Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 136507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 683(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 683(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
“You know how it goes.” I nod at Jack. “I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“I’ve been around, digging up stumps. You’re the one who seems to be avoiding me.” He flashes that grin. The Barrow boys have never held back on flirting with me since the moment they were teenagers. I guess Logan standing here isn’t going to change that.
“How’s Olivia?”
“She’s good. She’s inside, putting on warmer clothes before she comes out to skate.”
“Oh, that’s great!” And a surprise that Jack’s ex-wife would allow it. She’s so anxiety-riddled, she won’t even let the poor kid toboggan. I doubt she has any idea about this.
Isla speeds past Thomas again, this time cutting in front of him.
“You don’t have any equipment on!” I holler in warning. And her coat is hanging open. But the wide, genuine smile, a rarity these days, is distracting enough that I’m not too worried about anything else. For a moment, Isla is ten years old again and marveling at having her own personal—enormous—rink next door. The weight of the world is gone from her shoulders.
“I’m fine! Hey, Logan, you getting your skates on or what!” She throws her hands up in challenge.
“Maybe later.” Adding quietly, “When I can embarrass myself in private.”
“Where are the twins, anyway?” They’d normally be out here too—one of the few times I see them excited to do anything that doesn’t involve a video game.
“Brooks is dragging his ass with his morning chores and Carson’s milking his injuries for as much screen time as possible,” Jon murmurs, distracted by whatever he’s searching for in the camera feed.
“Injuries?”
Logan shifts closer, and I instantly feel the pull toward him. “You know those old cartoons where the coyote steps on a rake and gets hit in the face?”
“Yeah …”
“Except with Carson, it was a snow shovel, and he stomped on it as hard as he could. The metal handle flew up and broke his nose. Also got him here.” He gestures between his eyes. “Three stitches. He looks like he’s been in a brawl.”
I wince. “Hopefully he learned a lesson?”
“Unlikely. But at least I’ll be able to tell them apart now.” His eyes search my face. “How are you doing?”
I shrug. “Busy. Work and Christmas and all that.” I’ve barely given the holiday season any thought.
He checks over his shoulder and then drops his voice. “Before you take off, can we talk? I’ve gotta run something by you. I wanna see what you think about—”
“They got in again!” Jon exclaims, interrupting Logan mid-sentence as he holds up his tablet. A pack of wolves lingers outside a fence line. “How’d they get into the eastern back forty again? You said you fixed that break!”
“I did.” Logan frowns at the screen.
“Obviously you did somethin’ wrong. Did you leave space between the staples and the post? Because if you put them too flush—”
“I know how to fix a fucking fence,” Logan snaps. “It was solid when I left it. They must be getting in from somewhere else.”
“Maybe you left the gate open again,” Jon mumbles under his breath.
Logan’s teeth grind. “I didn’t leave that gate open.”
“When’s this feed from?” Jack interrupts the back-and-forth bickering.
“Last night. Second time this month the wolves have gotten this close to the calves. See that one?” He points out a large gray one with a torn ear. “It’s the same pack.”
“At least the fences are doing their job,” I offer. As are the Anatolian shepherds who basically live with the calves in the pastures, guarding them from predators.
But there’s clearly brewing strife between Jon and Logan over this.
“For now. But watch this.” Jon fast-forwards the video, stopping it in time to show a wolf charge the fence, as if testing. The bison rush away as the dogs stalk in. “They’re bound to find a weak spot, eventually.”
“Big pack for a big herd, and now’s when they start getting really hungry.” Holt watches his grandson skate past. “I remember the last time the wolves got in, twelve years ago. They got a calf before the dogs killed one and scared the rest off. Annie made mittens with its fur.”
“We don’t have enough shepherds to keep a pack this size away,” Jon mutters. “I guess I’m spending the day trying to move the herd in closer.”
“I’ll check all the fences again, but I’m telling you, that section I put up is solid,” Logan says with full conviction.
“Maybe a tree came down, or there’s a drift somewhere that’s making it easy for them to jump over,” Holt says in apparent support of his son’s claim. “I’d follow their tracks if I were you. See what you can learn.”
“And shoot the fuckers if you see them,” Jon adds in a rare display of anger.
Logan shakes his head. “I can’t do that.”
“Yes, you can! We have video proof. This is predatory behavior.” Jon jabs his finger against his screen. “Next thing you know, they’ll be coming up to the chicken coop in the middle of the day! We can’t have that with kids running around.”