The Tennessee Mountain Man

by Olivia Gaines

  “Highly doubtful,” Coraline said, grinning in the phone. “He’s a big man, but as gentle as a teddy bear.”

  “But, he just walked into your offices last week,” Khloe said. “Off the street.”

  “As did you.”

  “Well, there is that,” she countered.

  “Khloe, I admit that normally we take months to vet a candidate, but I flew back with him to his home. I walked around his town, spent a few days in his world. There is nothing hidden,” she said. “He didn’t even call ahead to let anyone know we were coming. Well, he did call his folks because they don’t like strangers, yet they were gracious people and his mother’s biscuits melt in your mouth.”

  “My trust issues are red flagging my brain to say no,” Khloe said.

  “He is a Montgomery. In those parts, that name is a brand and it stands for something real to the locals and his family. If he is telling you that it is going to rain, then grab yourself an umbrella,” Coraline said.

  “His word is his bond,” Khloe stated.

  “His word is everything to that man. Get out of your own way, take this leap, and go and feel what it is like to be adored, loved, and the center of that man’s world,” she said.

  “I am going to get all of that?’

  “Darling, I think you are going to get a hell of a lot more,” Coraline said, adding kisses into the line and hanging up.

  Khloe looked about the house. It was still full of her mother’s things. Plus, she needed to settle up with the insurance company on her home, the policies on her mother, and loads of details. ‘Get out of your own way’ Coraline had said. The phone still rested in the palm of her hand as her eyes went back to the screen and she punched in the number. Her heart thudded like she was running from the thugs who chased her last week. The pulse of blood through her veins raced to her heart as she listened to the sound of the rings, waiting for a connection. The line clicked and she stopped breathing.

  “Beau Montgomery,” the deep southern voice said.

  “Good morning, this is Khloe Burgess,” she said in a whoosh of words. Be cool Khloe.

  “Hello, my lovely lady,” he said as calmly as if they’d gone to see a movie last night and had tea afterward.

  “Uhmm, I don’t know where to start this conversation,” she said.

  “Then allow me,” Beau said. “Khloe Burgess, marry me, be my life mate, pack up and come start a life with me.”

  “Well damn,” she said, “that is one heck of a start.”

  “That is just the beginning,” he told her. “I’m a man of few words. I have things to do on a daily basis and customers to serve. We are installing new computers and WiFi systems in the local school which is taking up almost every moment of my day. It starts to get cool in September in these parts but not like Chicago cold. These kids need shots before school starts back and I want to come home at night to a friendly face and tell you about my day and hear about yours over a modest meal before we call it a night. My life is simple. My request is simple. So, I ask you again, Khloe Burgess, marry me, pack up and come be the center of my world.”

  “Okay,” she said, looking around the room as if another person had answered for her. “But Beau, we need to talk about things.”

  “Talk,” he said.

  “Kids, uhmm, sex, uhmm, we don’t really know each other,” she offered.

  “You want kids right away?” he asked, surprised.

  It was the way he said it which made her put on the hold-up wait a minute brakes. He didn’t sound too enthusiastic over the idea. She wanted children and a family of her own.

  Beau heard the silence, which slapped him across the nose like a bad dog who had chewed on his master’s best shoes. “Khloe, I want a family as well, but if I had my way, waiting a year or two would be my preference, so we can get to know each other. It would kind of break my heart to bring kids into the marriage before you and I have a chance to settle into being us, before getting into a routine of taking care of them,” he said.

  “For a man of few words, you sure say a mouthful,” she told him. “I am no spring chicken. I am pushing 40 and I don’t want to sit at my kid’s graduation looking like their grandmother.”

  “Understood, but I want our marriage to have every chance of surviving because we like each other,” he said.

  “Like each other?”

  “Yeah, people get married because they fancy themselves in love. Love is grand and makes the heart go pitter patter, but friendship is what keeps people connected,” he said.

