Must Love Flowers(64)

Her son’s response was weighed down with a heavy sigh. “If you insist on knowing, Zoe and I have parted ways.”

“I’m sorry.” This was what Joan had long suspected.

Another sigh, this one clearly painfilled. “Yeah, me, too.”

“I don’t suppose you want to tell me what it’s about, but I hope you will.” Joan didn’t want to pry too deep. Her wish was that her son would want to explain what’d happened to a promising relationship.

He didn’t hesitate as she assumed he would. “Zoe wants to get married.”

Joan didn’t understand why that would be a problem if they were in love.

“We’ve been dating two years exclusively,” Steve continued, “and all of a sudden she put pressure on me to make a commitment.”

“Do you love her?” Joan asked, although she felt she knew the answer.

“Yeah…I do.”

As she suspected. “Would you be comfortable spending the rest of your life with her?”

“I would,” he said, a bit more convincingly this time.

“Then what’s the problem?” It had to be something more than Steve’s unwillingness to make a commitment.

His voice mellowed as if he had lowered his guard. “Zoe wants a family.”

“And you don’t?”

“I do, just not anytime soon. Maybe in the next seven to ten years. I mean, the time has to be right. You don’t bring a baby into the world unless you have a home with a fenced yard, and a substantial income, and a secure future. It’s the same with getting married.”

“You want a house before you marry?” Joan had a hard time computing the list of what Steve felt was necessary.

“Yes.”

“My goodness, Steve, if your father and I had all those stipulations in place, you and Nick might never have been born.”

“Times were different back then,” he flared.

“Really?”

“Yes, Mom, really,” he insisted.

“And you feel Zoe is being unreasonable to not want to wait until the solar system is aligned with your list of what’s necessary.” She didn’t mean to sound sarcastic, but if anyone was being unreasonable, Joan felt it was her son.

“Yes,” he snapped. “I didn’t want to lose her, so I asked her to marry me. I even got her a ring, which was what she wanted. But when I refused to set a date for the wedding, she had a coronary.”

“You mean she got upset?”

“She said she wasn’t willing to wait for five years, which is when I feel I’ll have everything in place to be the husband I want to be. Condemn me for that if you want. It’s the way I think. I’m goal-driven, and having a wife now, or anytime in the near future, doesn’t fit into my plans. I’ll have the right income by then, perhaps sooner, but even that’s no guarantee. I might be named the warehouse manager next year, but that’s only the first step in my five-year career plan.”

Joan didn’t fault Zoe for not wanting to wait that long. If Steve was truly committed, he would marry her.

“She said she didn’t believe I’d be ready in five years,” he mumbled. “She made it seem like I was leading her on, and that my list of reasons to wait was only an excuse to keep her hanging.”

“So it sounds like she gave you an ultimatum?”

“She said if I couldn’t agree to a wedding within a year, we were finished.”

“You didn’t believe her?”

“I…didn’t appreciate the pressure, and I felt she was being unfair about my goals.”

Joan could appreciate how stubborn her son could be when given an ultimatum. “What happened?”

“When I told her I wouldn’t be ready in a year, she gave me back the ring.” It seemed, even now, he had a hard time believing she would walk away.

The shock of it rang in his voice. Shock, disappointment, pain.

“I’m sorry, Steve.”

“Yeah, well, she’s apparently moved on. I saw a post on Facebook with her and some other guy.”

“I bet that stung.”

He snickered. “It sure didn’t take her long to find someone else.”

“Sounds to me like she made her point,” Joan murmured.

“The thing is, if she came back to me today and said she’d changed her mind, I’d laugh and tell her she’s too late.”

“Oh Steve, that’s both stubborn and foolish. We both know that’s your pride talking.”

“Yeah,” he reluctantly agreed. “I miss her. She made everything better. Zoe was the best friend I’ve ever had. I…feel empty without her. There wasn’t anything I couldn’t tell her. She’s smart, and savvy, beautiful, and wise. Nothing feels right without her.”

That sounded like love to Joan. “Then tell her how you feel.”

“I can’t; she won’t listen.”

“Don’t be so sure. You two were together a long time, son. She’s got to be missing you, too. You need to think about what your life will be like without her. Why does marriage terrify you?”

“I…don’t know,” he confessed, sadness leaking into his voice.

“Could it have anything to do with losing your dad?” Joan asked, hoping it wasn’t so.