that’ll have to work.”
Once she accepted the invitation, she didn’t second guess it. There was no reason to shiver alone in her rickety trailer when promises of warmth and comfort were well within reach. It wasn’t until Seth opened his front door and Josie stepped over the threshold that she wondered what the heck she was doing.
Seth’s home was small but not cramped, masculine but not quite a bachelor pad. Family pictures hung just a touch off kilter on the wall immediately to the right of the front door, and they ranged from full color portraits to the traditional grayscale of times past. There was a crumb-coated cookie sheet on the stove top in the open kitchen and a spatula on the spoon rest. An overstuffed, leather recliner was the focal point of the quaint living room. It had cracks and creases along the arms, right where Josie imagined Seth’s elbows would rest when he read the morning paper. A plaid couch that looked far less used ran along a wood planked wall and it faced the direction of an old box style television that had such a thick layer of dust, Josie wondered if it had even been turned on in the last decade.
Seth reached for her jacket and hung it next to his on a hook on the wall. “Bathroom is down the hall on your left.” He flicked his finger to indicate the path for Josie to follow. “Clean towels are under the sink. Soap and shampoo and all that stuff are in the shower.”
“Thank you. I won’t be long.”
She padded down the hall. The bathroom door squeaked shut as she locked it into place, and out of habit, she flipped the light switch. Nothing. Of course. The power was still out and she knew that but it had been a reflex. She fumbled her way in the direction of the shower, but her foot met the base of the toilet with a loud smack. “Oomf!”
“You okay?” Seth’s voice carried from the other end of the house. She heard his footfalls steadily encroaching until they stopped just on the other side of the door. For a moment, there was no sound at all. Then a light knock. “You alright in there, Josie?”
She pulled on the door handle and swung it wide in surrender. “I think it’s just too dark in here for me to shower.”
“I can get some candles—”
“No!” Josie spat the word. “I mean, no. That’s not necessary.” A candle-lit shower in Seth’s bathroom was not going to happen. “I can just wash my hair in your kitchen sink if that’s fine with you.”
“Absolutely.” Moving around her, he pulled back the plastic shower curtain. The rings scraped on the rod in a grating sound. He reached for a bottle of men’s shampoo and tucked it under his arm, then stretched to grab the conditioner. “Okay. Got everything we need. Let’s go.”
“We?”
“Yes, Josie. I’m going to wash your hair.”
All air whooshed right out of her lungs. “Umm…Seth. You don’t have to—”
“I know I don’t,” stood as his answer and before she could protest, he was down the hall and far enough away that he wouldn’t even be able to hear it.
15
Seth
The water would be cold, but he calculated there was enough stored in the retention tank to get Josie’s hair sufficiently washed, even with the electric pump for the well currently out of commission. But they would have to move quickly. He knew Josie wouldn’t be able to do that with just one arm.
Washing Josie’s hair for her was really the only option.
She hadn’t responded all that well to the suggestion of using a candle to light her way in the bathroom, so Seth hoped the several he had already ignited around the house wouldn’t garner the same reaction. Without them, they would both be stumbling and bumbling about. Power outages and candles went together, but so did romance and…
Seth cut his thought off before it could trail any further into a rabbit hole he couldn’t climb out of.
He slid a ladder-backed chair from the dining nook over the floor and then pushed it up against the cabinets directly under the big farmhouse sink, creating a makeshift salon chair and shampoo basin.
“Take a seat.”
“Seth, I can do this on my own.” There it was, that anticipated stubbornness, sure as the sunrise.
“I know you can.” He took her by the shoulders and pressed lightly to walk her a few steps backward. Her knees hit the edge of the