SNOWFIRES by Caroline Clemmons

rising from bed. "You'll have to be as resourceful as humanly
possible today. The furnace is my first priority. The animals have
to be cared for soon, but heat for us is first."
    She turned on the spigot, relieved when cold
water flowed. "At least we have water. I suppose the thermostat on
the water heater is electric?”
    “ Yep.”
    “ I’ll heat some water on the stove to
wash the dishes. Later, I'll do the same for us each to have a
sponge bath." And he could shave.
    A glance at the dark stubble that made him
look even more like a brigand made her wonder how it would feel to
have his face against hers. Would the stubble scratch or merely
titillate? If he nuzzled her as he had last night, would his day's
growth of whiskers create a different sensation?
    She’d never kissed a man with facial hair.
Her curiosity grew. Would it tickle or prickle? How would he look
with a full beard? Probably even more like the pirate of his
reputation. A picture flashed into her mind of him swaggering on
the deck of a ship with a full black beard, parrot on his shoulder,
and a cutlass in one hand.
    His voice cut through her thoughts. "Aha, I
thought I remembered some tools by the washing machine." He carried
a tool chest in one hand. "I saw a box of matches in the cupboard
near the stove yesterday." He leaned across her to retrieve the box
and his arm brushed against her breast.
    His touch caught her off guard and she
stepped back. Her gaze met his and she tried to judge if his action
had been deliberate.
    He appeared frozen in place. “Uh, sorry,
Holly, um—“ He shook his head and slipped the matches into his
shirt pocket. With that, he grabbed the lantern and hurried from
the room.
    Her breast tingled and the sensation spiraled
to her core. What had happened to her? Needs she’d thought firmly
under control had suddenly flared up like a forest fire. Darn the
terrible man, he had no right to be so enticing.
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER FIVE
    Trent muttered
under his breath as he removed the grate from the floor furnace and
propped it against the wall. He sprawled his body across the floor
and poked his head down the hole in the floorboards.
    He heard Holly. “Do you know what you’re
doing?”
    “ No.” The sound echoed so he raised his
head. “I’m trying to remember anything I’ve ever heard about
furnaces, but the contraption looks as foreign to me as the inside
of a jet engine. If memory serves me right, one of the foster homes
I was in had this kind of heat. There’s a manual valve for
occasions like this.” But where?
    While his hands worked, his mind wandered to
the woman in the other room. So, Holly was allowed to work, but not
her sisters. Definitely not her wicked stepmother. No, that woman
was all show and shallow as a dinner plate.
    When he had met Holly two months ago, he’d
logged her flighty as her stepmother. Surprise. Granted she knew
nothing of the strategy of revitalizing a stagnant corporation, but
she knew everything about the three hundred employees who worked
there. That the benefits package at Marvel far exceeded the norm
meant her family made less profit. Apparently she had no objection,
since she had negotiated the package. She seemed to genuinely care
about the employees’ welfare.
    More than once he’d heard her ask about
family members who were ill or about kids in school. In fact, her
ability to relate to people of all levels in the company amazed
him. None of her stepmother’s snobbery tainted Holly’s relationship
with co-workers. She worked late many evenings and he heard her
exchange conversation with the night guard and the custodians
before she left. Employees respected her.
    Of course, he worked late, too, trying to
familiarize himself with the next day's tasks. He often felt like a
kid cramming for tomorrow's exam in school. Hard as he’d worked all
his life and in spite of all the research he’d done before sealing
the deal with Marvel, the wire and cable business was