Smoky Mountain Dreams (59 page)
Will was frozen in the hall. “I don’t want to see her. I don’t
want to see Mommy.”
He hadn’t called her that in a long time. Jesse edged by
Brigid in the doorway and knelt by him. “You don’t need to go in, buddy.
Christopher can take you to the lounge area. I think there’s a piano there. He
could sing for the residents. You could dance. It’d be a nice Christmas gift to
them.”
“No.” Brigid reached out and took hold of Christopher’s
hand. “I want Christopher in there too. I want all of us in there.”
The love for his daughter filled Jesse. “Will doesn’t want
to go in, B. It’s not fair to make him, and we can’t leave him alone.”
Natalie appeared, smiling kindly. “Bringing the children to
see Mrs. Birch?”
“Well, just one of them it seems.” He caught her frowning at
Christopher, and he said, “Natalie, this is my boyfriend, Christopher Ryder. I
believe you’ve met.”
Natalie’s eyebrows disappeared into her hairline, but she
rallied quickly. “Yes, Mr. Ryder, the musician. I see. Hello.”
Jesse made his decision quickly, asking her to take Will
into the lounge. Natalie agreed, and Will seemed incredibly relieved as he
hurried away with her.
“Brigid, we can go,” Christopher murmured gently. “You don’t
have to do this.”
“No, I can do it,” she insisted. “I want to do it.” She put
her chin up, tossed back her dark hair, and stepped boldly into the room.
Jesse had tried to prepare her, he really had, but there was
no way. Brigid’s breath sucked in sharply and she froze, her hands clenching
and crumpling the paper she’d brought so carefully from home.
Marcy was asleep, which Jesse considered a blessing, and lay
peacefully, if utterly changed since Brigid had last seen her.
“Brigid, baby,” Jesse said, putting his arm around her
shoulder. He didn’t know what else to say. If she wasn’t going to run screaming
from the room, then who was he to suggest that she leave? Who was he to suggest
that she do anything at all? This was her choice and he was only here to
support her.
“Oh.” Her voice was tiny.
Christopher’s arm went around on top of Jesse’s, and they
held her close to both of their sides. They were silent for a long time, and
then Brigid took a deep breath.
“Okay,” she said, and she moved forward and smoothed the
paper on the blanket that covered her mother’s legs. She folded the crane with
shaking fingers, making no mistakes, like her hands knew what to do all on
their own.
When she was done, she held the glistening, golden crane
gently in the palm of her hand. She closed her eyes and took a long, slow
breath, and then let it out.
“Mommy,” she whispered, “Will and I wish you were…” She
paused, and a deep silence filled the room.
Jesse felt a sob growing in his chest.
“Free,” Brigid finished. “We wish you were free.”
She set the crane on her mother’s chest, which moved up and
down with a steady, endless rhythm. Brigid turned on her heel and walked past
Jesse and Christopher straight out the door.
As they drove home in silence, Christopher kept looking
at Jesse from the passenger seat, wondering what he should say or do. In the
back, Will glumly played games on the iPad and Brigid stared out the window,
her expression glacially calm, like she hadn’t just completed the last task in
her months-long herculean effort to magically bring back her mother.
Jesse met his gaze with a tight frown, checking Brigid in
the rearview mirror and then making a worried face at Christopher again.
“You okay, B?” Will asked out of the blue, breaking the
silence in the car.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Did it work?”
“No.”
“Figures.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Daddy, how long are you and Aunt Ronnie
going to fight about Mom?”
Jesse blew out a long breath, his hands tightening on the
wheel. “I don’t know, baby. I hope for not much longer. I guess we’ll see what
the new year brings.”
Brigid took this in. “Okay.” After a few moments, she asked,
“Daddy, did you wrap my special present for Christopher?”
She said his name easily and with a fondness that
Christopher wasn’t prepared for on the heels of what must have been a
disappointing morning. His eyes prickled.
Jesse cleared his throat. “Of course.”
“You used the silver wrapping paper with a red bow, like I
said?”
“Of course.”
Christopher felt a warmth bloom in his chest. “You didn’t
have to get me anything special.”
Brigid scoffed. “What kind of Christmas would it be without
something special?”
“Yeah,” Will agreed, not taking his eyes from the iPad.
Jesse said softly, “B, is there anywhere you want to go?
Anything special you’d like to do?”
“No. I just want to go home with you Will and Christopher. I
just want to be with my family.” She grabbed the iPad from Will.
“Hey!” he shouted.
As the kids tussled, Christopher swallowed thickly.
Home. With her family. He was her family.
He thought of
Gran and smiled. He could feel her now almost as if she was squeezed in the
backseat between the kids, beaming.
Jesse sighed. “Brigid, give your brother the iPad back.”
“She already ruined my game!” Will cried.
“Well, don’t ruin Christmas by being a baby about it,”
Brigid said.
