Page 100 of Single Dad Dilemma
Me:Cold. Snowy. Wind is pretty angry. Lights flickered but didn’t go off.
Scott:Yet.
Me:Yet.
Scott:Thanks for keeping an eye out. I’ll make sure to get a new one when we’re back.
I thought about trying to call her again, but I knew she wouldn’t answer. The lights flickered again, and I looked up, holding my breath.
Everything went dark.
“Shit,” I muttered.
In less than thirty seconds, all the lights came back on, the whirring of the generator attached to the back of the house hardly noticeable over the sound of the wind. The temps outside were brutal; the windchill on my phone showed negative five.
Without pausing to think about just how pissed off she’d be, I yanked my coat on, shoved my feet into my boots, and snatched the key to their house off the hook on the wall in the mudroom. The wind wasbiting, and I kept my head down as I trudged through the snow, trying to find paths that weren’t as tall because of the drifting.
With my gloved fist, I pounded on the door. “Lily!” I yelled. “Open up.”
“I’ll be fine,” she called back, voice on the other side of the door.
“Lily,” I said, worry getting the best of me, the anxious feelings gnawing at my gut, turning it into something churlish and restless. “Open the fucking door; this isn’t the time to be stubborn.”
The door whipped open, her face barely visible through the two inches she allowed. “I’m fine. You don’t have to take care of me.”
Before she slammed it shut, I wedged my shoulder into the opening and pushed her back easily.
“You fucking caveman,” she said through gritted teeth, trying to use both hands to close the door on me.
When I was through, she stumbled back, and I eyed her head to toe. She was wearing a hat and gloves, thick woolly socks on her feet, and two blankets wrapped around her shoulders.
“Is your heat not working?”
“It was,” she hedged. “Before the power went out. But just looking at this shit made me cold.”
I pushed my tongue against the inside of my cheek. “You need to come with me.”
“The hell I do,” she said, head rearing back. “The power will come back on. Any second, I bet.”
I pulled out my phone and brought up the outage map. There were outages all over, and her brow furrowed, deeper and deeper the longer she stared at it.
“Well ... that doesn’t mean anything.”
I tapped on the area over our neighborhood. “No restoration timeline is available. If they’ve got downed lines all over because of trees, it could be one night. Could be two. But I promise, if you’re cold now, you’re in for a rude awakening when the temps start dropping in here.”
Her eyes flickered. “Let me guess, your house is toasty warm.”
“I have a generator, so yes, it is. So either you’re driving to find a hotel ...” My pause gave both of us enough time to glance outside, and I could practically hear her whimper. “Or you’re coming with me.”
She scoffed. “I can’t believe I thought you were turning nice,” she said, trying to brush past me. “Feel free to addkidnappingto your résumé.”
“I know that you’re embarrassed and you’ve had a really shitty couple days,” I said, tone low and urgent. I had roughly thirty seconds before she either bolted or took a swing at me. Lily froze, her eyes flickering back up to mine, and despite the chill in the air from my less-than-subtle entry, her cheeks were flushed pink. “I’m being nice now, and you know it.”
“What if I want to stay here and freeze?” she said. “What if that’s preferable over having this conversation with you?”
My temper ignited. “Then you’re even more stubborn than I thought.”
She let out a harsh exhale and started striding away. I grabbed her elbow—or tried, through the thick layers of blankets—and she ripped her arm away.
