How to Stuff a Wild Zucchini

by Heather Horrocks

  “Of course. But I want children, Dad. This is a hard concept for me to swallow—a whole lifetime of no children.”

  “That is a tough one.”

  “Plus part of me feels like Lori lied by not telling me before, even though I can understand why she wouldn’t.”

  His father put a big hand on John’s shoulder. “Marriage is all about learning. In fact, I’ve heard it said your spouse is your greatest opportunity for spiritual growth. They do things that drive you to your knees. Even your saintly mother has done things that I’ve thought I might not be able to get over. You’ve just gotten one of those moments before the wedding ceremony, that’s all. You’ll have a head start on your marriage when it takes place.”

  John sighed. “I know I’ll marry Lori. Of course I will. I just need some time to get used to this new view.”

  His father nodded. “Lori’s a good woman who’s also hurting. The fact that she can’t have children must be very hurtful to her, especially when you want them so much. And you always have, from the time you were a little boy. I remember at your kindergarten graduation when all the kids went up to the microphone and said what they wanted to be when they grew up and you walked up and said you wanted to be a dad.”

  John closed his eyes. Why did this have to be so hard?

  His father said, “There’s always adoption.”

  “I know.”

  “If you adopt, they’ll become the children of your heart. You’ve already seen how that can happen.” His father sighed. “Look, son, it’s okay to be upset. It’s okay to take time to make the right decision. It’s even okay if you don’t feel you can adopt.”

  “I just need time to get used to the idea, that’s all.”

  They sat in silence for a moment.

  Finally, John said, “This is the hardest disappointment I’ve ever had to deal with.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I wish I could do more to help you.” His father squeezed his shoulder. “But I have faith in you. You’re a good man, John, and I know you’ll do the right thing.”

  His father climbed out of the truck and walked back toward his house.

  John sat there, aching. He still needed to talk with someone. Someone who could provide comfort for his broken heart.

  His Father.

  But before he could close his eyes to pray, the radio crackled into life.

  ~

  Lori picked up her phone on the second ring.

  “Lori, it’s me. John.”

  She blinked back tears. It had only been a few hours since she’d told him the truth, but she’d gone through torture waiting for the call. “Hi.”

  Her voice came out barely above a whisper. She didn’t know if he was calling to tell her he wanted to break things off or to tell her everything would be all right.

  She could barely hear him, there was so much noise on his end of the line.

  “I wanted you to know that our department has been called to the Uintah Mountains to help fight a huge brush fire. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but I’ll call you when I get back.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  He wasn’t giving her the clues she needed as to how he felt.

  “It might be a couple of days before I can call again, but I will as soon as I get back. Don’t give up on me, okay?”

  “I won’t,” she said, wishing she could trust him to come back, to forgive her.

  “Lori, I love you.”

  “I love you, too, John.”

  “Gotta go, they’ve got the plane ready to fly over.”

  She hung up the phone, disturbed. She knew he loved her. But did he love her enough to pursue a future with no children? Until she knew the answer to that question, she couldn’t relax.

  She suspected the next few days would be torture while she waited for her man to come home, for him to decide if he really wanted her.

  ~

  Out in the garden, Lori pulled what surely must be the last weed in the entire yard and wondered when she’d started using gardening to relax.

  It had been three days since John had called, and she had cleaned everything inside and weeded everything outside trying to calm her nerves.

  When she heard a vehicle that sounded like it had pulled into the driveway and then shut off, her heart pounded.

  John! He’d come back!

  She peeled off her gardening gloves and dropped them as she raced for the gate. Moving around the house quickly, it took a moment for reality to strike: the vehicle wasn’t John’s truck and the visitor wasn’t John.

  A taxi sat in the driveway and the driver, a man about Lori’s age, was opening the trunk. The passenger stood by the side of the car. He was an older man—in his sixties, she’d guess—and not much taller than Lori. His unruly gray hair reminded her a little of Doc Brown’s in Back to the Future, though not quite as wild.

  As Lori walked across the lawn, the older man looked at her, smiled, and extended his hand. “You must be Lori Scott.”

  “I am,” she said as she shook his hand. But who was he?

  “Charles Dobson.”

  “Oh. Oh. I didn’t expect you yet.” He looked different from his grainy picture in the newspaper.

  “Yes, well, I’ve returned from my trip a wee bit early.”

  A wee bit, eh? Over two weeks early, but who was counting?

  He picked up two bags and walked to the front door. Lori and the driver followed him with more luggage. Charles definitely did not travel light. There were more bags still on the grass.

  After all the bags had been deposited in the living room and the taxi driver paid and gone, Charles said, “I believe the job description was for three months. I certainly don’t want my unexpected return to interfere with our agreement. I’m happy to go to a hotel—or pay for a hotel room for you, if you would prefer.”

  “Oh, no. Really. That won’t be necessary.”

  “I am so very glad to be home. China is an absorbing country, but truly, there is no place like home.”

  Lori looked around his living room again, the old-fashioned room that had seemed so foreign and hopelessly outdated when she arrived. Now it seemed cozy. It felt like home. “I can see why you wanted to come back.”

