Page 33 of It's a Wonderful Knife

After a few minutes, we heard raised voices. It was easy to tell who was who because Leo’s voice was lower and steadier, while Jax sounded irate. At one point, Leo stomped back over to the mouth of the stables and faced Jax, who was out of my line of sight.

“You’re on thin ice, Jax,” Leo growled.

“Is that right? Well, I have secrets I could share too, old man.”

Hunching his shoulders, Leo said, “I’m warning you, you do anything to hurt Mona and it’ll be the last thing you do.”

“Then give it back and we can drop this.”

Shooting a wary glance at us over his shoulder, Leo said, “I’ll think about it.”

“Better think fast. By tomorrow, it’ll be too late.”

Leo made a disgusted get-lost type of motion with his hand, and he turned and strode back inside the barn. His face was hard and his cheeks flushed, but his expression changed as he neared us. “Sorry about that. Just… uh… farm business.”

“You sure everything is okay?” Royce asked.

“Oh, sure. Sure.” Leo avoided looking at Royce.

After the horses were properly looked after, Leo shooed us back to our cabins to relax before dinner. I was relieved because my legs were already starting to hurt from riding. Royce and I took a shower to wash off the scent of horses, then dressed in jeans and warm flannel shirts. We sat out on the porch in the red rocking chairs, enjoying a complimentary beer from the fridge.

“What do you suppose Jax was so upset about?” I asked, sipping my beer.

“Lord knows.”

Sighing, I said, “It’s stressful to have so many people mad all the time.”

“I agree.” Royce frowned.

“At least they’re not mad at me, for once.” I laughed.

His cheek curved in a smile. “Nope.” His smile faded. “The atmosphere of the farm has never been like this before.”

“Have you noticed Jax always seems to be at the center of the strife?”

“Yep.”

“Did he work here the last time you were visiting?”

“Yep.” He sighed.

“Do you know much about Jax?” Down the way, I could make out Joe and his grandson sitting in the tree swing. The older man had his arm around the boy, and they seemed to be deep in conversation.

“Not really. He always seemed like the happy-go-lucky type.”

“Not today.”

“No. Not today.” He scowled. “The part that concerns me is Leo isn’t the type to get his feathers ruffled easily, but he was mad today. Really mad.”

“Yes. I wouldn’t want to cross him. He may be quiet, but he sounded scary when he was warning Jax.”

“Definitely.”

“He’s very protective of Mona.”

“Yeah, sometimes I wonder if those two had a thing.”

“I was wondering the same thing myself.”