Page 23 of Vortex

Silas looks her over and laughs. “You found Estrella’s baking cabinet.”

Allegra looks surprised and asks how he knew.

“You smell like Estrella when she was baking, and you have flour in your hair. What did you make?”

Allegra immediately fusses with her hair. “I am baking crusty white bread. It will take another hour to rise and then thirty minutes to bake. If I’d known about that kitchen I would have brought ingredients to make a torte di mele. An apple cake.”

“Estrella was an old hand at apple pie, so I’d like to taste that cake of yours one day.” Silas gives Allegra a warm smile, and I can’t help but enjoy how these two are hitting it off. “Anyway, let’s get down to business. Vortex, I understand why you didn’t want the ranch a week ago, and I can sure see why you’re interested now. Good choice, son. Well done. Now, I understand where you are financially, but I have an offer that might suit us both.”

“You had the chance of this beautiful ranch, and you turned it down? Mamma Mia. What were you thinking? Maybe I have chosen a stupido for my man, eh?” Allegra looks as though she is ready to kill me, but before I get to defend myself, Silas is talking.

“Hang on there, missy. The offer last time came with some baggage. My idea this time still has an element of that, but I think I know a way out of it. Just hear me out, and then you can get your Italian Mafia or whoever to sort him out.” Silas laughs at the horrified look on her face.

“Mafia? I do not need the Mafia to sort him out. I can do things to him that no mafioso could dream of doing.” Allegra states, a little too proudly for my liking.

“Now, hear me out. Wait until I’m finished before you start jumping down my throat. It sounds like a helluva good idea to me and solves both our problems in one smart move.”

Allegra and I look at each other and we nod, though I doubt with every fiber of my being that she will stay silent until Silas is finished. I take my phone out and quickly search for something.

Satisfied, I say, “Okay, Silas. Let’s hear what you propose.”

“You buy fifty-one percent of the ranch for four-hundred thousand dollars.” He holds his hand up immediately to stop us from objecting to that figure. “That gives you control of the ranch and explains why you’re only paying that much. I agree to teach you about the ranching business and all that goes with it. That’s the easy part, now for the other.” He gives me a firm gaze as he begins.

“Vortex already knows that I don’t want my daughter, Marisela, or her no-good husband to benefit from the ranch after I’m dead. So, we put a clause in the contract that if anything happens to me, my share automatically goes to you two. To make it difficult for the lawyers to say that you coerced me into that, we also put in it that if anything happens to both of you, I get the ranch back. Now I ain’t gonna last much longer, I know my time’s coming to an end and I’m okay with that. I’ll be with my Estrella again and I’ll be able to rest in peace knowing that Marisela didn’t get a bunch of cash and go and kill herself on some wild drug and alcohol fueled party somewhere. Well, let’s hear it. What are you gonna pick at?”

“You will need to take a wage for teaching me things. I cannot accept that you would do this for nothing,” Allegra states forcefully, then tells us to hold our thoughts while she looks at the bread.

When she’s back, I ask, “Now, what about this wage?”

“Well, about that. See, what I was thinking was, maybe I could take my meals with you and live in the bunkhouse the rest of the time?” Allegra explodes, and I mean explodes. I was not prepared for her reaction, and by the look of Silas neither was he.

“Neanche per sogno! Not even in your dreams. No. I will not consider this. Why are you not saying something, my man? How can you sit there and say nothing to this ridiculousness? The man has lost his grasp of what is real.” I can’t get a word in, she is ranting so much.

“I’m sorry, Allegra. I obviously didn’t think it through,” Silas manages to squeeze in somehow, and his face is red with embarrassment.

“Think it through? Non ci penso proprio! I'm not even thinking about it! I would not accept such an idea. You!” She jumps from her chair and almost sticks her finger up my nose, she’s pointing at me so close. “You! You still sit there with nothing to say. This man, this good and proud and excellent man, he expects to be removed from his own home, and you sit there with nothing to say?”

Standing and looking her in the eye, I say, “Stai zitta!”

Allegra looks shocked for a moment, and then the anger returns, but I state it again, more firmly this time, while pointing to her chair. “Stai zitta, Allegra.”

She drops into the chair, but her eyes flash with anger.

“Silas. What Allegra is trying to say, and failing miserably because of her temper, is that we wouldn’t expect you to leave the ranch house. There is no way we would ask that of you. If we can’t make it work so that we’re all in the ranch house then we will move into the bunkhouse to sleep or build a cabin somewhere. You are not leaving your home under any circumstances, unless it’s in a box!”

Silas nods at me. “Okay, fine, except for the box. One thing though. What does stay zitting mean?”

Allegra stands and comes nose to nose with me, then looks at Silas. “Stai zitta. It means shut up, Silas. It also means my man has a translation app set to Italian on his phone.” Looking back at me, she smiles sweetly. “That worked because you took me by surprise. It won’t happen again, my man.” She kisses my nose, pushes me into my chair, then sits on my lap.

We spend another hour throwing suggestions at each other, and eating the wonderful crusty bread with the chili that Silas had on the stove. Eventually, all three of us think we have a working solution to purchasing the ranch, starting Allegra on her way to a successful horse ranching business, and how we will all live together while doing it.

Chapter 14

*~* Allegra *~*

Iam so excited about my life right now, I can’t keep still. My energy is through the roof and if I don’t burn some off, Vortex will be in for another marathon of sex tonight. I doubt very much he will complain about it, though.

Barbara has come to the clubhouse to eat tonight with Cannon and Howie, naturally. She wanted an evening away from the house and any chores, for which I don’t blame her. I was so excited by our news of the ranch that I had to keep stopping to catch my breath. Even now, I’m not sure what I’ve told her and what I may have missed.