"On the front of these cards is my work address, office, and cell phone number," he told each of her family as he handed them a card. "On the back, I have taken the liberty of adding the address of the farm and the number to the carriage house where we will live. It doesn't have any furniture yet, but Katy will get it decorated so you all can come for a visit to see where she's landed."

  He looked over his shoulder at Katy Mae and told her, "Katy, get your things; we need to leave."

  The older brother Beau spoke up, "You saying we can come for a visit whenever we like?"

  Adriano looked him square in the eyes. "Well, no time soon. We don't have any furniture, plus I owe her a honeymoon with white sandy beaches and crystalline blue waters. My plans have been shot, no pun intended, so I have to play everything by ear, but the door shall be open."

  His gaze went back to Albus as he extended his hand for a shake. He held it there for a moment and slowly, his father-in-law met him in the middle and accepted the hand. Albus nodded at him as Katy Mae returned from the bedroom with the old brown leather suitcase she'd packed when she’d headed off to Knoxville for college. Outside of college and the trip to New York, Katy hadn't traveled or seen much of the world.

  As her father, Albus had tried to shield her from the ugliness of the outsdie. He stood tall to protect her from predatory men and loose-toothed mountain men who wanted to fill her with babies and take the sparkle from her eyes. He didn't care a great deal for this man but he'd spoken his words and appeared to be truthful. If push came to shove and Adriano mistreated his baby girl, there were ravines in the mountains where no one would ever find his body. He just hoped it didn't come to that kind of an end.

  "Katy Mae, you be a good wife and helper to this man," Albus told her.

  "I will Pa," she said, her eyes tearing.

  "If he mistreats you, use your phone to call us, and we'll come get you and bring you home," Albus assured her.

  "Yes Sir," she said, with her bottom lip quivering.

  "Get on over here and give your Ma some affection so you can get going," he told her, pressing his lips tightly together.

  Katy Mae did as she was told. She hugged her mother, who started to cry. She embraced her sister-in-law, who told her she'd be missed. Lil' Bo lifted her off her feet in a bear hug. Beau patted her on the head like a puppy and Jethro kissed her cheek. Last in line was her father, who wiped away a tear, held her close, and then pushed her over to Adriano.

  "Get going and call us when you get there," Albus said, giving Adriano the stink eye.

  Adriano nodded to them all, picked up his overnight back, took her by the hand, and led her out to the vehicle. He opened the passenger door for her, and she took a seat, and after closing the door, he placed the canvas bag, loaded with heaven's only knew what in the back seat. The worn brown luggage went in the hatchback. Now, he only things he wanted were a hot cup of coffee, a stack of pancakes, and some crispy bacon, which he planned to get as soon as they got out of Harbuck.

  Adriano climbed into the driver's seat of the cramped car, tooted the horn, and started up the Ford, and they were off. In her seat, Katy Mae sat quietly, her head held low. His watch read six thirty.

  "We lose an hour going back, so we should be there, give or take a little, by seven thirty or so," Adriano said softly. "I guess in the morning you can call the school and have the principal let the kids know you're on to a new assignment as a covert spy."

  She chuckled a bit at his words. "I'm sorry about the way things turned out, Gael," Katy Mae said.

  "I'm not," he told her. "I was coming to ask you to marry me anyway. I was hoping to finish the carriage house before you arrived and surprise you with the honeymoon, but hey, it is, what it is."

  "You don't feel cheated?"

  "Uhmm, nope," he said. "Ideally, I would have preferred for it to unfold another way, but in the end, I still win. I got you."

  He saw her smile in the faint light of the morning. It wasn't much or the perfect start to a perfect match, but it was a start. They were on their way to a year of learning, loving, and living a life neither of them imagined.

  "Katherine, it's time to move you to Kansas," he said, reaching over to touch her hand. "Let's go home."

  He made it an hour and a half before it felt like his stomach was trying to touch his spine. Hungrier than he ever been in his life, he pulled the little Ford into Syrup and Eggs in Chattanooga and attempted to order half the menu. Katy Mae watched in horror as plate after plate of food arrived, and he began to eat a little off each one.

