Short Story

Lamb Stew

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Looking through my early stories, I found one from 2017,
my first year on WordPress, with only 4 likes and no comments;
I thought I’d give it another shot. Any similarity between the MC
and yours truly is very much intended. I hope you enjoy Lamb Stew.

As she kneaded the dough for that night’s supper, Nanda caught a glimpse of her reflection in the kitchen window. The wild child from years ago had been replaced with a confident, sexy woman who stared back at her. No super-model, for sure, but not bad at all for a well-seasoned donna* of a certain age. 

Long honey-brown hair, green eyes and a captivating smile more than made up for her slightly prominent Sicilian nose which only added to her unique beauty (or so she had been told). She was not tall and thin but her legs were long and her curves voluptuous. No skin and bones, this one. Laughing lustfully, she thought “more like a handful …. or …. a mouthful”. She laughed at herself often …. another appealing characteristic (or so she had been told). 

Her laughter rippled through the sun-kissed Sicilian air. Brushing an errant lock of hair from her face, she continued kneading and massaging the dough with smooth, intrinsically sensual undulating motions. 

Glancing outside, she noticed the handyman, Santino, across the veranda smiling and watching her appreciatively. Should she smile back or simply ignore him?  She had seen him working next door several times before; no movie star, he …. but there was something intriguing about this stranger. Was it his powerful arms, the cigarette dangling from his lips, his crooked smile, the devilish twinkle in his chocolate eyes? That familiar fantasy of hers resurfaced.

Chuckling heartily, he pointed to her, then began wiping his face with his hand. Quickly glancing at her reflection, she saw a streak of flour across her forehead and nose. Embarrassed, and barely managing to maintain her composure, she reached for a towel to clean her face. Suddenly he roared with laughter and she realized in her haste she had wiped her face with the discarded flour sack, not a towel. 

Now she, too, was consumed with laughter, tears streaming down her floured face, doubled over in giddy convulsions. Regaining self-control, though still giggling despite herself, she stood …. only to find she was face to face with this charming rogue. Spellbound, she allowed him to gently wipe the flour from her face, her eyes never leaving his, tiny gold flecks dancing provocatively as he looked at her intently. 

“I prepared lamb stew for supper. Would you like to join me?”  

“Si, cara. I would love to.”  

NAR©2024
* woman

This is “Love Is A Stranger” by the Eurythmics

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy (The Sicilian Storyteller), The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

40 thoughts on “Lamb Stew”

    1. It wasn’t until I started writing music blogs on The Rhythm Section that our paths crossed, Jim. What started out as a challenge by a friend to join a competitive online writing group back in 2016 morphed into The Elephant’s Trunk the following year. I’ve been hiding in plain sight!

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