Winter Interlude (31 page)

He felt her gaze
on his back before
she spoke
.
“I guess it does make sense
.
Are you sure you don’t mind?”

He kneeled and tossed a couple more logs on the fire.
“Why would I mind?”
He gave the fire another poke,
before
twisting
around to see her response.

“Yeah, but
—
”
She hesitated for several long seconds before clearing her throat. “I…umm…mean…umm…only two days ago we were enemies and now I’m going to be sleeping in the same room with you
.
I…umm
,
just want to make sure you don’t mind.”

He laughed because the whole
situation
struck him as funny
.
She had no clue of the emotions raging through him.

Damn, it is the
Twilight Zone
and I’m living it
.

He looked around the room
,
half expecting
Rod
Serling
to
come out of the woodwork saying
,
“Imagine if you will…” and he could go back to being normal
.
The thought of that happening made him laugh even harder
.

“I fail to see what’s so funny about all of this,”
Kate
huffed, crossing her arms and glaring
.

Paul straightened and pivoted, still laughing, holding on
to his
stomach
.
“I know and that’s what makes it so funny.”

She eyed him intently before
breaking
into laughter herself
.
“Well, when you put it like that, I guess it is pretty funny
.”

After the laughter died, Paul grabbed a thick sweatshirt from his bag, along with some slippers, and put them on
.
“I’ll go and see about coffee now
.
Why don’t you stay here and try to get warm.”

“Sounds good,”
Kate
murmured to his departing back
.
“I’m too tired to move.”

Paul rummaged through
the kitchen
drawers, really craving his morning fix of caffeine
.
He glanced at the useless electric grinder in front of him and frowned
.
Whole beans needed grinding. Then, remembering his mom’s love of antiques, he dashed back out to the dining room
.
H
anging over the hundred-year-old buffet was a shadow
box containing a Victorian coffee grinder
.
Heaving a
relieved
sigh, he retrieved it
.

Short of pounding the beans with a hammer if the old grinder didn’t work, he prayed it was functional and
not missing any parts
.
After figuring out how it worked, he cranked the handle and smiled
.
Voilà
.
He had fresh
-
ground coffee
.

“Thank you, Lord,” he said under his breath,
as he
plac
ed
a pan of water to heat over the burner’s flames
.
He grabbed a filter, set it inside the coffeemaker’s holder along with the ground beans, finally adding the near
-
boiling water minutes later
.
The glass pot caught the brewed coffee as it trickled out
.
Once the pot filled, he poured two large cups, leaving the rest on the burner to reheat later
.
Not perfect, but better than nothing
.

After putting half
-
and
-
half in both, he picked up the cups and worked his way back to the bedroom
.
He opened the door and spied
Kate
fast asleep on the bed, wrapped in the blanket from the other room
.
She appeared so peaceful that he didn’t have the heart to wake her
.
He placed both cups on the nightstand, sat down on the floor next to the bed,
and
reach
ed
for two pillows. He fluffed them behind him before reaching for his coffee
.
He leaned back and sipped the strong brew, relishing its warmth
.

When
Kate
murmured something in her sleep, he glanced up at the bed to see her curled into a ball, shivering.

“Are you cold?” he asked when she opened her eyes.

“I can’t seem to get warm,” she replied, nodding
.

“Get under the down comforter,” he said
.
“It’s good for keeping in body heat but it takes a while to warm up when you’re chilled to the bone
.”
C
onsidering the temperature was already cooler than normal to begin with, he wondered if she’d ever get warm
.

“Maybe it’ll help,” he said
as he stood
, yanking the pillows and tossing them on the bed, “if we share body heat for a few minutes
.
Until you warm up
.”

She
nestl
ed under the comforter, but immediately snuggled clo
ser when he lay down beside her
.
Grinning, he situated her against his chest
.
When he wrapped his arm around her and pulled the comforter up to her chin, a
relaxed
sigh floated past his ear
.
He
lingered long after she fell asleep
, just holding
Kate
and drinking his coffee, content to do nothing else
.

For the first time in as long as he could remember, his loneliness abated
.
The realization only made his life appear emptier because this
feeling
was no more real than what he had with Judith
.
Still, holding
Kate
close gave him a glimpse of what
his life
could be like
. Hopefully that would be
enough to keep him on track
to begin
a new search for someone who
woul
d chase
away
the loneliness for good.

K
ate
moved to stretch and
was hampered with not only the comforter, but with Paul’s arm, which was around her waist
.
Turning gently so
she wouldn’t
disturb him, she took in his slumbering form
.
He looked so innocent as he lay next to her,
his upturned face relaxed in sleep
, head supported
on a mound of
pillows
.
C
onsidering the way he kissed, the man was anything but innocent
.
Heat
climbed
up her face at the memory
.
M
ore of the same conflicted thoughts
swirled around in her head
,
yet
she watched him for
a while longer
, noting how attractive he was and marveling at how comfortable she felt in his arms
.

She was in deep trouble
.
Though this felt so right, she knew it was all so wrong
.
Those few wild moments last night had been too hard to resist
.
If it
ha
d been anyone else, she’d have thrown caution to the wind and jumped in headfirst
.
But, she couldn’t
.
E
ven if Judith weren’t in the picture,
it wouldn’t matter
.
She didn’t trust him
.
Worse, she didn’t trust herself.

When she tried to untangle herself, her movement was enough to wake him
.
Sitting up and rubbing his eyes, he shook off the sleepiness
.
T
he second their gazes connected, he grinned
.
Time seemed to stand still
.
She couldn’t look away
.

“You look well
rested.”

She n
odd
ed
, return
ing
his smile
and
wishing things were different
.

He broke the spell and glanced toward the fireplace
.
“Fire’s down to embers
.
I need to add more logs
.”

Unable to speak, she nodded
.

“Thanks for...everything,” she finally said, once she found her voice
.
She felt heat on her cheek
s
for what she’d almost blurted out
.
Thanking him for keeping her warm didn’t seem like the smartest thing to say right then
.
“I feel much better.”

“My pleasure.”
Still sporting that engaging smile, he extricated his body from hers and rose off the bed
.
While he stretched and padded over to the fireplace, she escaped to the bathroom
.
Upon her return, the first thing she noticed was the added warmth to the room from the now roaring fire
.