Chapter 12
“So, these are the Great Smokey Mountains, huh?”
Katy peered out the window like a child anxious to finally get to the destination. Brennon had just driven around the outskirts of Knoxville and was now on the major thoroughfare leading up into the smokey mountains. After going through a very rainy stretch of the interstate after Lexington, Kentucky, the swelling gray clouds had moved on. In their path, they left a majestic haze that hovered over the Smokey Mountains with streaks of bold sunlight reaching through and down onto the timber coating the mountainsides.
“Yeah,” Brennon said. “We came up here once, to Gatlinburg, when I was a kid. I wonder how it’s changed.”
Katy looked over at Brennon then placed her hand on his forearm. She smiled; her heart warmed then she turned back to the view. She couldn’t help but to admire the beauty of the mountains and how they reached into the background, almost seemingly endless. The blue hues in the distance – the “smokey” part of things – was almost too majestic to believe.
“Well, I will admit this is a nice surprise,” Katy said. “I certainly wasn’t expecting this.”
“And you’re sure the school doesn’t have a problem with you suddenly taking a few days off?” Brennon asked.
Katy shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t taken off much at all this year, so they’ll be okay. I’ll take pictures to take back to the kids. I’m sure they’ll love this. Just think, a few more weeks, maybe, these might be covered in snow.” She closed her eyes in thought. “Just imagine how that must look.”
Brennon looked over at Katy then back at the road, chuckling. “Well, wait until you see Gatlinburg. I remember that night we went and got that dress downtown. I probably won’t be able to keep track of you when we get down into town.” He laughed and shook his head. “Better yet… Might just have to come back and find you, probably running around like a kid hyped up on candy.”
Katy turned to Brennon. “There’s really that much shopping?”
Brennon turned to Katy, looked dead into her eyes, then back toward the road ahead. He rested assured that his silence would be enough to hold Katy over until the road dipped between the sides of two mountains then into the beautiful, storybook-like Gatlinburg.
Katy and Brennon talked on and on as the traffic tensed up leading down into Gatlinburg. It cut through a massive strip of shopping, at which Katy looked out the window like a starving dog with its tongue out. Brennon laughed, often making jokes about her. Katy pulled up the cabin on her phone, anxious to walk through the doors. She had never stayed in a cabin, so this was certainly going to be something new for her.
This entire trip seemed very unreal to Katy. She and Brennon had been lying in the bed, naked after lust-filled, passionate sex just a few days ago. She would’ve never guessed that Brennon was secretly planning to whisk her away to the Smokey Mountains. In fact, he hadn’t even revealed his plans. He simply called Katy while she was at work the next day and asked that she take a few days off work. Naturally, she insisted on knowing what he was planning, but Brennon refused to tell her. Rather, she was met with the words “just trust me.” And now she was so glad she did. The following morning, Brennon pulled up in a silver rental car, picked Katy up, then headed for the interstate. When Katy started demanding to know where they were going, Brennon simply pulled up the luxury cabin he rented in the mountains and handed his phone to Katy. Since then, Katy had been so excited she couldn’t keep from talking the entire trip.
Just as Brennon predicted, Katy was floored by the amount of shopping in Gatlinburg. She often compared the town itself – its overall appearance and layout – to a storybook kind of town. “It’s like something out of Beauty & the Beast.”
Brennon laughed then crawled through the bumper-to-bumper traffic until they came to the other side of the tiny, wedged-in-the-mountains town. There were moments Brennon thought Katy was going to jump out of the car and go running and he would have to jump out and catch her. Being facetious, he would lock the doors at purposely quiet moments. Katy would look over at him with flared nostrils, squinting. “I get what you’re saying,” she said. “Are you going to put the child lock on too?”
Brennon steered the car up the side of mountain. Certain moments were certainly scary; Katy had never driven up a road so steep. Sometime she would have to lean over so she could keep from looking over the side of a mountain – a side of the mountain where with one wrong move, they could wind up in what looked like a never-ending wooded ditch.
