SNOWFIRES by Caroline Clemmons

was enough to cause heart failure.”
    As Holly suspected, Trent’s version greatly
differed from Geneva’s description. Knowing her stepmother, Trent
was probably closer to the truth. Holly wondered what went on after
Trent had left?
    “ Thanks for telling me.” What else
could she say?
    He looked at his watch then pushed back from
the table. “I know it’s early in the evening for city girls like
you, but this has been a long day and I’m too beat to read. I’m
turning in.”
    After her gut wrenching memories, weariness
slammed into her. She stood and grabbed one of the candles. “You’re
right, it’s been a long day. I’m tired, too.”
    “ You take the bathroom first. I’ll take
the other candle and the matches to the bedroom.”
    Holly hurried through her night regimen. She
hadn’t bothered to pack nightclothes because she always kept some
at her grandparents’ home. She’d have to sleep in her underwear
again. And wouldn’t you know she’d be wearing the flimsy black lace
panties and bra her half-sisters had given her with the boots for
her birthday? She slipped out of her slacks and blouse, then put
her coat back on before she left the bathroom.
    Trent waited at the door. While he readied
himself—and what did a man have to do anyway besides pee and
undress?—she draped her coat across the bed and crawled under the
covers. After the warmth of the bathroom, the frigid bed set her to
shivering. Couldn’t the Martins have at least invested in a pair of
flannel sheets?
    Like a streaker in briefs, Trent raced in and
tossed his clothes on the bed before he joined her. When he hit the
soft mattress, it acted like a trampoline and sent her bouncing
into him. He blew out the candle then wrapped his arms around her.
His warm skin stopped her shivers and she snuggled her back against
him.
    She lay there for what seemed ages. His
breathing indicated he hadn’t fallen asleep either.
    “ Have to move.” She flipped onto her
back with her straightened legs over his bent limbs. That sent too
much cold air space around her feet. “Turn over.”
    “ Would you be still?” He rolled so she
could snuggle to his back.
    After what seemed like another hour but
couldn’t have been, he moved. “Hurt this hip when I fell this
morning and can’t sleep on it. Need to turn back the other
way.”
    With a sigh, she complied. “You didn’t say
you’d hurt yourself. I thought you only got wet.”
    “ Yeah, wouldn’t have mattered except I
injured this years ago and it haunts me.” He slid his arms around
her and spooned her to him.
    “ What happened?” She laid her arms
along his so their hands touched.
    “ Old fracture.” He exhaled. “When I was
ten, a drunk foster father hit me with his car.”
    “ No! What happened and how badly were
you hurt?” She squeezed his hand. What a horrid life he’d
had.
    “ He was so drunk he didn’t know what
he’d hit and kept going. One of the other foster kids saw me lying
in the driveway and got my so-called foster mother. She made the
other kid help drag me to the street. Then she made us promise not
to tell who’d hit me before she’d call the ambulance. She reported
it as an unknown hit and run.”
    Holly turned in his arms and touched his
cheek. “You had a terrible childhood. I know you don’t want pity
and my sympathy doesn’t help, but I’m still sorry you had to go
through such tough times.”
    “ Guess things like that made me tough
enough to survive. Whatever we go through becomes a part of us.
Early on I learned the only person I could depend on was myself. If
I’d had a different life, I’d have been a different person.” He
threw one leg over her and pulled her near.
    The intimacy should have made her pull back,
but she couldn’t. “You know I still don’t agree with your plans for
the company?”
    He stroked her arm. “Yeah, and you don’t want
me there. But we’ll have to agree to disagree because I’m there to
stay. I’m a nobody from