sage is coming over to help us unload the trailer.”

“Dammit.”

“She’s going into town to get some breakfast first.”

“Hmm. Okay. So, fifteen minutes there, fifteen minutes back. Ten or fifteen minutes flirting with Xander. We best get busy.”

Sage ran a hand through her hair and took a breath before opening the door to the bakery. It took a moment for Xander to come from the kitchen. When he did, he greeted her with a smile.

“Hey there. Two days in a row?”

“I thought maybe you saw who it was and didn’t want to come out of the kitchen.”

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