Page 42 of The Wayward Son

“It’s me.”

Sage shook her head. “Okay. What’s going on?”

Xander looked at her. “Ms. Jade here thought I was trying to steal one of your horses. She threatened to call the sheriff on me.”

“When?”

Jade laughed. “Years ago. I went to the barn looking for Sawyer and I found this guy taking a horse from a stall. I didn’t know who he was.”

Xander nodded. “So of course she jumped immediately to horse thief. She was like eleven or twelve and determined to protect the place. She went so far as to threaten me with a pitch fork.”

Sage grinned. “Well, horse thievery is a pretty serious offense here in Montana.”

“Fortunately, your grandfather came in and explained to her who I was and that I had permission to ride the horse.” He looked at Jade closely. “You look really different.”

“We’ve all grown up a bit.”

“Yet you recognized me.”

“You’re kind of hard to forget. You were my first horse thief.”

He pointed at her. “Alleged horse thief.” He turned his attention to Sage. “So, bear claws?”

“Yes. I’ll get four of them.” She looked at Jade. “What do you want?”

Jade went to the display case and looked at everything. “It all looks so good. What’s that?”

She pointed at a Danish with a yellow glaze on top of it.

“Lemon Danish.”

“That. I want one of those.”

“What else?”

“Um…I think I need a muffin, too.”

“Lemon poppyseed would carry out the theme.”

“Perfect.”

Xander took four bear claws, the lemon Danish, and a lemon poppyseed muffin from the case and put them all into a box. He smiled at Sage. “And for you?”

“I think I need a bear claw today.”

Xander put another bear claw into the box. “Coffee?”

“No. We’ll make some at Sawyer’s. Assuming he has coffee.”

“Maybe you should bring some just to be safe.”

Sage cocked her head at him. “Are you trying to upsell me?”

He put up his hands. “No. I get plenty of business from you. Just trying to help.”

“I think that should do it.” She took a card from her wallet.

He looked at it and smiled, then ran it through his machine.

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