Read Online Smoky Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake - Free Book Online

‘when’ every time
you go out.”
    That was a bit of an exaggeration. He didn’t run into people
from his high school every time he went out— just
every time he was feeling especially shitty about himself or he had a massive
zit on his face. It was like clockwork.
    “Yeah. It’s got its pluses and minuses,” Jesse said. “On the
plus side, I just got a free meal.”
    Christopher grinned and nodded, digging into the baked
beans. He was always too nervous to eat before a show, and afterward he stuffed
his face in relief that everything had gone okay.
    “On the minus side…” Jesse shrugged. “Well, the minus side
isn’t worth talking about.”
    “How’s the turkey?” Christopher asked.
    “Not bad.”
    Christopher smiled again, taking in Jesse’s warm brown eyes
and the light sprinkle of chest hair that peeked from the top of his button-up
shirt. Even if Jesse wasn’t gay and nothing came of it, sitting with him wasn’t
a bad way to spend some time. He sure was good to look at.
    “How’d you end up here?” Jesse asked.
    “Where? Gatlinburg? Or SMD?”
    “I take it SMD is short for Smoky Mountain Dreams?”
    “Yeah. SMD’s just easier, especially during long meetings
where they want to review changes to rules and regulations. You know how it
goes.” Christopher mimed a little yawn. “Anything to get out of there even a
few seconds earlier.”
    “Understood.” Jesse took another bite of turkey.
    “Well, it’s a long story,” Christopher said, not wanting to
go into his failures and humiliations so soon. Not on the first…not on whatever
this was. Friend or maybe more than friend, Jesse was successful,
well-traveled, and handsome. Christopher didn’t want to admit he’d never
managed to really leave Tennessee. A few vacations at the beach didn’t
count—not when he was sitting across the table from a man who had, according to
the pictures in his studio, gone all over the world.
    Then again, he wasn’t sure what was worse—a story where
Smoky Mountain Dreams was the pinnacle of his ambition, or one where he’d tried
for something bigger only to fall hard on his ass and have to return home. At
least failing in Nashville wasn’t really failing. Everyone failed in Nashville at least once. Just because he didn’t want to go for a second
round, didn’t mean he was a complete loser, right?
    “My mom’s family’s from Gatlinburg. Her mom is my Gran. She
and I have always been really close. Which you probably guessed.”
    “The locket,” Jesse said, nodding.
    “Yeah. There was this time in my life when things were bad.
And my Gran suggested I move up here to live with her for a while. But before I
could, she fell and broke both her hips. I ended up living in her house anyway
when I got the job at SMD. She’s in an assisted living facility down in Knoxville
now.”
    “Is the house the thing you can’t ever repay her for?”
    “That and so much more, really. She always protected me,”
Christopher said, looking down, not wanting to see Jesse’s face when he said
it. “From my stepfather. From my mom. I mean, they didn’t hurt me. Physically.
But you know how it can be in the South.”
    “They’re conservative Christians?”
    “That’s a polite way to put it. Given their beliefs, I tend
to call them motherfucking lunatics.”
    “Ah,” Jesse said, softly. “That sucks. A lot.”
    Christopher wondered if Jesse knew exactly what he was
talking about, or if he was just assuming it was a difference in religious
beliefs that had been irresolvable and nothing more than that.
    “Anyway, when I got back from Nashville—”
    “You went to Nashville?”
    “What kid doesn’t try Nashville?”
    Jesse seemed to hear the wound in Christopher’s voice and he
cocked his head a little, his eyes soft and empathetic as he reached out to
touch Christopher’s hand.
    An electric spark jolted through Christopher at the contact and
he pulled his hand away, both embarrassed and hungry for more.