Page 85 of The Wayward Son

"Think beer and junk food will fix you right up."

Since Jake needed Sawyer back by the end of the week in anticipation of moving the herd to the spring pastures, he and Jade left early Sunday morning for Missoula. The skies were clear and expected to stay that way, which made for a pleasant drive. He was driving his truck and pulling a small trailer behind it. There wasn’t much in the apartment he wanted to keep. But he wanted to be prepared to haul the things he did want to bring home with him.

It would feel a little strange moving out of the apartment. He’d moved in when he was nineteen. He remembered those first few nights away from home with the family so far away. It was hard. But he stuck it out and the fear and loneliness soon turned into anticipation of becoming the best athlete he could. He managedthat, and then some. He was in top shape and he hoped he’d be able to maintain it. He was going to miss sparring, though. That was always his favorite part of working out.

He glanced at Jade, who was halfway through a giant pretzel. Maybe he could get Jade to spar with him.

She looked at him. “What?”

He smiled. “Nothing. Eat your pretzel.”

She held it out to him. “Do you want some?”

“No.” He took a piece of jerky from a bag in his lap. “I’ll stick to jerky.”

The ride went by fast and by late afternoon, they arrived at the apartment complex. Sawyer took a stack of flattened boxes from the bed of the truck, and they went inside.

Jade stopped by the elevator. “Going up?”

“Up the stairs.”

She sighed, then joined him as he took the one flight of stairs to the second floor.

“You’re not going to carry boxes and furniture down the stairs, are you? You probably could. But why would you want to?”

“It depends on how heavy the box is. I’m planning on leaving most of this behind.” He unlocked the door, and they went inside.

“Where do we start?”

“With dinner and a beer. I think I have a can each of vegetable beef soup and bean with bacon soup.”

“My favorite. Do you have crackers?”

“There might be crackers in the cupboard.”

Jade headed for the kitchen while Sawyer set the boxes down. Where to start was a good question. But as he looked around, he realized there wasn’t much he wanted to bring. He just wasn’t sure what to do with the rest of the stuff. He didn’t want any of the furniture. He could leave it and let the apartment managerdeal with it. But that seemed like a jerk move. He might do it for some cash, though.

Too hungry to think about it, Sawyer went to join Jade in the kitchen. There were three open cans on the counter and she was mixing a pot with a wooden spoon.

“There were two cans of vegetable beef, so I used them. One less thing to pack.”

“Yeah, that can of soup was going to take up a lot of space.”

“Shush. You look hungry. I’m pretty sure you can eat the extra soup.”

“You’re right, I can.” He went to the refrigerator and was glad to see there were three beers left. “Do you want a beer?”

“Yeah. Unless there’s only one. I wouldn’t want to drink your last beer.”

He took two of the beers and handed her one. “There’s one more. We’ll share it later.”

“Or we could just go buy more beer.”

He pointed at her. “That. Let’s do that.”

“You need to say goodbye to Denise, anyway.”

“Actually, I would like to do that.”

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