Page 152 of The Wayward Son

Jacob grumbled, then turned to smile at Sawyer and Sage. He nodded toward the box.

“What do you have there?”

“It’s for you, Granddad.”

He took the box from her and opened it, then glanced at her. “Thank you, child. Now what is it you want from me?”

Chapter forty-two

"Hmm. Seems you missed me a little bit."

When Jade came into the barn, Sawyer was brushing down Houston. She smiled at him.

“I thought we were going to spend some time upstairs first.”

“We are.” He left the stall and hugged her. “I also have some bad news.”

“What’s that?”

“With all of the stuff going on the last two days, I forgot I was supposed to ride out to the herd with Dad and J.T. today.”

“So, you’re getting ready to leave?”

“No. I got a reprieve today due to my overindulgence last night, but I need to go tomorrow. And I’ll be gone a couple of days. Probably won’t be back until Friday.”

She stuck out her lower lip. “Well, that’s sad.”

“So, I figured, maybe we should postpone our trail ride until I get back.”

“Okay. What would you like to do instead?”

“Well, after we have some makeup sex. I thought I’d cook you some dinner. Then we could watch a DVD with some popcorn. You know. Couple stuff.”

“Sounds fun. Do you have something to make for dinner?”

“No. I don’t have popcorn either. We’ll need to go to town.”

“In a while?”

“Yeah. In a while. Right now, we have something much more important to do.” He took her hand, and they headed for the stairs.

“So, what are you going to make for dinner?”

“I thought something really fancy like bean with bacon soup mixed in with vegetable beef soup. Along with a shitload of crackers.”

She laughed. “Sounds perfect.”

Jake and Sawyer left the barn on horseback early Wednesday morning. The sun was barely up and there was still a chill in the air. After a quiet thirty minutes, Jake glanced at Sawyer.

“So, you want to tell me why you felt the need to get drunk Monday night?”

“Jade and I were working through a couple of things. It was all a misunderstanding which I caused by not listening to her. We’re going to make a concerted effort to work on our communication skills.”

“That’s a good idea. Communication is important. Sage said she was partly to blame.”

Sawyer laughed. “Partly? She was completely to blame. But it’s okay. She was just trying to protect me.”

“She does like to do that.” Jake was quiet again for a few minutes. “So, what do you think about Xander?”

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