  “Yes. To my home and my girl, Fluffy.”

  He’d come home for his cat? The one that wouldn’t leave Agatha’s yard? Boy, was he going to be disappointed.

  “And Ben. How is he?”

  “He still runs great.” And after dark, when people couldn’t see him.

  “I would like to see what you’ve done with my column while I’ve been gone.” He started down the hall, only to stop. “Oh, my, you probably want to finish out the rest of your columns, don’t you?”

  “The columns? Well, no, I guess not—not with you back.” The last thing she needed was a professional gardener looking over her shoulder and seeing the convoluted way she faked her work.

  He smiled. “Thank you, my dear. I do feel ready to resume writing to my many fans. I’ve missed them.”

  She pulled out the folder containing the clippings of her articles.

  He settled on the den sofa. As he read, his eyebrows raised and he uttered an occasional “Oh, my!”

  “Do you like what I’ve done?” she asked, surprisingly worried he wouldn’t.

  “You have a very interesting style, my dear. But, yes. I like it. I suspect my hard-core fans were a bit shaken, but no doubt others have enjoyed it immensely.”

  “You’re very aware of your fans. That’s exactly what Mr. Neal said happened.”

  He pulled out the last few clippings and read on.

  Freezing in place, he raised his eyebrows. “I notice my zucchini chicken curry recipe made it into print.”

  “Agatha said you’d bee
n promising to put the recipe into your column and that you’d just forgotten. She said you’d be glad I put it in.”

  “Oh, she did, did she?” He turned to Lori, but she couldn’t read his expression. Was he upset? Amused? Worried? “Agatha has been trying to obtain this recipe from me for years—as well as my cat. Well, we’ll see about that.”

  Lori pressed both palms to her face. She’d screwed up big-time. “Charles, I’m so sorry.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, dear. You’re not to blame. But now, if you’ll excuse me, I have something to settle.”

  Through the window, she watched him do a funny little jumping walk over to Agatha’s door. She really should call and warn the older woman, but there wasn’t time now.

  Suddenly feeling empty, Lori sighed. Charles was surely disappointed in her. Soon Agatha would be upset with her, too. And it had been three days since John had looked at her with such hurt in his eyes and then disappeared.

  She knew from everything he’d said and everything she’d observed that he did not want an infertile woman, but he was too nice of a guy to know how to break it off with her.

  Her heart wrenched. She needed to do the right thing. For his sake. He deserved to have children.

  With Charles back, she was free to leave. And if she left now, gave John back his ring, freed him from the promise he’d made before he knew the truth, he could marry Dawn and have the children he wanted so much.

  It was the unselfish thing for her to do. She couldn’t give him children of her own. But she could give him back the opportunity to have them with someone else.

  Though her heart wrenched again, Lori knew she was doing the right thing. It was time to go home. Back to her mother’s home in Schenectady.

  Back to a world without John.

  Chapter Thirty

  Two hours later, Charles had not returned and Lori had done

  everything she needed to before leaving: stacked her packed suitcases and large black duffle bag along the living room wall, put new sheets on Charles’s bed and washed, dried, and folded the others.

  As she wiped off the kitchen table and counters one last time, Lori called Serena to tell her good-bye. After expressing her sympathetic disappointment, Serena offered to drive her to the Salt Lake airport.

  “Thanks. I’ll have to call to see when the earliest flight is . . . and I’d like to stop at John’s house first.”

  “I’ll drive you wherever and whenever you need to go, amiga. You call and let me know what time you want to leave, and I’ll be there.”

  “Don’t you have classes?”

  “Don’t worry about my classes and my schedule. I want to be there for you, so I will be there.”

  “Salsa girl to the rescue, huh?”

  “You’d better believe it, chica de calabacín. That’s ‘zucchini chick,’ in case you don’t know.”

  Thankful for her new friend’s support, Lori called the airport and made a reservation for the five o’clock flight. That gave her a couple of hours before she’d need to leave for the airport. She called Serena back with the info.

  Hanging up the phone, she went into the living room to wait for Serena to arrive. Her belongings filled the two suitcases, the duffle bag, and four big boxes stacked and ready to pack in Serena’s car.

  Looking out the window, she saw Charles walking slowly back from Agatha’s house. It had begun to drizzle.

  Surprised, she saw he carried Fluffy in his arms. And she wondered what on earth Agatha had said to him—or he to her—to put such a smug smile on his face.

  ~

  “Land sakes, girl. Come in out of the rain.”

  Lori stepped into Agatha’s living room, her clothes barely damp. The details of the room stood out as vividly as they had the first time she’d been here—the wicker love seat and chairs, the soft flowered cushions, the knickknacks—but for a totally different reason. Today, she was nostalgic, and she still had the good-bye ahead.

  “Would you like some lemonade, sweetie? You look a little peaked.”

  Lori smiled. “That’s what you asked me the day I arrived.”

  “Well, I do like a good glass of hand-squeezed lemonade.”

  “So do I. Thanks, I’d love one.”

