Nine

Juli paced in the emergency waiting room while her father sat in a chair reading a magazine, but she witnessed tension in his face. At the house the EMT gave Alan a shot of epinephrine before taking him to the ambulance. Garlic. It had to be. Before she and her father left, her mother had been distraught, promising she’d put very little garlic in the pesto sauce.

“I added oil, pine nuts, basil, and just a pinch of garlic,” she’d said.

Juli’s frustration had reached its peak. “Our whole lives revolve around the rotten stuff.”

“Juliana!” she’d snapped. “It’s garlic that gave you this good life. I don’t want to hear you talk like that.”

“I’m sorry, Mom. It’s just that—” How could she have explained that she’d allowed garlic to cause her so much unhappiness?

Pushing away her thoughts, Juli drew in a lengthy breath and plopped back into the chair beside her father.

He lifted his head from the magazine. “Alan will be fine, Juli. I’ve never heard of anyone dying from garlic.” He patted her hand and gave her a gentle-hearted smile.

She pressed her hand against his. “I know.”

She hung her head and closed her eyes. Juli wanted someone to blame for her troubles, but she had to face the truth. She had caused most of her own undoing. She’d blamed her mother for the sauce even though she’d made an effort to adjust the ingredients. She’d blamed garlic for all the problems in her life, and now that she looked back, she’d probably caused her own lack of friendships, just as Dill had said. When her confidence flagged, she’d apparently become all business, in some way putting up a wall to avoid being hurt. How many people had she rejected because of the barricade she’d set up for herself?

College had been the same story. She’d wanted to go so badly but blamed her parents for not encouraging her. She’d put her dreams on hold for them, but was it really a fear of failure? Lord, am I missing opportunities because of fear? If so, I haven’t trusted You. Help me to see clearly.

“Is someone waiting for Alan Louden?”

Juli spun around. “Yes.” She rushed to the waiting room doorway and stepped into the hall with the doctor.

“Mr. Louden had dinner with you tonight.”

“Yes. At my parents’ house.”

“He said he ate pasta. Could you give me more details?”

She explained about the meal, including the pasta dish. “Alan told me he had a problem with garlic.”

“His reaction isn’t from garlic.”

“Not garlic?”

“That causes some stomach problems, and garlic dust can cause asthma symptoms, but Mr. Louden’s problem was anaphylaxis.”

“Anaphylaxis?”

“It’s a severe and potentially fatal allergic reaction.”

Juli felt breathless as her pulse accelerated. “Fatal?”

He nodded. “I’m afraid so. If he hadn’t gotten here when he did, there would have been no guarantee. But don’t worry—he’s doing fine. He’s been treated with corticosteroids, and he’ll be able to go home, but he needs to carry an EpiPen with him. Certain nuts can cause this kind of allergic reaction, not garlic.”

“Alan ate pesto sauce. It has pine nuts.”

“Pine nuts. Now I understand. I’ll talk with him about that.”

Her shock gave way to relief. “Thank you, Doctor.”

“You can see him in a few minutes. I’ll send a nurse down.”

“We’ll be here. Thank you.”

He walked away, and Juli stood there reeling with the news. Fatal. And more likely pine nuts than garlic. She turned and stepped back inside the waiting room.

“It’s not the garlic,” she told her dad. She sat beside him, and her tears broke through as she explained the news to her father. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and let her weep against his chest. When she gained control, she sat up and wiped her eyes. “Sorry, Dad, but it was such a shock to hear the doctor say fatal.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I’m shocked, too.” He patted her hand. “You really like this fellow, don’t you?”

She saw something new in her father’s eyes, tenderness she’d never noticed before. Swallowing her emotions, she nodded. “I do, but I don’t want to rush anything, and I don’t want to get hurt.”

“Put it in the Lord’s hands, honey. Listen to God in your heart, and you’ll do okay.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder. “Thanks, Daddy.”

Juli sat there, resting against her father’s chest and feeling safe and loved. Sadness washed over her as she thought how often she’d felt angry with him for his control when she’d been as much to blame for not expressing her desires and dreams to her parents.

“Juli Maretti.”

The nurse’s voice startled her. She pulled away from her dad and rose. “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said, hurrying toward the nurse.

“Don’t rush,” her dad said. “I’ll call your mom. I know she’s sitting by the phone.”

The nurse’s shoes scuffed along the corridor as Juli followed. The woman punched a button, and the emergency room doors opened. Juli stayed close behind her. White curtains divided the room into spaces, and they passed three before the woman stopped and pulled back the drape.

Juli stepped inside, and when she saw Alan, tears pooled in her eyes. “How are you feeling?” she asked, trying to control the quake in her voice.

“Much better now. I’m so sorry for this, and I’m totally embarrassed. Your parents must think I’m an oddball.”

“No, they don’t. They’re concerned. Daddy’s in the waiting room, calling Mom. I know she’s worried.” She rested her hand on his arm. “The doctor said you can go home.”