When Brennon turned down a side road, Katy realized they were almost there. Minutes later, they came up a community of cabins with the office across the road. Brennon pulled into the parking lot, they went inside to get the keys and sign by the X, then they headed to the cabin. Katy smiled, peering out the window when Brennon pulled into the driveway.
“Oh, wow, Brennon,” Katy said. “This is beautiful.” She stepped out of the car. The way the mountains climbed up toward a hazy sky in the background was to die for. There was a good amount of space between their cabin and their neighbors. As they headed up onto the porch, Katy got a glimpse of the hot tube around on the other side of the wrap-around porch.
Brennon chuckled. “Calm down, calm down.”
“I am calm,” Katy said.
Brennon noticed how anxious Katy clearly was for him to unlock the door. For that reason, he purposely moved as slow as possible with the key. Katy noticed, and picked up that he was doing it on purpose. She playfully slapped his shoulder then told him to hurry up.
When Brennon opened the door, Katy rushed inside. She left the suitcases in the doorway, blocking Brennon’s way, and hadn’t even realized it. He pushed everything to the side, into the kitchen area, then stood there and watched Katy as she walked around the entire house – the master bedroom and bathroom with a huge bathtub that they would inevitably wind up in; the cottage feel; the patio door with a barbecue pit and a bit of land reaching toward the base of a mountain; the pool table upstairs. And of course she looked out the side French doors at the Jacuzzi. When Katy finished looking around the cabin, she noticed Brennon’s silence. She looked over toward the front door. Brennon still stood there. Katy smiled, realizing how she might’ve looked rushing around the house.
Brennon and Katy rested for about thirty minutes and talked about what things they could do so they could get the most out of their few days up in the mountains. There was something about neither of their friends of families knowing what they’d done. It was so spontaneous – courageous, adventurous.
When they headed back out, their hunger led them down into Gatlinburg where they ate at a Shoney’s before walking the town’s long, major street. Katy went into at least a dozen stores just in the first three of four blocks of their stroll. There were times Brennon felt like a small boy being dragged by his mother up and down a street downtown, going into department stores and waiting outside of the women’s section.
Finally, when they came to a corner, Katy wanted to turn right and got the south. Brennon quickly spoke up. Unbeknownst to Katy, Brennon already had something else up his sleeve. “Katy, Katy, let’s slow down for a minute.”
Katy, with shopping bags in her hands, turned and looked confused. “Huh? What?”
Brennon pointed the other way down the street. “There’s this store down there I want to go into. Come on.”
“Oh, yeah?” Katy asked. She wondered how Brennon would even know about this store. “Sure, okay.”
Brennon led Katy down the street until they came to Chrissy’s Gifts, a store which sold trinkets as well as ceramic vases and figurines. He held the door open, allowing Katy to step inside. “Ooh, this looks nice,” she said, noticing a glass penguin in the front window. “I like stuff like this, Brennon.” She nodded. “Yeah, I like this. This is the kind of stuff I want in my house one day.”
Brennon chuckled. He pretended to be perusing with Katy, but kept his eyes on the counter. When the store attendant came back to the counter, Brennon led Katy over to the counter. Katy’s forehead scrunched up as she tried to figure out what was going on. “Brennon, what’s going on?”
“Excuse me, Mam,” Brennon said to the woman. “My name is Brennon Hicks and I have an order on hold here that I’d like to pick up.” He pulled his ID out and handed it to the woman. They then went to the back to get the order, saying she would be right back.
Katy looked up and Brennon and smiled. “So many surprises with you. Hmm, I’m really starting to wonder if maybe you do work for the CIA or FBI or something. Never know what’s up your sleeve.”
Brennon chuckled. “Yeah, that’s why I got that call from Washington. I was instructed to bring you up here and make you disappear in the mountains.”
Katy turned away, pretending to be offended. Brennon wrapped his arm around her shoulder then kissed the side of her head. The store attendant then came out from the back, verified some things with Brennon, then lowered the box down into a bag and handed it to Brennon. He thanked the woman then pulled curious Katy back outside onto the sidewalk.
“So, what was that?” Katy asked as they walked down the sidewalk.
“Don’t worry about it,” Brennon said. “You’ll know soon enough.”
