Page 132 of Smoky Mountain Dreams
Gareth brushed Christopher’s hair back from his forehead andthen looked to Holly when Christopher just took another drink of his gin andtonic.
“He’s getting drunk,” Holly said. “And I’m getting out ofhere.” She stood and grabbed her blue jean purse, throwing it over her arm. “Makesure he gets home okay.” She fixed Christopher with a meaningful look. “I’msorry. I just don’t get you sometimes. Or maybe I’m jealous. I don’t know, butyou deserve better than someone who dumps you because you volunteered to singat a nursing home.” Then she turned on her heel and left him with a veryconfused-looking Gareth.
“That true?” Gareth asked, and Christopher could hear theunderscore of hope in his tone. Christopher knew he should shut that downimmediately, but part of him thrilled to Gareth’s continued interest,especially in the face of his new hurt.
“I don’t know. I don’t think he actually said he wasbreaking up with me, but maybe he did.” Christopher rubbed his hand over hiseyes.
“You should ask him.”
“I figured I’d give him a day to calm down.”
“Hmmph.” Gareth motioned for a waitress and ordered a lightbeer, which made Christopher snort a little, remembering how Jesse had put backdrinks at Puckers the night the truth of Marcy had come out.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Gareth asked.
“I don’t know. It’s a long story.”
How would he ever explain the situation with Marcy? He didn’tknow where to start. He supposed this must have been how Jesse felt on theirfirst date when he’d realized that Christopher didn’t know about the accident.But Gareth had lived here a long time. Maybe he already knew.
“He had…well, hehasa wife.”
“Yeah,” Gareth said, his lips turning down at the corners. “Herfolks used to buy firewood from me and my dad in the fall.”
“Yeah?”
“They stopped buying from us a few years after she got hurt,but before that Dad and I’d take a few cords of wood there for ‘em, and Novawould always chat with us a while about Dad’s turkeys. She tipped nice too.”
“You knew her, then? Marcy, I mean, not Nova.” He felt ashot of excitement. This was someone he could ask about her and not feelguilty.
“Naw, I just met her a few times. She was nice, though. Wasa shame what happened to her.”
“So you know she’s still alive? They’re still married?”
“Yeah, I know. The court case was all the talk a few yearsback. I guess it all ended right before you came. Why? You didn’t know?”
“No. Well, I mean, yeah. I know now.”
“He kept it from you?”
“No, not really. Nothing like that.”
“Jesse Birch was always a weird dude,” Gareth saidthoughtfully.
Christopher was quiet a moment, taking that in. “Strange. Itnever occurred to me that you knew him. But you grew up here, so of course youknow him, just like everyone knows everyone around this place.”
“We weren’t friends. I doubt he’d know me from a hole in thewall, but as a kid I admired him,” Gareth said quietly, taking the beer fromthe waitress with a smile. He scratched at his beard as she walked away. “Hewas the first man I ever knew to be out in Gatlinburg. Back when I was just adumb, poor, redneck kid scared to death of what I felt. I gotta hand it tohim—seeing teenaged Jesse Birch swan about like a flaming faggot was at least apromise that I weren’t totally alone.” Gareth huffed. “Then he got married toher. Blew my mind. I never understood it.”
“He says he’s bi.”
Gareth shrugged. “Whatever he is, it put me back a spell,until I decided that it didn’t matter what he did, only what I did.”
Christopher felt the urge to defend Jesse against Gareth’sjudgment, but he tamped it down and took a swallow of his drink. He’d needanother at this rate.
“So what happened?” Gareth asked. “Or would you rather justdrink here together. Talk about work? Something boring?” He nudged Christopherwith his shoulder. “Whatever you want.”
He didn’t know what to say about what had happened withouttelling Gareth things that weren’t his business. He rubbed at his eyebrow witha thumb and finally said, “Thanksgiving was bad for me this year.”
“Yeah?”
