Page 51 of Smoky Mountain Dreams

“I wanted more but he got back together with his ex. So,story over.”

“You deserve better anyway.”

Christopher laughed. “Thanks, Gran. I’m pretty sure you’dthink I deserved better than just about anyone.”

“Do you deserve better than this Jesse?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t know.”

“And he’s got a last name?”

“Birch. Jesse Birch.”

Gran was silent, her mouth open in a rare look of surprise. “Well,I’ll be dag-blamed. Jesse Birch, huh? I knew him when he was just a young’un.He and his sister used to come in my shop. He ended up married to MarcyMcMillan. Shame what happened to her.” Gran clucked her tongue, and Christopherwas just about to ask her for the gory details he’d never wanted to make Jessetell him when she said, “So, he’s back to liking men?”

Christopher cleared his throat, bit into his burger, andchewed a little before answering. “I’m not sure he stopped? I mean, I think helikes both men and women.”

“Oh. Well, that’s awfully convenient. Must make thingseasier.”

“I don’t think so, Gran. Probably makes everything moreconfusing, actually.” Though he didn’t know. He’d never been attracted to awoman in his life.

“Huh. Maybe.”

Christopher wasn’t sure what else to say so he stared at thesun sparkling on the gray lake and cleared his throat.

Gran asked, “So, how’d you meet him?”

Christopher’s mind slid in gravel and skidded as he tried tothink of an answer. He couldn’t tell Gran about the gift he was having made andhe couldn’t lie, because he was a terrible liar and no one read him as well asGran did anyway. “He comes to Smoky Mountain Dreams a lot. He’s a fan of mysinging, I guess. Comes to see the shows.”

Gran’s eyes shone with pride as she looked at him. “He comesto see you perform? Not that Lash Hinkins?”

Christopher nodded. “That’s what he claims.”

“Jesse Birch is a lot of things, but he’s not a liar. So ifhe says he’s coming there to see you, boy, he’s there to see you.” Gran’s voicevibrated with delight. “Obviously he’s got good taste.” Then she frowned again.“And he’s got children. That makes things a might more serious than you mightbe expecting.”

“I know. We’re taking it slow.” He cleared his throat again,thinking the amount of sex they’d had in the last two weeks probably didn’tcount as “slow” in Gran’s book.

She glanced over at him sharply.

“What?”

“Are you sure it’s not just sex?” she asked.

Christopher sighed and put his burger back in his bag. “Talkabout a conversation I never expected to be having with you, Gran.”

“I had sex. How do you think I got your mama, Rodney, andLaurie Ann, young man? And I hate to break it to you, but your mama has had sextoo.”

Christopher rolled his eyes. “I know that.” He was stilltraumatized from hearing a lot more than he ever needed to hear through thethin wall separating his room from his mother’s and Bob’s after they gotmarried.

“So…” Gran wagged her bony finger at him. “Answer thequestion. You’re holding something back, and ‘taking it slow’ doesn’t mean whatyou want me to think it means, I’m betting. It means you’re holding back fromgetting emotionally involved. Is it just physical between you?”

“No. I don’t think so.”

“I only ask because there are kids involved, Christopher,and that changes everything.”

“I know. I mean, we’ve hooked up a few times—”

“Hooked up,” Gran whispered with fondness and disapprovalall at once. “Like that barrel of monkeys game, hooking pieces together andnothing more. That’s the problem with the kids today.”