“Why can’t I know now?” Katy asked.
Brennon shook his head. “Because if I told you know, I’ve been given orders to kill you.”
“Brennon, seriously,” Katy said. “Why won’t you show me whatever order you got? I should’ve known you were up to something. I thought something was up when you said that you wanted to go to a store down there, that we couldn’t see from the corner and hadn’t even passed yet. I am starting to wonder what else we’re here for.”
They walked Gatlinburg a bit more until they grew tired. The sun began it’s slow decent out of the sky. When they climbed back into the car then crawled with the tourist traffic up out of the town, Katy looked out the window once again in awe. She pulled her phone out and took a picture. She sent it to Eve, but purposely attached no message. Instead, she wanted her nosy friend to have to seat and wonder not only where that picture was taken, but also where Katy had run off to without telling her.
Brennon turned a different way at the end of the road then mentioned they should head up to this nature reserve of sorts. “The view of Gatlinburg and the mountains from up there...you’re really gong to like it.”
The road veered with a brooks and streams then up the side of a mountain. When they came to an opening, there was a small parking lot with a walkway and wood railing along the front. As they pulled in, Katy could tell it was some sort of overlook with how there appeared to be nothing but open air on the other side of the railing.
Brennon grabbed the bag he got at the shop then hopped out of the car to help Katy out of her side. Katy looked at him with inquisitive eyes as he walked her over to a picnic table and bench. Katy stepped up to the wood railing. The view took her breath away, prompting Brennon to come to her side. The overlook looked out over a steep, wooded side of the mountain. Beyond it was the entire town of Gatlinburg. The view was so scenic – the mountains a smokey blue; the loud, bustling town looking completely silent from this far away. Katy snapped as selfie then got one of Brennon, who purposely kept his face emotionless while taking the picture.
Katy followed Brennon over to the picnic table. They sat down, Katy taking a deep breath as she looked around. “You think we’ll see a bear?” The tone in her voice was excited.
“God, I hope not,” Brennon said, lifting the bag up onto the table. “But I’ll tell you what I hope we see. Saw some that time we came up here as kids… Turtles...in the creek.”
“Oh, there’s a creek we can park at and maybe see some turtles?” Katy asked.
Brennon nodded, knowing very well that Katy’s favorite animal was the turtle. For that very reason, he knew she was going to be thrilled when she saw what was in the box he got at the shop down in Gatlinburg. “Yeah, there is… Gotta find it, but there is one. That’s on the list. But first, I thought I would get this for you.”
Brennon smiled then handed the bag across the table to Katy. She smiled graciously, accepting it then pulling it down to her bench and pulling the box out of the bag. Brennon watched her peel the tape off then get into the box. After pulling the box up and out of the bag, Katy’s fate lit up with excited. She lifted the ceramic turtle up out of the box and sat it down on the table. She looked at it like a small child looking at a fish tank for the first time. Brennon couldn’t help but to chuckle, but it was definitely nice to know that she liked it so much.
Katy rushed around to Brennon’s side of the table and hugged and kissed him. “Thank you, thank you. What a wonderful surprise. I love it.”
“You’re welcome, Katy,” Brennon said. “I saw something about that store online and checked out some of what they sell and saw that. I knew you would like it.”
Katy sat back down. “I love it.” She started to wrap it then slide it back down into the box. “I’ll have to think about where I can put it, though.” She chuckled. “I certainly don’t want this on my desk in the class room. Those kids are always reaching and trying to get something, knocking stuff over.”
Brennon laughed. “Yeah, let’s not put something like that there. You talked about buying your first house sooner or later. Just save something like that for then. Remember when you said you liked those old Victorian houses in that neighborhood I took you through around downtown? Well, something like that would really go nice in one of those windows.”
“Oh, yes, absolutely,” Katy said.
