Smoky Mountain Dreams (18 page)

Are you sure you really want me to come
over there? I understand. Really it’s okay.

Jesse’s reply took a few minutes, leaving Christopher hung
between a rising hope and a miserable deflation.

Positive. I’ve spent the entire
afternoon here looking for you out of the corner of my eye, hoping like crazy
we’d run into each other and then I acted like an idiot when we finally did.
Embarrassing. Let me have a second chance?

Christopher typed as quickly as his clumsy thumbs would
allow.

You don’t have to be embarrassed. I’m
happy to meet your family if that’s what you really want, but it’s honestly
okay if you just want to move on with your day.

While he waited for a reply, he paid for the jam for Gran.

Come join us.

As Christopher approached the forge, he couldn’t ignore the
tumbling sensation in his stomach. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but it wasn’t
great either. It reminded him of the one and only time he’d ridden the
Firebender coaster over in Starlight City.

The whirling-rushing feeling only intensified when he stepped
under the eaves and Jesse broke into a wide smile at the sight of him and
called out, “Christopher! Hey, come over here. It’s good to see you!”

As soon as Christopher was close enough, Jesse slapped his
shoulder in a friendly gesture.

“Good to see you too,” Christopher murmured, smiling with
strangely quavering lips. From the corner of his eye he could see Gareth hard
at work by the forge’s flames, banging on red-hot iron as tourists watched
avidly.

He was embarrassed when Jesse reached to shake hands and
Christopher saw that his own were trembling. What was his problem? He’d been a
lot cooler than this the other night when they’d hooked up. He needed to get it
together. Jesse’s in-laws looked at him with polite smiles and vague interest.

Jesse turned to them. “Nova and Tim, this is my friend
Christopher. He’s a singer here at Smoky Mountain Dreams. Chris, this is Nova
and Tim, my in-laws.”

“It’s lovely to meet you, Christopher!” Nova shook
Christopher’s hand and looked him over in friendly appraisal. “You perform
here? For how long now?”

“Been here three years now, ma’am.”

“Just Nova, please.” She smiled. “You do look familiar.
Surely we’ve seen you—we see all the shows.”

“Season passes,” the man Jesse had called Tim volunteered,
vigorously pumping Christopher’s hand in both of his and smiling warmly. “Jesse
gets them for us. We love the holiday programs especially. It’s just not
Christmastime until we’ve come to the winter shows at Smoky Mountain Dreams.”

“We all saw him in a show together last Christmas,” Jesse
said. “He was singing the lead parts.”

“That’s right!” Nova’s eyes suddenly glinted with mischief. “Oh,
Jesse was quite taken with your voice. Remember Tim? He kept looking up his
name on the program.”

There was a flash of embarrassment on Jesse’s face, but then
he smiled widely. “See? I told you, Chris. I’m a big fan.” He turned to Nova
and Tim and went on, “It wasn’t just me. You guys thought he was great too.”

“He’s certainly charismatic up there,” Nova said.

“Held his own for sure.”

“And he’s got a great voice.” Jesse smiled warmly at him.

Christopher felt heat prickle his neck and ears. “Jesse
seems to be my number one fan. It’s flattering and makes me wish my Gran was
here to hear him. It’d make her proud.”

“I bet she’s proud anyway,” Nova said, glancing between
them. Her lips curved slightly at the edges knowingly, and Christopher felt his
palms go a little sweaty. Were they that obvious? Did she know they’d had sex?
A lot of sex? Shit.

“I hope so.”

“Brigid, Will,” Jesse said to get their attention. “This is
my friend, Mr. Ryder.” His eyes lit up with pride as he put his hands on his
daughter’s shoulders and nodded at his son. “Chris, these are my kids, Will and
Brigid.”

Will didn’t tear his eyes from Gareth’s movements by the
fire, and he just lifted his hand and let it fall with a cheerful, “Hi, sir,
nice to meet you!”

“Call me Christopher,” he said in his best cool-uncle voice
he’d used with his sister’s new step-kids. It’d seemed to work okay on them
until Bob had made it clear Christopher was a terrible sinner and best to be
avoided. Though Lee, the oldest of the three, fifteen and obviously rebelling,
had seemed to think Christopher was even
cooler
after that. Christopher had reveled in it. But he sure hoped the kid didn’t
turn out to be gay, because he’d probably be accused of recruiting him.

