Page 31 of Home Between Homes

I couldn’t believe he’d made the mess even worse.

“Doesn’t matter. There’s a drain.” He pointed to a small metal square with holes in it next to the tub. “I’ll have to clean it anyway,” he explained, catching my surprised expression. He leaned forward, wrapped his hand around my head, and pulled me into a kiss. “Thank you. This…wow. It’s probably selfish of me to say this, but what we just did makes me wish the blizzard would rage on forever.”

“I couldn’t have said it better.”

His gaze dropped to the water, back to me for a second, and then out the window.

“What is it?” I asked, as he clearly had thoughts in his head that he decided he couldn’t say out loud.

“Can I confess something?” Jack said, sucking on his lips. “I’ve never bathed with anyone before, but there was one thing I always wanted to try if I ever got the chance. It’s probably super cheesy, but... I don’t know.” He looked me right in the eye. “Would it be weird to ask if I could wash your hair?”

The jets still made the water bubble, clearly announcing that our time here wasn’t over.

“Only if you let me return the favor.”

The smile on his face almost reached up to his ears.Damn.If only the blizzardwouldrage forever.

NINE

THE MORE YOU KNOW

The blizzard wasthe heaviest to hit the country since weather records began. It became so unpredictable that the forecast changed by the minute.

‘It will get better in about twelve hours.’

‘If this low-pressure front hits us here, the blizzard could last a whole week.’

‘Today’s snow was only the first taste of what’s coming.’

If we didn’t run out of food in a few days, I wouldn’t mind if it never ended. It had only been about thirty-six hours that I had been with Jack, about twenty-four of them snowbound, and we had already accepted that we were what could be called a blizzard couple, even though we never officially labeled it that. We were just two people who liked each other enough to make the best of the situation.

It helped that we knew each other from before, and it also helped that I remembered more of our college days together. I even found an old picture of our study group from when we went out for drinks after a presentation. We looked terrifying in it. Jack, without a beard, looked like an adult Boy Scout. I only had a three-day shadow on my face, but my mane was shaggy because I hadn’t been to the hair salon in over a year.

Whatever Jack had seen in me back then to have a crush on me, I was glad it was still there. From the first time we kissed, he looked at me with a softness in his eyes that I had never seen before. Spending every minute with him made me learn more about him in that short time than I had learned about any of my ex-boyfriends in previous relationships.

For starters, Jack only liked coffee when diluted with sixty percent milk. Although he initially said he would eat anything, he can’t stand the taste of bell peppers, and he grinds his teeth when he sleeps, which he only does naked.

“Because I feel so hot,” he explained when I asked him about it as he climbed under the blanket with me on our second night.

“I can assure you, you’re always hot.” He was, at least in my eyes. It took him a second before he blushed and pulled the blanket over our heads.

Dogs were his favorite animals, as were mine. That was why every time I came back into the room, his hands were stroking Maggie’s fur. He told me he needed to take advantage of every opportunity he got since he hadn’t lived with a dog since his early college days when he shared an apartment with a friend who lived with her pug.

“Why not adopt one?”

“If you ever see my apartment, you’ll understand why.”

We both lost touch with everyone from college. We both hated the same chemistry professor but loved the same cafeteria food (they made a killer vegetable lasagna and a surprisingly good meatless burger).

Jack was also always concerned about other people’s well-being. Whatever we were doing, whether it was making breakfast or fucking like rabbits, he always made sure I was comfortable and having fun.

On our third morning, he even asked my permission to call some of his clients to check on them. “It will probably take afew hours. Once they start talking, I can’t bring myself to end it prematurely.”

I was sure that if I’d told him it would make me uncomfortable, he wouldn’t have done it. But that he cared so much about everyone was what I found most attractive about him. “You don’t need my permission. Please take all the time you need,” I assured him. “I can entertain myself.”

As soon as he picked up the phone and started talking to them, I couldn't stop watching him. During the first call, he stood by the front door. When it ended after twenty minutes, he got a chair from the kitchen and sat on it cross-legged. Whenever he noticed me staring, a smile would creep across his face, and he would blush, but after the third time, he started blowing me air kisses that turned into real ones between calls. Meanwhile, Maggie alternated between sitting next to him to get her ears scratched and lying next to me to get her back rubbed while we watched Jack together.

After the fifth call, he came over and petted Maggie and, when I gave her an envious look, me, too.

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