“Good. I have medication, and I’ll be fine now, but it came on so quickly I couldn’t talk. I felt as if my throat had closed, and I couldn’t breathe. I’ve never experienced that before.”

She sat on the edge of the chair beside his bed. “And don’t do it again, okay?”

Alan grinned. “I’ll vote for that.” His eyes searched hers. “It wasn’t garlic, you know.”

Her chest tightened at his smile. “I heard. He suspects pine nuts were the culprit.” She brushed a strand of hair from his forehead.

“I’ve eaten nuts all my life. I assumed the problem was garlic. Not fair to judge without having all the facts.”

“We do that all the time, don’t we?”

He nodded as if understanding she meant far more than judging food.

The curtain shifted, and the doctor she’d met stepped into the cubicle. “You look much better. How are you feeling now?”

“Almost like new.”

“You’ll need to make an appointment with an allergist and go through the testing, but my guess is pine nuts. They come from a family that’s different from most nuts, so often people don’t realize they have an allergic reaction until times like this. It’s good your girlfriend was on her toes.”

Juli opened her mouth then closed it when Alan gave her a wink.

He tore a sheet from his prescription pad. “Here’s the name of an allergist in Monterey you can call, unless you have someone else in mind.”

Alan glanced at the paper and grinned. “I know him. He works with me at Community Hospital.”

“I’ll send him your records.”

“Thanks.”

The doctor slipped the prescription pad into his pocket. “I suppose you’d like to get out of here.”

Alan smiled. “I can’t wait.”

The doctor grinned at Juli. “I think I can leave you in the hands of this lovely young woman if you’d like to go.”

Juli felt the same old heat rise on her neck. Lovely young woman. One day she hoped she could accept a compliment without blushing.

❧

Alan leaned against the chaise lounge on Juli’s balcony and licked the fork. “This cake was delicious.” He set the plate on a table beside him. “We should have stayed down with your mom and dad. They’re probably disappointed.”

“They understand. They’re both happy you’re okay.”

Alan brushed strands of hair from his forehead. “I’m mortified that I scared them like that. I’ll make an appointment with the allergist tomorrow, but until I learn differently, I know not to eat pine nuts.”

“You’ll have to be careful and check ingredients on any food that might have them.”

“I will.” His gaze drifted to the hilly landscape beyond the house. The sun had sunk below the mountain, and now the expanse of green trees had darkened to blue and the landscape lay in shadows. The sky had colored like an artist’s palette of Southwest colors—orange, coral, and deep purple, reminding him of Juli’s living room.

He watched Juli gazing at the sky. “The view is gorgeous. You’ll miss that if you move away.”

Her shoulders lifted in a sigh. “I know, but I’ll never be who I want to be if I don’t. You’ve met my parents, and you can see they are strong people.”

“But strong in a good way. They’ve stuck together and made a wonderful life for you. I admire that.”

She nodded. “I know, and that’s why it makes leaving difficult. I’m not sure they’ll understand.”

A question niggled his thoughts, and this seemed as good a time as any to ask. “Juli, why are you so uptight about your father’s business? It’s more than wanting to be a social worker.”

Her head shot up as if she’d been stung by a bee. “What do you mean?”

“You told me your father sold produce. You said he had a store. You never told me he had garlic farms and a huge shop that made him a wealthy man. I was bowled over when I pulled up to the house today. I almost wanted to leave.”

“Leave? Why?”

“I’m not wealthy, for one thing.”

“Neither am I, Alan. My parents are.”

“But mine never were. I grew up in a whole different world from yours, Juli. I’m rattled by the assumption I made, thinking you were trying to hide your poverty from me, a poverty I knew so well as a kid. I’m hurt that—”

“I’m sorry, but poverty or wealth makes no difference to me. I like you for who you are and not for how much money you have.”

He straightened his back. “I’m happy to hear that, but along with everything else, you’ve been evasive. I pictured your family working in a little store that sold produce. Your life seemed on the same level as mine. You—”

“I’m going to move, Alan, and then I’ll be really poor the way you want me.”

He gave her a placating grin. “I don’t want you poor, but I thought you were. Anyway, you’ll never be poor. Your father—”

She drew back as if he’d slapped her. “I know it seems I’ve lived off my father, but I pay rent and work hard. I’m finally getting the gumption to make changes, and all I can do is hope the Lord will bless me.”

Silence hung on the air except for the buzzing of cicadas filling the night sky.

“You’re right.” He leaned forward and folded his hands on his knees. “You’re being positive, and I’m dragging along my old memories instead of accepting my blessings.”

She didn’t respond for a moment. “Me, too, Alan. We’re all lugging the old baggage around.” She tilted back her head and rubbed her neck then released a lengthy sigh. “Maybe I should try to explain what’s bothered me for so long.”

He swung his legs over the edge of the chaise lounge and motioned her to his side. She rose, and they sat together facing the foothills and the first stars of evening.

