Free Snowbound with a Stranger by Rebecca Rogers Maher

brothers, whom she loved dearly, behaved like Neanderthals around women.
    Dannie didn’t know which side of the fence her ex-husband fell on. Certainly he had tried his best to be a partner to her. Until they both began to drift away.
    But there was no doubt in Dannie’s mind that Lee was a good man. Given the short time they’d known each other, it shouldn’t be possible for her to know this, but she did know it.
    Lee poured warm water into hair and chased away the suds with his hands.
    She breathed deeply. “You should do this professionally. You’re good at it.”
    “Thanks, lady.” He squeezed water from her hair and began massaging her scalp. “What about your parents? Are they still alive?”
    “Mmm-hmm. Alive and squabbling. On a cruise right now, in the Caribbean.”
    “Fancy.”
    “Union workers, dude. Saved for retirement.”
    “Good for them.”
    Dannie sat up and wrapped a towel around her head. “Yeah. They deserve it.” She patted the chair. “Your turn.”
    Lee sat back against the sink and closed his eyes. The warm water in the pitcher steamed up into the chilled cabin air when Dannie lifted it. She poured it carefully over his short hair, flicking the excess drops away from his eyes. He smiled, his eyes still closed, and her hand stilled for just a moment against his face.
    When she was an old woman, alone in her bed in some empty room somewhere, she would remember this morning. Washing Lee’s hair in the sink of a remote cabin deep in the mountains, surrounded everywhere by snow. Her entire body thrummed and sang with the energy of this one place in time, this moment.
    “Lee.” She held her hand against the stubble on his cheek.
    “Mmm-hmm?”
    “I like it here.”
    He opened his eyes. An errant soap bubble floated up from his hair and toward the sunlight streaming through the window.
    Already his face was becoming familiar to her. A soft pang echoed through her chest when she looked at him. His eyelashes were absurdly long for a man. In fact, he was hairy everywhere except for his head.
    He covered her hand with his. “So do I.”
    Softly, she kissed his bottom lip and rubbed shampoo into his hair.
    * * *
    When the cabin grew cold, they ate soup and canned fruit in bed, piled under every blanket in the house. The curtains were open to let in the strong morning sun.
    “Tell me about your family.” Dannie lay propped on one elbow, squinting at him in the bright light.
    He ran the back of his fingers along the line of her cheek and jaw. “What do you want to know?”
    “Who are your parents?” She leaned in to his touch.
    “Why, you think you might know them?”
    “You never know. Brooklyn’s a small town.”
    Lee played with a lock of her hair. “Okay. Cathy and Rick Russo. Saint Mary’s parish.”
    Dannie shook her head sadly. “Nope. Don’t know them. You went to Catholic school?”
    “Yes, ma’am. Can’t you tell?”
    “Altar boy?”
    “Of course.”
    “Siblings?”
    “Two older sisters.”
    “I see. Somebody should thank them for making you into a nice guy. Your parents are still married?”
    “Yep.”
    “Impressive. So what’s the matter with you? What’s your terrible secret?”
    Lee leaned back against the pillows. “I think you already know what my terrible secret is.”
    It was wrong to lie to her. He knew that. But he couldn’t tell her about Caroline. Not yet. Or about his life before that. It was just…too much. More than she should have to deal with. More than he wanted to ask her to deal with.
    She held his gaze.
    At least he could give her part of the truth.
    “You were right about me. Taking care of people. Ignoring myself. It’s why I come up here. Have you read Moby Dick ?”
    Dannie nodded. “A few times.”
    That made him smile. “You know that scene where Ishmael says he goes to sea when he starts feeling like he wants to knock people’s hats off in the street?”
    She grinned. “I love that part.”
    “Seriously? I like you, Miss