  "Do you always eat like this?"

  "Uhmm, nope, but technically, my wife hasn't fed me in three days," he said. "I ate pieces of a marsupial coated in gravy with peas and carrots. I also shoved a few of your Mama's delicious biscuits in my face, but we didn't really eat dinner last night. Or Friday night. So, yeah. Hungry."

  "I'm sorry," she said, looking at the scrambled eggs on her plate.

  "Katy stop apologizing for your family being your family," he told her. "You get what you're born with, and they love you. Your Daddy wanted me to do right by you, and I will."

  "My brother though...the things he said to you about me were inappropriate and humiliating."

  "As was his intention," Adriano said. "He didn't say those things to hurt you or because he didn't know better. Lil' Bo said that stuff to see if I would come to your defense. I did. He was satisfied that I’d take care of his baby sister."

  "They took your rental car to keep you from running off!"

  "Yeah, and the car we're driving isn't going to make it another ten hours. We'll be lucky to get to Nashville before it conks out."

  "What do you suggest we do?"

  "I'm going to get you another car if that's okay with you," he said, "a newer model, jazzy, with a bunch of features that will help you with what comes next and can hold a car seat."

  Katy Mae blushed under his statement. "How are you going to buy a car while we're driving? Doesn't it take like all day and a bunch of paperwork and stuff; besides, in less than twelve hours, I won't have any income to make a car note."

  "Don't worry; I got you," he said, passing her his phone. "I like this Cadillac, but if you see something else you like, let me know. Try to find something with low payments of five hundred or less."

  Katy Mae watched him inhale the pancakes, stuff in the bacon and swish it down with hot black coffee. A moment of fear entered her brain, thinking she would have to cook like this for him every day and he'd get fat as hell and take her with him. She saw no earthly reason for that type of nonsense and went back to focusing on the vehicles.

  "Hey, Gael, these are like in a vending machine. You can buy a car from a vending machine?"

  "Sure can; we can leave yours and come back and get it, or we can just plain leave it for the next college student who may need a car to get around town," he said. "That car is not meant to drive long distances. Plus, you need an upgrade."

  "Is that what you're giving me, an upgrade?"

  "My hope, dear wife, if the Lord sees fit to smile down upon me, is to give you everything you've ever wanted and then some," he said, washing down eggs with a large gulp of orange juice. "That is, if I can."

  "You make it sound so easy. We are strangers who are married based on me pooping in a cup for testing and taking some computer test. How in the world do you think this is going to work for us?"

  The tears were back in her eyes, and a pain hit him low in the gut. He didn't know if it was from shoveling in too much food or seeing the woman who would be the mother of his children in distress. Either way, he didn't like it, and the last thing he wanted or needed was for Katy Mae to be scared.

  "Katy, or would you prefer Katherine as part of your upgrade in life?"

  "Katy is fine," she said, pushing the eggs about her plate with a fork.

  "Well, my dear Katy, do you plan to be a pain in my ass, nag me the moment I walk in the door, be lazy, and when I come home from work neither the pot or you are hot for me?"

  "Of course not," she said, almost offended.

  "Then we are good," he answered. "I plan to spend the rest of our lives, if possible, being the man you think you married. I'm going to take you to fancy dinners and dancing in high heeled shoes with sparkles, bring in jewelry for your birthday and anniversary..."

  "Yeah, whatever," she mumbled. "What if I told you all I really wanted was a chance for a different life with a man who loved me and kids who thought I was the best momma in the world?"

  "I can give you that...in time."

  "In time," she parroted.

  "We have lots of time to learn each other’s habits and fall in love before we start our family," he told her. "The rest, we'll figure out."

  "Figure out? You've just uprooted me from my entire life and now you want to tell me we'll figure it out? Did you see how my Pa looked at me? That is going to haunt me for the rest of my life!"

  Adriano pushed the plates aside and placed his hands flat on the table. There was much to share with her, lots to explain, and things he'd never told another soul, not even Aunt Sue. This morning, he would open his soul to his wife.