  She noticed that he avoided the sex portion of her fears in the earlier statement. That was the elephant eavesdropping on the call while munching on a barrel of peanuts. He needed to address that portion as well.

  “The sex?”

  “What about it?”

  “Well, am I expected to fall into bed with you after we meet and marry?”

  “Hell no,” he said. “I don’t know you like that.”

  He was laughing. A deep throaty laugh that warmed her all the way to her toes. She didn’t find any humor at being sexually rejected over the phone and cleared her throat in protest.

  “Khloe, my dearest Khloe. It would be unfair, in my estimation, to expect that from you right away. I want an intimate relationship. You can get sex or you can get intimacy. The latter sounds better to me. Besides, we need to get to know each other, get into a routine and get comfortable with being a man and a woman sharing a space. When it is time for our wedding night, we will have one. In the interim, we will focus on building our friendship, you getting going as the local...nurse?”

  “Yes, I’m a Nurse Practitioner, but I have to get licenses to practice in Tennessee,” she said.

  “Tennessee is a part of the National Compact of Nursing Professionals. You can transfer your active license to this state and be all good,” he said as a matter of fact and he heard her gulp. “My cousin, Jethro, who is the County Magistrate, looked it all up and gave me that info. You’ll meet him when you arrive.”

  “Wait, where am I supposed to get medical supplies, vaccines and the lot?”

  “Our last traveling physician was set up through a State Program, we can make some calls and get everything in order prior to your arrival,” Beau told her. “How soon you planning to get here?”

  “I have a few things to get settled on this end, so maybe two weeks?” she asked.

  “Do you need me to fly in and help you drive down?”

  “The solo ride will do me good,” she said. “Give me a chance to swallow the craziness of my decision.”

  “It’s not crazy at all, Khloe Burgess,” he said. “Based on what Coraline has told me, we are a near perfect match. I’ve made my expectations very clear, and you want to find your smile. The past week I have spent thinking of ways to do just that.”

  “You are planning to help me find my smile?”

  “I am planning to make you fall in love with me, woman,” he said softly, “amongst other things, but yeah, when I’m done, you’ll be grinning like you know things others have yet to discover and you will like me.”

  “Oh really,” she said arching her brows as if he could see her facial expression through the phone.

  “Really,” he replied. “Come to me, Khloe.”

  “Okay,” she said to the sultry southern voice that seemed to drain the logic from her brain. “What about my stuff?”

  “Travel light to start,” he said. “If you have loads of furniture, put it in storage until the spring. I will pay for the storage fees, then together we will travel to Chicago and bring it down.”

  “Dishes, pots and pans, towels, linens, that sort of thing?”

  “Darling, I have the basics, but get here first and decide then what you need or may want based on the space,” he said. “The house where we’ll currently be living is kind of small, I’m pretty big, and I don’t like clutter.”

  “Noted,” she said. “Give me a week or so to finalize details on this end, and I will call you wi
th a departure date.”

  “You sure you don’t want me to fly in and help you out?”

  “No, you have things to do on your end, with the school, my office, and the like,” she said. “I got this end, you work on that one.”

  “Yes’um,” he said grinning. “Call me every night just so I can hear your voice before I go to bed.”

  She inhaled sharply, surprised at how totally and ridiculously sexy that sounded to her. A man who actually wanted her to call him every night. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

  “Will do, Beau. Have a great day,” she said.

  “My day is getting better every second,” he said before saying goodbye. He leaned back in the chair, putting his feet up on the desk and sighing deeply, satisfied with the conversation.

  “That went better than I thought. You do have some game,” a voice said, making Beau nearly jump out of the chair.

  “Dammit, Jethro, how long have you been standing there?”

  “Since you asked her to check the box that she liked you and wanted to go to Sally Hawkins dance as your date,” Jethro said, chuckling.

  “I still, really kind of hate you,” Beau mumbled.

  “That’s fine, but I just got off the phone with Ennis, and he scored us a three-night stay at the beach on one of them time share thingies,” Jethro said. “When’s she coming so I can get it on my calendar and get the paperwork in order to pronounce you bear and lady bear.”