Brennon and Katy talked for a while as the sun slowly dipped out of the sky. Once the orchestra of crickets and cicadas had saturated the air, Katy turned and looked at the view. Whatever clouds had been hanging around from the storm drifted out of sight. The stars sparkled, as did Gatlinburg down below. Before leaving the lookout, Katy and Brennon stood at the wood railing one more time and stared out. Brennon pointed to the cabins on the sides of the mountains – cabins which were obviously peoples’ residential dwellings rather than for rent for getaways. The couple talked about how they imagined it would be to live somewhere like the Smokey Mountains. All Katy could think about was driving up the sides of mountains just to get home in the afternoon after teaching and how frightening doing such a thing must be in the winter.
Katy finally fessed up that she was getting cold; the temperature had obviously dropped below freezing, so she couldn’t tolerate sitting outside anymore.
Brennon pulled up his GPS and found a way around Gatlinburg to get back to where their cabin was. They stopped at a Kroger and got some things to hold them over for the night should they get hungry. And Brennon made sure to grab a couple bottles of different wines before they headed back to the cabin.
Upon stepping inside, Katy acted as if she was seeing the place again for the first time. There was something about being in a wood cabin up in the mountains at night that seemed to romantic. In many ways, it was just hard to believe. Lately, while coming to the end of the school year, Katy felt twice as stressed because she had the issues with her and Brennon’s families now that they knew about their relationship. Katy just couldn’t care one bit about something like that right now.
Katy and Brennon changed into their sleep clothes then closed the blinds of the windows facing the cabins on either side of them. Brennon playfully slapped Katy’s behind when she started putting away their few bags of groceries. She turned around and did the same to Brennon. He saw it coming and quickly tried to move out of the way, but Katy’s hand still managed to make contact.
Brennon turned on the TV, didn’t like what was showing, so put on some light rock. He turned it down as well as turned the lights off then flipped on the spotlights. Katy had just finished with the last bag when she walked over to the couple of steps leading down into the large, open family area. She put her hand on her hips and looked up and around. “Um, what are you doing?”
“What do you mean?” Brennon asked. He got a wine opener and popped the cork. “I just thought we could share a bottle of wine to calm down.”
“But what about getting in the hot tub?” Katy asked, walking over to the patio door. “You know I love a hot tub.”
Brennon chuckled. He then crossed the room, came up to Katy from behind, and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Come on, Katy. You know it’s gotten way colder outside. I wouldn’t be surprised if it even snowed a little tonight… After all, we are higher up. I know you saw how we basically kept climbing up once we left Knoxville.”
“I know, I know, but still,” Katy said. She loved so much to be in Brennon’s embrace. She felt safe – comforted.
“It’s too cold, Katy,” Brennon said. “Why don’t you come over here and just sit down for a little bit?”
Katy went and sat by the French doors facing the back of the cabin – toward the mountains. She looked out as Brennon poured a couple glasses of wine then came over and sat next to her. He kissed her then handed a glass to her. “Are you into toasting?” he asked.
Katy giggled then shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I guess I am. I’ve done it, but not always.” She smiled. “What would you want to toast to?”
“I don’t know,” Brennon said. “There’s so much to toast too. Since I’ve kidnapped you and brought you up to the mountains to dispose of you, I feel like this toast really should mean something.”
Katy’s eyes slanted to Brennon. “Ha ha...Very funny. Maybe I’m the agent and was sent to make you disappear.”
Brennon raised his eyebrows. “A woman agent sent to make me disappear… Hmm, that sounds interesting.”
Katy rolled her eyes, laughed then held her glass up. “Let’s just toast to escaping the world.”
“Escaping the world?” Brennon asked. “That’s funny. We’re only five hours away.”
“I know, silly, but you know what I mean.” Katy held her glass up higher. “Let’s make a toast to escaping all the crap to do with our families and lives back home… A toast to being brave and finally breaking out of your comfort zone and doing something crazy.”
Brennon looked at Katy for a long, silent moment. With each passing moment, he was enthralled in a disapproving relationship with Katy, he found himself loving her more and more. “A toast to escaping the world and doing something courageous.”
Brennon and Katy clinked the rims of their glasses together then smiled. They each took a gulp of their wine then savored the taste. “So, what do you think?” Brennon asked. “I noticed how you were critiquing the wines at that art gallery that night. I was impressed, I have to say. I didn’t know you were into wine.”