  "My father, well, we ended up in Kansas because my father got into a bar fight in Texas with a bunch of Navy guys while he was drunk," he told her. "He hit the man so hard that it knocked him unconscious, and when the guy fell, he banged his head. The man never woke up."

  Katy Mae's eyebrows knitted as she listened to him speak. He explained a childhood she would never understand. Her husband spoke of a life of loneliness that she'd never known.

  "My mother moved us to Kansas so we could be closer to my father and still have him in our lives so he could see me grow up, but we didn't have money to live," he confessed. "After a month of going hungry, my mother started to date. You can translate that any way you see fit, and word spread in Leavenworth and it got back to my father."

  The pain in his eyes was real. The anguish in sharing such details with her was evident on his face. A moment of having to relive the pain by speaking the ugliness aloud hurt him.

  "He, being of such high moral character and serving a life sentence for murdering a man in a drunken rage, considered my mother to be trash and never wanted to see her again," Adriano explained. "Since I looked so much like him, my mother never wanted to look at me again either and went on a date and never came back. A year later, I passed her on the street and life hadn't treated her well. Don't talk to me about being haunted by your father's disappointing look. He did what he did to protect your reputation. In the end, that's what makes a woman, Katy Mae. Either you're a good woman, or a bad one, that can physically fuck up or fuck down."

  "Gael, is that your view on women in general or just on your mother?"

  "It is my view on life," he said softly. "You get what you're given, but it takes willpower, courage, and conviction to change the course of your life. I changed mine. If you want to, Katy Mae, you can transition into Katherine and live life the way you imagined. The choice is yours."

  Two hours later, she made her choice. From the car vending machine, she chose a very pretty red 2021 Nissan Rogue with all the bells and whistles, and he passed her the keys as he changed the items in the Ford and moved them to the new SUV. He'd made his decision and now she was making hers. Life had given her a chance for a different story and she was going to make the best of the situation and live her best life.

  "You like how it drives?"

  "I love it," she told him with a large smile. "We've got this, right?"

  "Right!"

  "Good, because Lady Katherine moves to Kansas in her new vehicle with her new attitude," she said, tooting the horn and heading for 1-24 towards Paducah, Kentucky. She was ready for a good life, and he seemed prepared to give her one. In her estimation, there was no sense in arguing, but placing her focus on the matter at hand- living.

  | Page

  Chapter 6 - Going

  The load Adriano carried became burdensome two hours outside of the Kansas state line. The heavy weight sat hard into his lap, nearly deadening his right leg and sent dull throbs of pain up his side to his lower back. Sleeping on the rock-hard couch with one too many springs that had sprung also didn't help. The stack of flapjacks he'd eaten for breakfast determined they were unwilling to be fully digested and wedged themselves like a doughy lump in his lower colon. In short, he was miserable.

  "Katy, let me take her in," he told his new bride when they stopped one final time to refuel.

  "You sure? I don't mind driving; it's such a nice car," she told him, “We have what, about three hours to go?"

  "No, I'm going to shorten that distance too and stop at my place in Kansas City for the night," he mumbled as he climbed behind the steering wheel and adjusted the seat for his long legs.

  "Oh, so no farm tonight?"

  "Katy, I have to work tomorrow," he told her, checking the rear-view mirror and merging on the road and making way towards the on-ramp. "My car is at my place, and there's no furniture at the carriage house. We could stay in the farmhouse, but then I would have to still stop by my place to pick up my car, and you would need to trail me to the farm so I can get up at the butt crack of dawn to drive back to my place to go to work."

  "Okayyyy," she said, pressing her lips together. "I understand."

  "I hope so," he answered solemnly, "because the last couple of days have been a lot. I really want a hot shower, my own bed, and a good night's rest. Tomorrow I have at ten, a lunch meeting, and a three p.m. with a client I don't like who sure as hell doesn't like me. I need to be home tonight."

