Page 62 of Silos and Sabotage

By now, it was apparent to Ella that her grandfather had forgotten all about his promise to yield an upper-level balcony to her and Gage for their dinner date. Either that, or he’d been joking about doing so in the first place.

Gage and Johnny stayed glued to her as they approached the table. Ignoring the monogrammed place cards in front of the gold-rimmed dinner plates, they claimed the chairs on either side of her.

Uncle Raleigh gave them a sardonic look and claimed the spot directly across from her. After a short disagreement, her mother and grandfather decided to claim the chairs on either side of Raleigh. They immediately returned to their bickering, leaning both in front of him and behind him to send their verbal jabs at each other.

Ella’s uncle caught her gaze and gave her a slight head shake. It was as if he was silently apologizing for them.

Unlike Ella, her mother had her two bodyguards standing like soldiers against the walls, one on each side of the dining room table. Their expressions were bland and impersonal. All they did was scour the room and occasionally blink. They were present strictly to do their jobs.

Interestingly enough, her mother and grandfather paused their squabble long enough for him to say grace. Two women in chef hats sailed into the room with baskets of steaming dinner rolls, followed by plates of salad and sliced black watermelon. After the appropriate amount of time had passed, they returned with artfully arranged plates of lobster, fillet mignon, and asparagus.

Johnny was the first to interrupt the constant stream of barbs flying between Ella’s mother and grandfather. He leaned conversationally closer to Raleigh, which put one of his broad shoulders nearly in Ella’s plate.

Though she discreetly tried to elbow him back into his spot, he didn’t budge. “We’ve been seeing repurposed silos pop up all across town.”

Raleigh’s smile was half bored. “Recycling at its finest.” He reached for his glass of sparkling water and swirled it in his hand instead of taking a sip.

“How many more do you have to sell?” Johnny probed. “After seeing what they did out at the animal rescue sanctuary, I’m half tempted to take one off your hands and turn it into a bachelor pad.”

Ella nudged him again. “I wasn’t aware you were in the market for a piece of land.” She recalled him bragging once about how content he was with apartment living, where someone else had to mow the grass and make the repairs.

Johnny gave her a playful look. “What you don’t know about me, darling, could fill volumes.” He returned his attention to Raleigh, shaking his head and muttering, “Women!”

He sounded like such a backwoods nitwit that Ella inwardly cringed.

Raleigh watched their exchange. “You passed four silos on your way here that we’re about to put up for sale. Tall. Silver. Galvanized steel. There’s no way you could’ve missed them.”

Uh, newsflash! Most people don’t pay any attention to a bunch of dumb silos.Ella found his I-own-the-world attitude a little nauseating. If she, Gage, and Johnny hadn’t been discussing the decades-old disagreement between the Bolanders and Radcliffes on their drive to dinner, she very easily could’ve overlooked them.

Ella’s mother leaned back in her seat, tuning into their exchange with a hard expression. Silos were a sensitive topic with these two families, and Johnny knew it. Why was he purposely rattling that particular hornets’ nest?

“Nah, I didn’t miss ‘em.” He drummed his fingers noisily on the table. “They’re just not what I’m looking for. They’re too big.”

Though all Raleigh did was elevate his eyebrows a fraction, Johnny took it as an invitation to keep talking. “I was hoping for something smaller.” Though it was completely unnecessary, he demonstrated with his hands. “No more than fourteen or fifteen feet wide and maybe ten or twelve feet tall. I’d take two of them in a heartbeat.”

Ella was struck by how specific Johnny’s measurements were.

“Sorry.” Raleigh’s mouth tightened. “We don’t have anything in the storage shed size.” His tone was borderline condescending.

As much as Ella didn’t want to agree with him, she couldn’t imagine turning something that small into living quarters.

“Maybe we do.” Creston Bolander jumped into the conversation, wagging a finger expressively at his son. “What about those two silos in the east pasture?”

Raleigh’s expression darkened a few degrees. “Those clunkers are falling in. For safety reasons alone, I wouldn’t recommend doing anything other than taking a wrecking ball to them.”

“If you say so.” Mr. Bolander held up his hands apologetically. “I was only trying to be helpful.”

“Helpful!” Avery Radcliffe gave him a sharp look. “I applaud your son’s priorities in elevating safety over profits.”

“Thank you, my dear.” Though Raleigh agreed with her, the endearment he added to his comment made her stiffen in renewed anger.

Ella kicked Johnny under the table. What was he doing, and why wasn’t Gage jumping in to steer the conversation in another direction?They hadn’t come to dinner to rip scabs from old wounds, for pity’s sake! They were supposed to be trying to keep the peace.

Again, Johnny ignored her. “Falling in?” His eyes widened innocently. “I thought those old steel cans were indestructible.” He waved his hands some more. “In the old days, they were sunk into a few feet of concrete, and?—”

“They’re not indestructible, which is why they’re slotted for the dump.” Raleigh informed him so coldly that it was clear he had no more to say on the topic.

Ella held her breath, praying that the message had gotten through to Johnny’s thick skull.

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