“It’s nice to meet you both,” Christopher added with a wide
smile.

Brigid turned with tight precision from where she’d also
been gazing intently at Gareth striking the metal, and stared right up at
Christopher with a suspicious, tight expression. She said nothing at all.

Christopher cleared his throat and smiled down at her. “Have
you been having fun today?” One of her eyebrows arched up, reminding him of
Holly’s knowing look at the hat stand.

She said in a strange, distant way, “Yes. Have you?”

Christopher squatted to be closer to her height, but she was
taller than he realized, and she towered over him haughtily. “It’s been a good
day, sure. I work here, though, so I haven’t been having
fun
really. How about you? Did you go on any rides yet?”

Brigid shrugged. “The Ferris wheel. All the good rides are
closed until spring, though.”

“The Firebender’s open.”

“No one will ride it with me.”

“Oh?” He looked up at Jesse. “Scared?”

“Dad pukes on rides like that.” She rolled her eyes. “He
just comes here for the shows. I hate the shows.”

“Brigid,” Jesse started, but Christopher interrupted him.

“What rides do you like best?”

“The water ones. So coming here in fall and winter is just
cold and boring.”

“It’s not boring,” Will said calmly, not tearing his eyes
from Gareth’s work. “Dad likes to watch that man sing, you know the one.”

“Will, pay attention. This is the man,” Brigid said, her
cold eyes raking over Christopher in a way that made his palms sweat.

Will ignored her. “Besides, you’re wrong. The music is good.
It makes me want to dance.” He turned from Gareth and with twinkling eyes
demonstrated some over-the-top square-dance moves clearly designed to mortify
his sister.

“You’re so…ugh.” Brigid crossed her arms over her chest.

Christopher glanced up to see firelight shining on Gareth’s
sweating forearms and handsome, bearded face. He seemed oblivious to
Christopher’s presence, absorbed in his work of heating and hammering.
Definitely a pleasant change from the glaring and snide remarks. At least the
man had some discretion.

“The shows are boring,” Brigid insisted.

“No, they’re not,” Will said, cheerfully, stopping his silly
dance and smiling up at Christopher. “You’re a good singer, Christopher.”

Brigid made a soft sound that sounded like a snort, but
Jesse’s hand came down on her shoulder, and she looked up at him and sighed
before frowning and glaring at the fire in the forge again.

“Thanks, Will.”

“I like the shows. And at Christmas I like the lights, and
the trees, and I always like that awesome gingerbread.”

“You like the baby parades too,” Brigid murmured. Jesse’s
hand squeezed her shoulder but she didn’t flinch.

“They aren’t baby.”

“Yes they are. And the baby jugglers.”

“Juggling babies takes real skill, Brigid,” Jesse said.

She snorted.

“Oh, you know what I like best? The man who carves the big
wooden eagles with a chainsaw,” Will said.

“Harry Jones,” Christopher offered up the name, but Will was
already on to another thought.

“Oh!
And the real eagles!
At the
sanctuary. Granddad’s eagles. They’re cool.”

Brigid shrugged again like she wasn’t necessarily impressed
with any of those things.

Christopher tried a different tack with her. “I like your
jacket, Brigid. Purple is my favorite color.”

Her eyes narrowed even more. “I like yellow.”

“Brigid, the right response is, ‘thank you,’” Jesse said,
running his hand over her dark hair and sighing.

She turned to Nova, moving away from her father’s touch, and
wrapped her arms around her grandmother. Then, almost contradicting her earlier
statements, she said, “Grandma, can we go see the eagles soon, please? They’re
my favorite. I want to see if February’s leg is better yet.”

Nova slid her fingers through her granddaughter’s hair, bent
down, and whispered something to her. Brigid sighed and held on to her
grandmother tighter, resignation and frustration warring in her eyes. Then just
as suddenly Brigid let go, reached into her pocket and took out the damaged
paper crane again, smoothing it with intense concentration.

As Christopher rose from his crouch and wiped his sweaty
palms on his pants, he met Gareth’s gaze over the short, open wall of the
forge. He swallowed quickly at the hostile, appraising interest he saw there,
and turned back to Jesse and Tim. “So, what brings you all to Smoky Mountain
Dreams today?” he asked, though he already knew.