Katy’s eyelids fluttered; she sucked her cheeks in then shook her head. She set the glass down on the coffee table in front of them then wiped her face. “I’m not into wine, really,” she admitted. “I was just regurgitating what I heard other people saying from other conversations. All of it tasted the same to me...except for the apple whatever. That was pretty good. Everything else you heard me say was just bullshit.”
Brennon burst into laughter, shaking his head. At first, Katy giggled and found the humor. However, after his laughing seemed to be truly gut-wrenching, she was starting to wonder what was so damn funny. “Hey, what’s so funny?”
Brennon finally stopped laughing, wiping his watering eyes, then turned to Katy. Rather than say anything, he simply leaned it and kissed her passionately. Brennon quickly set his glass down then fell into an enthralling embrace with the love of his life. When their lips finally parted, Brennon just so happened to glance up at the french doors looking out at the mountains. He smiled then looked down at Katy, knowing that she was going to like what she was about to see.
“Katy, look outside,” Brennon said, rising up off of her.
Katy quickly turned over and stood up. Her face lit up a like a little girl on Christmas then she walked over to the door and looked out. “It’s so beautiful. I could live somewhere like this.”
Brennon laughed then went over and wrapped his arms around Katy’s waist once again. “Hmm, hmm… You say that now… But earlier, you were saying you couldn’t imagine having to drive up some of these mountains.”
“Yeah, I know, but still,” Katy said. “Maybe I could live somewhere down in town that is flat and I don’t have to drive up mountains much.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Brennon said. He leaned in and started to gently kiss Katy’s neck, pushing her hair out of the way. Her scent drove him crazy. After kissing her neck may be a dozen times, he stepped over and grabbed the wine glasses. They finished their wine glasses while watching the snow fall over the dark mountains. Katy even went as far as to step out on the patio just so she could stand in the snow and see the view without any glass between she and it.
Brennon pushed the doors closed when Katy stepped back inside. He then grabbed the wine glasses and set them back down on the coffee table. When he turned around, Katy was walking seductively around the fire place and into the master suite. Brennon grinned when she looked back and into his eyes. He then zipped across the room. Katy ran.
“You really think I can’t catch you?” Brennon asked. s
Katy darted through the master bathroom then around to the kitchen. “Well, you still haven’t.”
Brennon came around the bend then she dipped around a corner and stood as silently as she could next to the patio doors. When she realized, the light switches were in reach, and she could reach without her arm being seen, she did just that. The entire house succumbed to darkness.
“Oh, this is even better,” Brennon said, carefully making his way around furniture as he looked high and low for Katy. There was just enough moonlight reaching in through the windows and doors for him to see where he was going. Suddenly, out of a dark corner, Katy rushed across the room then into the bedroom. Brennon ran as fast as he could and then caught up with her. He grabbed her waist just as they went crashing down on the bed. “See, what did I tell you?”
Katy blushed. “Oh, I let you catch me,” she said. “Just so you could feel good about yourself.”
Brennon chuckled then rubbed Katy’s hips and butt while he kissed the back of her neck. He then worked his way up to her ear, which made Katy’s mouth hang open and she sighed with pleasure.
Brennon playfully turned Katy over then lay between her legs, kissing her passionately. The floor-to-ceiling bedroom window curtains were still open, but neither one of them could care. Moonlight crossed the California King bed; the snow picked up, now lightly dusting the ground. It was as if the mountains were looking down at them. All Katy could do was close her eyes and smile in bliss.
The snow continued to fall well into the night while Brennon and Katy made love. This time, for the both of them, felt like the most passionate love-making they had ever made. It was truly as if the rest of the world ceased to exist for those dark, snowy hours. When they lay in bed afterward, Katy felt so secure in Brennon’s arms. They turned toward the window; their bodies sticky from their sweat. Katy smiled. “Thank you so much,” she said.
Brennon chuckled then kissed the side of Katy’s head. “You’re welcome. I love you.”
Katy smiled then rolled over to kiss Brennon and look into his eyes. “I love you too, Brennon. Really, I do.”