  Agatha bustled from the room, and soon was back with two glasses. Lori took one and sipped. “Fabulous.”

  Lori no longer believed her first impression of Agatha as everyone’s grandma. No, Agatha was a savvy woman who kept herself spry and active, both physically and mentally.

  As Agatha settled herself on the love seat, setting two coasters down on the glass-topped, wicker-based table, Lori tried not to think about Dawn, the beautiful, redheaded fertility goddess waiting in the wings to marry John and give him a passel of kids with red hair instead of blonde.

  Lori forced a smile. “I came over to tell you good-bye. With Charles back, there’s no reason for me to stay. I’m going home.”

  “My dear, what about John? He seems like a pretty good reason to me.”

  Lori didn’t want to go there, not even with Agatha. “I’m curious—what did you say to Charles? He chatted with me and was super nice—but he didn’t seem overly happy when he left my place . . . his place. But when he returned, he was smiling.”

  Agatha’s smile was luminous. “I don’t suppose I ever brought up the subject of Charlie with you, did I?”

  “His recipe. His silliness in going to China. Things like that.”

  “Ah, but there’s a story behind all of that.”

  Lori chuckled and tilted her head. “I would love to hear this story.”

  “Charlie came over here today to keep his part of a bargain we made two years ago.”

  “Why do I think this isn’t going to be any normal kind of bargain?”

  Agatha laughed. “Because you are incredibly perceptive, my dear. No, this is definitely not the normal kind of bargain because ours has not been the normal sort of courtship.”

  Lori raised an eyebrow. “Courtship?”

  “He came over today to ask for my hand in marriage. And I accepted.” Agatha sighed deeply, putting her hand to her heart melodramatically. The older woman was obviously enjoying every moment of the story. “Romantic, isn’t it?”

  Surprised, Lori said, “Charles proposed?”

  “It was about time. We’ve known each other all our lives. Went to school together. And we started dating three years ago. ”

  “Really.”

  Agatha just smiled.

  “He seemed upset when he left my house.”

  “He was pretending to be a tad angry when he reached my door, too.” Agatha smiled. “But as you can tell, it all worked out for the best.”

  “I am so happy for you. I guess that trip to China made him realize what was really important to him.”

  Agatha shot her an amused look. “Actually, we’re back to the bargain now.”

  “Ah, the not-so-normal bargain. I can hardly wait to hear the details.”

  Agatha took another slow sip. “Well, after the man had courted me for a year, and had not had the decency of offering a proposal, I told him it was high time he got around to it. In return, he got a trifle snippy and told me that he would not be pushed.” Agatha motioned to Lori. “You might want to put down your cup, dear.”

  Not sure why, Lori did as Agatha suggested.

  Agatha continued. “Charlie told me he loves a resourceful woman, and so—here comes the bargain—if I could get my hands on a certain zucchini chicken curry recipe of his, then he would propose. I was too proud to go looking for it until you came. But it seems he’d hidden it in plain sight, hoping I’d find it, or that someone would. And, two years later, you came along to help us.”

  Glad now that she’d put down the cup so she didn’t spill the lemonade as she
started to laugh, Lori said, “You are so very sneaky, Agatha McCrea. You used me to get that recipe. You played me like a Stradivarius. And so did Charles. I love it.”

  “You merely helped me keep my side of the bargain.” Agatha settled back into the cushions with a satisfied smile. “And so Charlie, being a man of honor, if not of great speed, came over this day to keep his.”

  Lori couldn’t stop laughing, and Agatha joined her with a few chuckles of her own.

  Finally, Lori wiped her eyes. “Oh, thank you. I needed that today. At least one of us is going to end up with a happily ever after.”

  “You’ll have yours, too, my dear. And you and John are young enough to have it all. You’ll get married, have a family, enjoy many years together. All Charlie and I will have is our cats. Well, and our passion for gardens. And our romance novels.”

  “I’m giving John back his ring.”

  Agatha gasped. “Young lady, tell me what is wrong between you and your young man. You changed the subject before, and I expect you not to do so again.”

  The laughter seemed to have opened any barriers between the two women, not that there were many left, and Lori was relieved to share her burden.

  “I didn’t tell John the truth about me. I didn’t tell anyone. But after seeing John holding his brother’s baby, well, I told John what I should have told him when he proposed.” Lori’s voice trembled. “I can’t have children. Not ever.”

  “Oh, I am sorry, Lori. I didn’t know or I would never have said anything about a family.” Agatha frowned. “What did he say?”

  “He said we’d get through this together, but he needed time to think things through. He called to tell me he was going to the Uintah Mountains to fight a fire.” Lori shook her head. “But I saw the look on his face when I told him the truth. He’s going to want his ring back. He won’t get over this.”

  “Oh, land sakes, no, sweetie. He’s a good man. Give him a few days to work things through in his man’s mind and he’ll be back with flowers in his hand.”

  “I wish that were the case.” But it had been three days already. Surely he could call from the mountains, if he really wanted to. Lori had no hope left. She shrugged. “I couldn’t wait two years, anyway.”