“Nova’s celebrating her sixty-fifth,” Jesse said. “Tim
thought a family day here at the park would make a nice gift.”

“And cheap too,” Tim said. “We’ve got season passes, which
just means paying for snacks and dinner. Though, don’t get me wrong, the prices
on those aren’t anything to sneeze at. Melissa Mundy must make a pretty penny
on those overpriced hot dogs and bags of popcorn.”

Nova smiled fondly at him and said, “Sweetheart, please don’t
embarrass Jesse.”

“Oh no, it’s fine. I understand,” Christopher said. “If I
didn’t get free meals, I wouldn’t be able to afford to eat here either.”

He only felt a little uncomfortable acknowledging that the
prices were high in the theme park. He knew Melissa Mundy did make a nice
profit from Smoky Mountain Dreams, but she also paid all of her employees a
living wage, gave them great insurance benefits, and used a large percentage of
SMD profits to expand the operation—creating new jobs for an area that was
without question poor and in need of opportunities. He was getting ready to say
something in Melissa’s defense when Jesse did it for him.

“What this place has done for the community is worth it. If
the hot dogs cost four-fifty each, it’s money well spent, and the tourists don’t
seem to give a damn.”

“You said ‘damn,’ Dad,” Will said gleefully, turning away
from Gareth finally.

Christopher glanced Gareth’s way and saw that the most
interesting part of smithing was over, and now he was cleaning up his work. Was
he listening in on the conversation? Christopher couldn’t tell, but there was a
stiffness to his body that implied he was.

“I’m allowed to say it, Will.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not nine and no teacher will make me sit out of
recess for saying it around the other kids.”

Will laughed. “It’s gonna be cool to be a grown up. I’m
gonna say damn and other stuff all the time. I can’t wait.”

Jesse rubbed his hand over Will’s shoulder and hugged him up
against his hip. “Yeah? Well,
I
can wait. You and
Brigid can just take your time. No rush, kiddo.”

“What are you going to be when you grow up?” Christopher
asked Will.

“A baseball player.”

“You can’t be a baseball player,” Brigid said, her voice
dripping with disdain. She slid the paper crane back into her coat pocket. “We’ve
covered this, Will.”

Will shrugged. “Why not?”

“Because you’re just not that good,” Brigid said, tossing
her chin and crossing her arms over her chest.

“I’m good enough.”

Brigid slapped a hand over her face and turned away from
them. “Forget it. I want to see the eagles.”

Will ran out from under the eaves, whooping in a loud voice,
and called out, “Maybe I’ll be an eagle trainer instead, B! I’ll be the best
eagle trainer ever!”

“Yeah, B,” Jesse said. “The best eagle trainer ever.”

Brigid turned to Jesse and said, quietly, “Don’t encourage
him, Dad. He’s embarrassing.” Then she followed her brother with extreme
dignity and a huge dollop of sisterly irritation.

“She reminds me of Jackie,” Christopher said. At Jesse’s
quizzical expression, he added, “My sister. She’s older than me and thought
every idea I had would break the stupid-meter.”

“She ever grow out of that?” Jesse asked a little
desperately.

“Nope. She still thinks I’m a dumbass.”

Nova and Tim started after the kids, hurrying before they
disappeared into the crowd. Jesse called, “I’ll catch up, guys.”

Nova looked at Christopher and then back at Jesse, nodded,
and then hustled after the children. Tim called, “Nice to meet you,
Christopher! Come share a meal sometime. Any friend of Jesse’s is a friend of
ours.”

Jesse smiled at that and slung his arm over Christopher’s
shoulder as his family disappeared into the passing crowd. “Well, that wasn’t
bad, was it?”

“You think?”

“I
think
.” Jesse shook him
gently.

Christopher’s stomach took another thrilling tumble as his
heart swooped down the highest drop of the Firebender. “Cool.”

There was a clanging and a banging from behind them, and
they both looked over at Gareth slamming the door on the other side of the
forge, walking away without a glance, his back stiff and his ass looking
fantastic in his soot-streaked jeans.

“Wow,” Jesse said. “What’s the story there?”

“What do you mean?” Christopher frowned, watching Gareth
head toward Maybelle’s Many Pies, clomp up the stairs, and enter the small
shop.

“Come on, the guy was giving me the evil eye and wishing me
dead from the second you showed up.”

“Seriously?”