Page 140 of The Wayward Son

“Well, she made up for it last night. About a half-hour in, I went and knocked on her door, but she told me she wanted to be left alone.”

“Maybe you should’ve gone in anyway.”

“I thought about it a few more times. But I wasn’t sure how upset she was with me.”

Sawyer drank some coffee. “This whole thing is a bit of a bombshell. I had no idea she was still looking. It’s pretty much the last thing in the world I expected her to do.”

“Did you think she was going to stay here forever and be your buddy?”

Sawyer sighed. “I guess I hoped she would. Not necessarily the buddy part. I mean, we’re kind of beyond that.”

“Did you tell her you wanted her to stay?”

He drank some coffee. “I can’t stop her from going. That’d be really wrong of me. And selfish.”

“Because you want her to stay?”

“Yeah. Haven’t we established that?”

“You need to talk to her.”

He set his coffee down, then stood on the bench for a moment before jumping to the ground. “I’m not going to ask her to give up her dream.”

Sage looked at him for a moment. “She was willing to give it up for Seth. And she didn’t even love him.”

“Seth was a safety net.”

“As are you. You’re her original safety net. You’ve saved her twice.”

“How so?”

“Once from her father. And then again, from living a life she didn’t really want.”

Sawyer paced for a moment. “All I did was open my door.”

“You reminded her she had other options. If you hadn’t opened the door. She’d probably be married to Seth right now and living in Seattle. And be miserable.”

He ran his hands through his hair, then put them in his jacket pockets. “That doesn’t mean she wants to stay here with me.”

“How will you know that if you don’t talk to her? Maybe all she wants to hear is that you want her to stay.”

Sawyer groaned. “Shit. I don’t think it’s that easy.”

Sage left the table and walked over to him. “You O’Connell men are so dumb when it comes to women. Except for dad. He knew what he wanted, and he went for it. Even when he had no recollection of who he was.”

“I don’t think that just applies to the O’Connell men. I don’t see you going to your bakery guy and telling him how you feel.”

“Wow. That’s an interesting tangent to avoid talking about you and your problem.”

“It’s true.”

“Xander’s situation is a lot different than Jade’s.”

“I don’t want to ask her to stay. I need her to stay because she wants to. It has to be her decision. Otherwise, I’ll forever wonder if I influenced her to make it.”

“As chivalrous as that may be, I think that will leave you both miserable. You here. And her there. Why would she stay if you won’t tell her you want her to?”

Sawyer rubbed his forehead. “This is giving me a headache. You need to let me handle this, Sage. You need to stay out of it.”

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