Jesse sighed more emphatically. “Kids, let’s treat each other
with respect, okay?”
“Sure,” Brigid said.
Will whined, “Then give me my iPad back.”
“Fine—here. Sheesh.”
Jesse took Christopher’s hand and squeezed, keeping his eyes
on the road.
Silence reigned for a few moments until Brigid spoke again. “So.
It’s done now.”
“Yes, it is,” Jesse replied.
“And I don’t know what I should do.”
“You don’t have to do anything.”
“I want to do something. Dr. Charles says that when a door
closes, a window opens. I know Mom’s never coming home but I don’t want to
forget her.”
The first snow of the winter was falling as they turned up the
mountain road to the house. Christopher watched the fat flakes, feeling as
though they were coming down straight from heaven.
Jesse cleared his throat. “We’ll make sure that doesn’t
happen, B.”
“How?”
“Well,” Christopher offered softly, “we could have a Marcy
Day. Maybe on her birthday? It could be a time when you guys look at pictures
and talk about your mom?”
Brigid was quiet, and Jesse squeezed his hand, releasing it
briefly to shift gears as they started up the mountain, and then taking it up
again.
“You could still talk about her on other days too, of
course,” Christopher added. Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything at all.
“Will you be part of Marcy Day, Christopher?” Brigid asked. “You
said you wanted to know stuff about my mom.”
His heart thumped. “I’d like that.”
“Yeah. You should be there. You’re going to be with us a
long time now, right?” She kicked the back of Jesse’s seat like she was trying
to make a point. “Forever?”
Jesse’s expression turned a little shy. “I hope so, Brigid.
We love each other, and we want it to be a forever thing.” He looked
Christopher’s way, a shine in his eyes. “Right?”
“Absolutely. We love each other—and you guys—and we want to
make it work, as a family.”
It felt like a promise. A vow.
“Okay, good,” Brigid said.
“Can we have pie when we get back?” Will asked.
“Dinner first,” Jesse answered, his voice sounding thick
with emotion. “And we have to open all your presents still.”
Will bounced. “Yeah, presents! I can’t wait!”
Christopher squeezed Jesse’s hand again as Will chattered
about what he hoped was under the tree. Christopher’s latest song came to mind,
and he hummed softly.
Here they were, all of them, living on
the corner of life and death, and clinging to the hope of Smoky Mountain
dreams.
F
IRST,
I’D LIKE TO THANK
all of the amazing readers out there who have read and
enjoyed my other books—inspiring me, supporting me, and generally making my
dreams of being an author come true. No book is complete without a reader, and
all of you hold a dear place in my heart. Thank you!
Thank you to inspiration in unexpected places. Thank you to
Gatlinburg, Dollywood, and Dolly Parton, especially.
Thank you to my beta readers for their excellent help: Darrah,
Keira, Ajax, and Indra. And thank you to Alice for reading a very early version
and then reminding me to finish it.
Thank you to Keira Andrews for a wonderful editing job and
for her dedicated friendship.
Thank you to Dar for the lovely cover, and to Annie for the
fantastic and fast formatting work.
Thank you to Jed, Kim, Liza, Rachel, and Jacyn for years of
friendship and love.
Thank you to my parents and in-laws for absolutely
everything. And thank you to my daughter for being so understanding when imaginary
people demand Mommy’s attention. Thank you forever and always to my husband for
his love, faith, and unfailing encouragement.
All my best,
Leta Blake
Leta’s educational and professional background is in
psychology and finance, respectively, but her passion has always been for
writing. She most enjoys crafting the romance stories that she would most like
to read. At home in the Southern U.S., Leta works hard at achieving balance
between her day job, her writing, and her family.
You can find out more about her by following her
online:
On the web:
http://letablake.wordpress.com/
On Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/letablake
On Twitter:
https://twitter.com/LetaBlake
Other Books by Leta Blake
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© 2014 Leta Blake
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express
written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief
quotations in a book review.
Print ISBN: 9781626227262
Digital ISBN: 9781626227255
Cover design Copyright © 2014 by Dar Albert
at Wicked Smart Designs
www.wickedsmartdesigns.com
Editing by Keira Andrews
www.keiraandrews.com
Formatting by Annie Pearson, Jugum Press
www.jugumPress.com
Published by Leta Blake Books
Contact:
[email protected]
http:/letablake.wordpress.com/
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the
author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. No figure skaters, boxers,
jewelers, or country music performers, living or dead, were harmed by the
writing of this book. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, or
actual events is purely coincidental.
After giving up on his career as a country singer in Nashville, Christopher Ryder is happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee. But while his beloved Gran loves him the way he is, Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. Even when he’s center stage, he aches for someone to see the real him.
Bisexual Jesse Birch has no room in his life for dating. Raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother, he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.
Cover
About Smoky Mountain Dreams
Dedication