Chapter 19
“That isn’t all you brought, is it?” Nate’s mom peeked back at his rental.
“For now,” Nate said, clutching the strap of his messenger bag. “The airport lost my luggage.”
“Oh, don’t you just hate that? That’s why I only fly with a carry-on these days.
Well, I think you’ve still got a few things in your old bedroom you can wear.
Plus, you can always pick up some clothes from Marty’s Mercantile if you need to.
And if all else fails, I’m sure I’ve got small enough shorts you can borrow. ” She elbowed him in the side.
This was something she always loved teasing him about. “My shorts are not that small.”
“You sure? That picture you sent in the spring after your half marathon showed a lot of leg.”
“They’re running shorts. They’re supposed to be like that.”
“Tell that to Barb. I showed her the picture at chess club and she went straight to confession because she said she felt like she’d ogled a half-naked man.
Of course, then she asked me to send the photo to her so she could print off paper copies and keep them in her purse to hand out to any single woman in the area that she thinks would be a good fit for you.
Heads up, I’m pretty sure Georgie and Barb have a date or two they’ve lined up for you while you’re home. ”
“I hope you’re joking.”
“I hope you’re joking. You’ve met Georgie and Barb, right?”
He had. Every time he came home. When they tried setting him up on a date. “Mom,” Nate said as he opened the front door, stepping aside to let her enter first, “I’m not here to date and mingle. I’m here to spend time with you and that’s it.”
He didn’t get the chance to say any more on the matter once he stepped inside. “Nate!” a voice shouted from the dining area, followed by an “About time!”
He didn’t have to look to know the voices belonged to Barb and Georgie.
Maybe because of her build, maybe because she spent a lot of time talking about her garden, Barb always put Nate in mind of a female real-life version of Bob the Tomato from VeggieTales.
So naturally the tall and slender Georgie, whose favorite color to wear was green, always reminded him of a female Larry the Cucumber.
“So happy you’re home,” Barb said with a giant smile, followed by a frown the further he stepped forward. “What happened to your head?”
“I think it suits you,” said Gus, who never put Nate so much in mind of a cartoon vegetable as he did one of those side characters in an old western who goes by a nickname like Stumpy. “Makes you look like even more of a foxy heart-breaking devil,” Gus added, lifting his coffee mug in a salute.
“Well, don’t just stand there. Come, come in.
” Georgie, dressed in a short-sleeved button-down emerald top, waved Nate to where they were all seated in the dining area.
It sat to the right of the entry and check-in desk.
Nate shot a quick glance to the stairway that led upstairs, then to the room on the left.
Interior hadn’t changed much since the day his mom took over the place years ago. Faded flowery wallpaper. Stiff furniture. Lots and lots of doilies.
“You can catch the tail end of our gardening club meeting,” said Georgie, still waving him closer to the long rectangular wooden table in the center of the dining room. “Barb was just about to explain the secret to growing a great watermelon.”
“Water,” Barb whispered, then placed her finger to her lips like it truly was a secret.
Nate adjusted his messenger bag on his shoulder and stepped further into the dining room, the scuffed wooden floorboards creaking with every movement.
Another woman about the same age as Georgie, Barb, and Gus peered back at him with a puckered smile that didn’t quite travel from her wrinkled cheeks to her eyes. Did VeggieTales have a sour pickle character? He couldn’t remember.
She was still looking him over through her wire-framed glasses when a young woman with dark hair and light brown skin seated next to her spoke up.
“So nice finally meeting you, Nate. I’m Evie.
” She rested a pair of knitting needles on her extremely protruding stomach so she could offer a handshake.
Nate guessed she was pregnant. But he also learned long ago to never guess that sort of thing out loud.
“Nice to meet you,” he said, stepping over to shake her hand.
“Alicia’s been talking about your visit nonstop for weeks,” Evie said when they dropped hands.
“And I’m Lottie,” said the sour pickle, who marched over and gripped his hand inside both of hers like she was running for mayor and counting on his vote.
“I lived here long ago, then moved to Franklin. I was very active in the community there, so I’m glad I can bring all that experience back home to Bugle in my shining golden years.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a couple urgent matters that need attending. It appears my work is never done.”
“Okay,” Nate said, not sure what else to say about shining golden years and urgent matters in a town with a population of less than a thousand.
“Come on. Let’s get you some food,” his mom said as soon as Lottie left.
“Okay.” That was the only thing to say when it came to his mom and food. She’d always been a wonder in the kitchen. She could whip up something delicious with nothing more than a mustard packet and a package of saltines.
“Oh, hey, Nate?” Gus said as they started for the kitchen. “Don’t worry about the wacky lady. I think she finally got fed up. Hasn’t tried calling for at least two hours now.”
“What wacky lady?” His mom screeched to a halt.
“Nobody,” Nate answered, hoping Gus would drop it.
“Your son’s got a stalker,” Gus said, apparently not ready to drop it, as his bushy eyebrows bounced up and down.
“Is she cute?” Mom said.
“Do I know her?” Georgie said.
“Did she get one of my flyers?” Barb said.
“She works at a hospital in Nebraska,” Nate said, knowing that would shut them down since they not only wanted to see Nate married with dozens of babies, they wanted to see Nate married with dozens of babies in Tennessee.
They all wrinkled their noses and swatted their hands. “Sounds terrible,” Barb muttered.
“Awful,” added Georgie.
“Probably doesn’t even garden,” said Barb.
“You want someone with roots,” said Georgie.