  “Two weeks,” Beau said.

  “Great, I need 50 bucks,” Jethro said.

  “For what?”

  “I need to pay Jolene’s daughter to go up to that tree house and scrub it from top to bottom, wash them pots like a woman would, and clean that bathroom real good,” he said.

  “My place is not dirty,” Beau said with emphasis.

  “It’s not dirty by a man’s standards, but will it pass a woman’s inspection?” he asked, his bushy red eyebrows raised.

  Beau took a $50 from his wallet and handed it to Jethro. “Just the girl. She can’t bring any of her empty-headed friends,” Beau said. “Oh hey, while I’m thinking about it, we need to get on the horn to the County Seat and get that office supplied for Khloe. She’s a Nurse Practitioner.”

  “On it,” Jethro said. “Let me know when she is planning to get here so I can have that gal clean the place. You want her to clean the office, too?”

  Beau took out another $50 and placed it in Jethro’s grubby paw. “Might as well,” he said, taking a seat.

  “You need a suit for the wedding,” Jethro told him. “Call your sister to be the bridesmaid and witness, and I will get Jolene to do a small spread for the reception. Will your brother be the best man?”

  “I have come to the conclusion, Jethro, that you don’t have enough to do in this town,” Beau said.

  “Oh, I have plenty to do, but taking care of your big ass seems to be all I can get done,” Jethro said. “Chop. Chop. We have a wedding to plan.”

  “Did I mention I kind of hate you?”

  “Don’t care none, but I do want you to like me. Our relationship has survived because you like me,” Jethro said, mocking Beau’s words to Khloe.

  “Get out!” Beau roared.

  He was down a $100 and half way pissed off because Jethro was once again right, plus he was going to get married. Me. Married. Shit, this is actually happening.

  Beauregard Montgomery found himself smiling for the rest of the day.

  THE NEXT TWO WEEKS zoomed by in a blur of activity with Khloe boxing up all of her mother’s goods and the movers taking the bulk of it to storage. The dining room furniture—she knew her mother put it on lay-a-way, making bi-weekly payments in order to own nice things without a credit card bill — meant a great deal to Erica. It was the only furniture outside of her bedroom suit that her mother hadn’t urinated on or worse. For that reason, it also held a value for Khloe, who stored it in a secure warehouse type of facility which was heated and air conditioned.

  In the back of her mother’s closet, she found a small strongbox secured by two locks. Unable to get either lock open, she loaded it into the back of her vehicle with a full set of Waterford China, crystal goblets, and silver dinner service along with the chargers, and the really nice Thanksgiving and Christmas tablecloths. Just because she was going to live on a mountain didn’t make her mountainfolk and she had no intention of living like one. It was her hopes that in time, they would make friends to have over for dinner or if the occasion arose to entertain Beau’s higher end clients, and there would be good china to serve their guests.

  Clothing was rather scarce for Khloe since the fire, but she took a few pieces that remained at her mother’s and the items she had left in her locker at work. The pride she felt when turning in her resignation to the snotty woman in HR nearly made her smile.

  “Let us know if we can do anything for you, Ms. Burgess,” Jennifer Conners told her. “I hope you are not leaving us out of spite.”

  “In order for me to be spiteful, that would indicate that I care what you think,” Khloe said. “I don’t. I’m getting married.”

  Before her work locker was empty, the buzz had encircled the ER, and the buzzards were encircling her like a piece of carrion to be fed upon. She wasn’t having any part of it. Head held high, she waved farewell and stepped out into the night. Tonight, she planned to drive to at least Indianapolis and spend the evening there before driving on into Tennessee. For good measure, she placed a call to the only friend she had, Coraline.

  “Hey, I’m leaving tonight for Tennessee, stopping in Indianapolis,” she said. “I don’t have any friends or family so to speak, and I just felt like someone other than Beau should know my plans.”

