Snowed In

Chapter 12

We both laughed and crawled out of bed. He shook his head when he looked down.

"You're a messy girl." He laughed as he grabbed his towel and slung it over his shoulder.

"It's all your fault. Besides, you're the messy one."

"Whatever!" He said flippantly as he led us to the bathroom.

"Just a quick shower and then I will go cook dinner."

"Can I help?" I turned on the shower head and waited for the water to heat up.

"Sure thing, Beautiful." He leaned in and kissed me gently, letting one hand move to my face, the other to the small of my back. He pulled me near and held me close for a long gentle kiss.

"After you want to sit by the fire for a while?"

"That sounds like a plan." We washed quickly and headed downstairs. My stomach growled several more times before it was joined by his. We laughed heartily at ourselves.

Dinner was amazing and of course the wine a perfect match. We cleaned up and moved to the space before the fireplace where we laid out a pallet to sit and talk on. At first, we just sat quietly in each other's arms watching the fire and digesting. It was peaceful and majestic. I dozed off leaning against his chest.

"Do you want to go to bed?" I woke with a start and looked out the windows as I cleared my head. The sun was still above the horizon. I was tired, but not necessarily ready for bed. I had another idea in mind.

"It's too early. Why don't we play a game?" His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Not that kind of game." His shoulders slumped and his expression fell, but his eyes still held his smile.

"I call it the Getting to Know You game. Here's how it goes. It starts off with two people sitting back to back. You should concentrate on the other person's breathing and just really listen to them. While you are sitting back to back you ask each other questions. They can't be yes or no questions and you can't repeat a question that the other person asked. You do have the right to pass if you don't want to answer." I paused to make sure he was still with me. "As the game goes on you turn around and face each other. This time you can have more physical contact. Your knees touch, you can play with hands, but you can't pass on questions in this phase. The idea is that the more comfortable you get with each other, the more personal the questions can become. I know we are already comfortable with each other, but humor me. Sound easy enough?"

"So, at first we'll sit back to back, listen, ask and answer questions, any question? Is there a taboo set of questions? If you don't want to answer or if I don't we can pass? That's round one. Round two we turn and face each other, we can touch hands, knees e.t.c. But there is no passing? The questions have to have real answers, not a yes or no? Is that about right?"

"You got it. Are you in?

"Yes!" His answer was a bit more emphatic than I had anticipated. He smiled a million watt smile and kissed me quickly as he started to move into position. "I love the concept. Let's do it. Do you want to go first?" He was all in. It felt good knowing that he still had more to share and wanted to know more about me. "One caveat, there are going to be some questions about my days with PTX that I may not legally be able to answer. I'm sorry. I just can't" He hugged me and kissed me again before repositioning himself with his back to mine.

"Actually, your game. When you are ready, ask me your first question."

I took a deep breath and centered myself. "Tell me one thing you hate."

"Shoes. I honestly hate having to wear shoes."

I couldn't help but respond to his answer. "Me too, but I do like socks." I giggled. He chuckled and went quiet as he tried to think of a question to ask me. I hoped he kept it simple and eased into it, but he had a tenancy to jump right in head first. I was relieved when he didn't hit me with a million-dollar question.