“Someone local,” said Evie, young but obviously catching on quick with this crew.
“Someone like Dolly.” Georgie snapped her fingers.
“Parton?” asked Gus.
“Golly,” Barb and Georgie said at the same time as if he should’ve known better.
Now Gus was wrinkling his nose. “You want Nate to marry one of the Golly twins?”
“Why not?” Georgie said. “Dolly’s a peach.”
“Or is it Molly that’s the peach?” said Barb.
“No, Molly’s the lemon. I think.” Georgie frowned. “I have such a hard time telling them apart until they start talking.”
“They’re both lemons once they start talking,” said Gus.
“Not Dolly. She’s adorable,” Georgie said. “Or is it Molly?”
“Either way they both need to get married just so their names aren’t Dolly and Molly Golly,” said Barb.
“Good point,” said Georgie. “Make sure that gets added to the minutes.”
His mom’s arm tightened around Nate’s. “You’ll have to finish taking the minutes yourself. I’m getting this boy some food.”
“In that case, meeting adjourned,” Georgie said. “Let’s plan to pick up where we left off next meeting, shall we?”
“You take minutes for a gardening club?” Nate whispered as soon as his mom led him away from the dining area and into the kitchen.
“Oh, honey. We take minutes for everything now that Lottie’s involved and Georgie feels like she’s got something to prove. I get the impression there’s an old rivalry that goes a long way back with those two.” She reached for a frying pan. “Now what sounds good?”
“Yes.”
“Everything. Got it,” she said with a smile.
Nate slid onto a stool at the kitchen island while she cracked an egg and glanced over her shoulder. “So? Tell me everything. What have you been up to? What happened to your head? Who are you dating? When does the airport think your luggage will get in?”
Nate rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses.
“Well, you know how busy I’ve been working on my PhD these past couple years.
That’s finally done. Then the past month I’ve pretty much been working around the clock getting everything wrapped up for the school year in Brooklyn and moving all my stuff up to the house I’m renting in Buffalo, so I can finish settling in later this summer and start gearing up for my new teaching position at the college in the fall. ”
His mom nodded, stirring the eggs in the frying pan with a spatula. “My goodness. You have been busy. And the other questions I asked?”
“Hoping to hear something back from the airport in the next day or two.”
“Keep going.”
“Huh? Oh. My head. Right. Some guy fell in some river while I was near some town in Nebraska.”
“You always did know how to paint a vivid picture with details. Continue.”
“The guy panicked, so I helped him out of the river. Then he panicked again and collided with my head afterward. That’s all.”
“Yeah, I’m going to need to hear much more of that story, but for now, go ahead with the other major talking point you still need to address.”
“Pretty sure I already told you about the missing luggage.”
“Had to do with dating.”
“What’s that? Got a bad ear. Doesn’t always pick up on everything.”
“Are you dating anyone? And since when do you have a bad ear?”
“Probably just plugged from the flight.”
“Who was the girl Gus was talking about?”
“Of course, a dunk in cold river water would turn any good ear bad.”
She snapped off the burner. “Fine. Be that way.” She dished his eggs onto a plate. “But I will get answers eventually.” Her phone dinged with a text message. She set the pan back on the stove and pulled her phone from her back pocket. Then frowned.
“What’s wrong?” Nate said around a bite of eggs.
“Just got an odd message from Shane.”
His cousin? “What’d he say?”
“Thanks for helping out. We all know how stubborn Mom can be. Earliest I can get out there is June twenty-seventh.” She looked up from her phone. “What in the world is he talking about?”
“Maybe he sent it to the wrong person.”
She texted a short response back. Her phone pinged with another message and she showed it to Nate. Mom didn’t tell you?!
“Aunt Susie didn’t tell you what?” Nate said after he read the message.
“No idea.” She typed back a reply. A half a minute later, her phone rang. “Susie’s calling.” She answered and placed the call on speaker. “Susie? What’s going on? Just got a strange text from Shane. Nate’s here by the way.”
“Hi, Nate!” Aunt Susie’s chirpy voice responded. “How you doing, honey? Dating anyone right now?”
Nate rolled his eyes, his mom laughed. “Hey, so what’s going on, sis? Just got a text from Shane.”
“Oh—” Susie made a pshh sound. “He’s all worked up over nothing. I’m having a little procedure. That’s all.”
Nate and his mom both leaned closer to the phone on the island. “What kind of procedure?”
“Just an elective-ish one. It’s going to be fine.”
“Elective-ish?” Nate said. “What does that mean?”
“Yeah, sis. Details. What exactly is this procedure?”
Aunt Susie sighed. “My cardiologist noticed a little something a while back. Not a big deal. She’s been keeping her eye on it.”
“And now all of a sudden she wants to do a procedure on it?” Nate asked.
“Well . . . I’ve been having a couple of dizzy spells lately. Nothing serious. But we thought we better take care of it before it becomes serious. Trust me, they do this type of procedure all the time. They said the mortality rate is pretty low.”
“Mortality rate!” his mom screamed. “Susie, what kind of heart procedure is this? Are they placing a stent like they did on Uncle Bob?”
“Yeah. Kind of like that. Only they’re not placing a stent. More like fixing a valve. And they won’t be going through a vessel. More like my sternum.”
Nate and his mom stared at each other for two beats. Then his mom picked up the phone and yelled, “Susie, are you having open-heart surgery?”
“Yeah. That’s more like what they’re calling it. And I’m having it this Friday.”