“I wasn’t popular in high school. I had bookish friends. The popular kids called us nerds.”

Disbelieving, he shifted his gaze to her dark curling hair and her lovely mouth that so often curved to a smile for him. “You’re kidding.”

“I wouldn’t kid about something like that. When the popular kids gave parties, I wasn’t invited. It hurt me.”

“Did you ever think they were envious?”

Her hand flew to her chest. “Envious of me? Now you’re kidding.”

He grasped her shoulders and turned her to face him. “I can’t believe you don’t know how amazing you are. You’re beautiful, Juli. Inside and out.” His eyes swept over her frame, her slender body, the slope of her delicate shoulders, her graceful neck covered by the dark curling waves.

She didn’t speak, and her eyes searched his as if she were waiting for his admission of a cruel joke.

Alan opened his heart. “I’m startled you really don’t know this.”

“My family never looked for outward beauty. We grew up to be grateful for God’s goodness to us. My dad worked hard. He was a wonderful employer and had good workers who returned every harvest. I never judged people that way.”

He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “But others do. People try to undercut things that are a threat to them.”

“I’ve never been a threat. Many of those kids’ families had money. Maybe it was my personality. I was quiet. I know you don’t see that now, but I was. I didn’t have a lot of confidence. I didn’t dress the way they did. I was different, so how could I be a threat?”

“Your goodness is a threat because it makes you stand out. People can ignore those who aren’t a threat, those who aren’t in their way to success, but they plot a course to wipe out competition. You must have been an amazing threat to those people. Were they all as wealthy as your family?”

“Wealthy? You mean with money, right?”

He nodded, astounded at her philosophy, a wonderful one he had to admit, and it made him care about her even more.

“No. Many of them lived in smaller houses, but I never flaunted my home.”

“You didn’t have to. They saw it and your life as better than theirs, and they couldn’t handle it.”

She shook her head. “I can’t believe that.”

“You can’t understand it. That’s all.” His mind shifted back to earlier in the evening. “Your dad started to tell me something about your being the Gilroy High Garlic Queen. What’s that all about?”

“That was the worst.”

“What do you mean ‘the worst’? Wasn’t that an honor?”

“Yes, it was a big honor because the Gilroy High Garlic Queen also participated in the garlic festival each year in July.”

“Did they pick someone or—”

Her eyes widened. “No, it was a vote. The whole school voted.”

“And you won.” His mind spun with confusion. The whole school voted, and she won. He couldn’t understand her problem.

“It turned out to be a plot to embarrass me.”

“A plot? The whole school was in on a plot?”

She lowered her eyes, and he waited while she pondered what he’d asked. When she lifted her head, he saw confusion in her eyes. “That’s what I thought when it happened.”

“You assumed that those who taunted you controlled the vote.”

“They were popular and usually did.”

Alan tilted her chin upward to look in her eyes. “Apparently not this time. The underclassmen voted for the person they liked and thought was worthy of the title.”

She nodded. “I learned the truth later. The underclassmen were tired of the snobbishness and decided to vote for me, but the others—the popular kids—decided to make sure I won.”

“Why?”

“The king always presented the queen with a bouquet of roses, but that year it wasn’t roses.”

“Okay.” He hung on her every word and waited.

“It was roses and garlic bulbs.”

“Garlic bulbs.” He chuckled. “You mean the things that look like onions?”

Her face filled with mortification.

“That’s inventive. Why didn’t you laugh?”

“How could I? I was horrified.”

“Why? They gave you the flowers, dear Juli. If anyone was at fault, it was the person who gave you the flowers.”

“He and a couple of others were suspended and missed the graduation ceremony, but meanwhile I could never let it go.” Her eyes widened. “The other day a girl I knew in high school came into the store with a college sorority friend. Guess how she introduced me.”

“The Gilroy High Garlic Queen?”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “The one who received the garlic and rose bouquet.”

Alan drew her into his arms. “I love it. What could be more perfect for a garlic queen than a rose and garlic bouquet?”

Her eyes widened as if discovering a truth. “You love it now that you know.”

In a moment she began to laugh, and Alan drew her closer, enjoying every moment.

When they’d quieted, he brushed her cheek with his hand. “We’ve known each other for nearly a month.”

“We have. It’s been so nice, and thank you for the good laugh. I need to learn to do that more when it comes to things that really hurt.”

“Laughter is the best medicine.”

“Proverbs says a cheerful heart is good medicine.”

“You see, even the Bible agrees.” He felt his mouth next to hers. “ Juli.”

She lowered her gaze, and he felt her release a faint shudder. Without asking, he lowered his lips to hers. Her mouth felt soft and warm. When he drew back, her eyes stayed riveted to his mouth, and he lowered his lips again and kissed hers lightly.

They sat in the quiet of the evening with the cicadas’ song as their music, but nothing filled his heart more than holding Juli in his arms.