  She nodded as the darkness of the evening pressed in on the vehicle, taking away the bright sunniness of the day, a harsh reminder that possibly tonight he'd want to claim his rights as a husband. Katy Mae didn't own fancy lingerie or slinky underwear with the coochie part missing from the seat. All she owned were solid cotton bloomers that came six in a pack from the local Wal-Mart.

  "You're quiet," Adriano commented. "Don't worry; we'll get to that when we get to that; right now, I have other things on my mind."

  Katy Mae chewed nervously on her bottom lip. "I ain't worried none. It's just that last night, you didn't try, and my Pa noticed you slept on the couch. I mean, I heard your explanation and all, but a girl has to wonder if that's gonna be a regular kind of thing."

  "If it means that much to you to connect tonight, we can, but I would rather for us to wait until we are, I guess, feeling each other enough to want to do something about it because we have no other choice," he said, "versus, doing something about it because that's what we're supposed to do, if that makes sense."

  "I don't understand this no other choice," Katy Mae replied. "Can you explain that part to me?"

  He switched lanes, maneuvering expertly through traffic. He enjoyed the way the vehicle handled, and felt he'd made a good choice for a reliable, solid car for his wife. In her company, there wasn't any tension, but an awkwardness based on the circumstance, a small issue they would rectify soon enough.

  "Katy, having no other choice means that as man and wife, or as a man and woman, our desire for each other burns so fiery hot, that nothing, I mean nothing, will get in the way of us loving one another," he said softly.

  "Loving one another, as in like having sex?"

  "Yes, I prefer referring to sex as loving one another."

  Her eyebrows arched and her body stiffened. "So, are you going to be all soft and pretty with your words when we get around to this loving one another? I am a strong woman and I hope I've married a strong man. I want to wake up the next morning feeling like my man took it on the hip and the rest did a flip!"

  He half turned his head to look at her, trying to keep his eye on the ever-darkening road. "I have no idea what the hell that means," he said, trying not to laugh.

  "It means that Ms. Cooch Montgomery has been waiting a long time to get on the playing field, and she doesn't want some left-handed pitcher tossing her ground balls," Katy Mae said with a stomp of her foot into the floorboard.

  He found himself laughing out loud. "Is Ms. Cooch Montgomery the name you've given to your vagina?"

  "Yes, and I will honestly tell you, the drones in the hive have come for the lady, but she's picky. She's not gonna just let any bee vomit on her honeycomb," Katy emphasized.

  "Good grief," he said, laughing harder.

  "You're darn tootin'," Katy Mae added. "I tell you, when she came into contact with you, she started in on me. She likes you, but yeah, the last thing I want is for the queen to get all excited and you're a one stinger kind of buzz kill."

  "Katy, you're killing me with the metaphors," he said, trying to not laugh harder as the sign for the Kansas state line appeared.

  "Well, my Ma says it ain't lady like for a woman to tell her husband about her wants and needs, but since you said we'd wait until we had no other choice, I'm just wanting to know how long it's gonna be before you take away my right to choose?"

  "You are truly refreshing," he told her as they sped down the highway.

  "Refreshing ain't gone make no kids," she told him. "I been a chaste woman and not succumbing to every slick tongued Willie Roamer that came along. Trust me; in college, every year there were new ones trying the same old song and dance, and I knew. I knew in my heart that if I couldn't take any of them fellers home to meet my Pa, then I sure as horsehair couldn't take them to my bed."

  "Katy, are you telling me that you've never...," he started to say.

  "Yeah, I have once or twice," she said, "but it wasn't very good, and I didn't like how they made me feel. I felt kinda dirty. Plus, I didn't want to get a reputation for being a good time girl. I even had a few try to get me drunk and take advantage. Takes a lot to get me drunk."

  "Tell me about it. I'm still trying to figure out how we got naked," he told her.

  "We got all sweaty, and you got sleepy, but you didn't want to sleep in your clothes," she explained.

  "And why were you naked as well?"

  "I didn't want you feel foolish," she said and burst into laughter. "That sure as shit backfired!"

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21