  “Good move, call me tonight when you check in and secure yourself a hotel room, then in the morning when you leave and again when you get to Harbuck,” Coraline said.

  “Thank you, this means a lot,” Khloe said.

  “Drive safe and be happy,” Coraline said, disconnecting the call.

  Beau didn’t like the idea of her driving alone and reacted in a nurturing manner when she confessed to not having any family so to speak or friends. Calming words ensured Khloe that she shouldn’t worry, that before the end of the year, as Mrs. Beauregard Montgomery there would be more friends and family than she could count. Taking him on his word, she rose early, left a message for Coraline, and drove most of the morning through one of the most painteresque landscapes she’d ever seen in her life. That was the word he used in his first letter. Painteresque. It was a good word to describe the lush green carpet of trees that covered the mountainside.

  She shifted gears in the Jeep as she began the climb up the mountain into a flat patch of land that rolled into a jade covered field whispered to softly by the breezes which blew across the open grasses. The air felt different. The wind blowing across her skin seemed as if it were a split from the zephyrs that she inhaled in Chicago.

  “I think I can be happy here,” she said, pulling into the tiny town and locating the Courthouse that sat directly next to an empty office with a dark red medical cross on the window. On the opposite side of it sat an independent building with a satellite on the roof adorned with a large red, very masculine M. The painted-on sign in the window plainly displayed the name ‘Montgomery Communications.’

  This was it.

  Her husband-to-be worked in that building. Quickly she made the call to Coraline, informing the matchmaker that she had in fact arrived in Harbuck. Next, she inhaled deeply and checked her teeth in the mirror for remnants of a hasty breakfast. Then, she checked her breath and just to play it safe, popped two breath mints into her mouth.

  “Stop being an idiot, he’s not going to kiss you,” she admonished herself.

  Inhaling deeply, she opened the door of the jeep, catching the attention of a few passersby. Head held high, expensive purse on her wrist, Khloe headed to the offices of Montgomery Communications, opening the door and letting herself in. A blond w
oman behind the desk looked up to see the tall Black woman standing in the office dressed as if she’d stepped off the pages of Life Styles of the Black and Famous. Her mouth hung open as her lips moved back in forth to find the words she wanted to say to Khloe.

  “You lost?” the young woman asked.

  “No, I’m here to see him,” she said pointing to Beau, who had come out of the office and leaned against the door jamb. He’d seen the car pull in to town and park in front of the building. She was right on time. He liked that.

  Khloe also liked what she saw. He was taller than she’d envisioned. The strawberry blonde hair was shaven on the sides of his head to display the scalp tattoos. Beau was a tough hombre to have his head needle punched with that much ink. He was attractive she noted as her eyes met his.

  “Why do you need to see Mr. Montgomery?’ the young girl asked.

  “I came to marry him,” Khloe said, waltzing past the woman towards Beau’s office. She tugged on one of the buttons on the front of his shirt suggesting he follow her inside. He arched a single brow and looked at the receptionist before following behind his wife-to-be.

  “Hold my calls, Sarah Jean,” Beau said, closing his office door. He took a look at the tall ebony-skinned beauty and gave a low wolf whistle. “That photo did not do you justice. You sure you’re in the right place?”

  “If you are Beauregard Montgomery, then you are the right man and I am in the right place,” she said, looking deep into the sultry green eyes.

  “Sounds good. Get changed and we’ll go get hitched.”

  “Wait...what?”

  “I’ll step out, you get changed, and we’ll head over to the Courthouse and get this done,” he said with a wink.

  Then he left. She stood in the middle of the floor in his office, the room heavily laden with the scent of his woodsy cologne and his big manly chair. Khloe was confused.

  “Hold up there, Mountain Man,” she said, grabbing the door handle to find the large silhouette of him walking across the street.

  “Beau said once you got dressed that I should come get him from the bar,” Sarah Jean told her. “This is so exciting. Can I come to your wedding?”