The corners of his eyes creased at the excited anticipation of demonstrating his skills. How could I deny such an atypical display of enthusiasm on his part? Plus, if I could actually land a strike, I’d feel on top of the world.
I closed in until he was within striking distance and lifted my fists on guard. We both stayed light on our feet, eyes locked on one another with grins on our faces.
“Don’t be scared,” he goaded me.
“You’re going to be awfully embarrassed when I bring you to your knees.” I launched two quick strikes as I spoke, hoping to catch him off guard. It was little surprise that it didn’t work. He easily evaded my attacks.
“Come on. Surely, you can do better than that. I thought those cousins of yours would have taught you something you could use.”
“They fought dirty, literally. I doubt you want me to throw dirt in your eyes so I can sneak in a punch.” This time, I feigned a punch but swept out with my leg, almost catching his ankle.
“Not bad. If I’d been an ordinary man, that would have done its job.”
“If you’d been an ordinary man, I wouldn’t be here.”
I’d be dead in an alley … or worse.
As soon as I finished the words, I rushed forward to shove my shoulder into his sternum. I fully expected him to block me and send me flying by him, but something about what I’d said made him lose focus. He didn’t evade in time, which meant my strike hit home and sent us both crashing to the ground.
“Oh, shit!” I yelped. “Are you okay?”
He lay on his back with me half on top of him, eyes cast at the clouded sky. “I’m never going to hear the end of this, am I?”
“Not ever, so long as I’m around to remind you.”
His gaze dropped to my face, where I wore a smile worthy of the red carpet. Those calculating eyes briefly strayed to my lips. “It’s definitely good for a man to stay humble … I wouldn’t want to lose that.” His words hung in the air between us, a sultry curtain of innuendo.
Feeling awkward and uncertain, I lifted off him and dusted the dirt from my knees and hands. Tamir followed suit, stretching out his back as he stood.
“I really am sorry about that,” I offered with a grimace.
“Don’t worry about it. I deserved it.” His words were grumbled, and he didn’t meet my eyes again before he disappeared back inside the cabin.
Tamir was quiet for the rest of the day. I got the feeling what I’d said had upset him, but I had no idea why. I gave him a wide berth, or at least as much space as two people in a tiny cabin can give one another.
A heavy coating of snow transformed the landscape overnight. It was a spectacular sight. The early morning sun glinted off millions of tiny snowflakes on the open patch of ground in front of the cabin. It was magical. Surreal.
The best part was how undisturbed it remained. In the city, the snow was hardly on the ground a minute before it was sullied into a gray sludge. Tamir had enough firewood inside that we didn’t even have to mar the perfection with a single boot print.
After we ate breakfast, I pulled out the deck of cards I’d found while cleaning. “Let’s play a game. I don’t think either of us can sit in the cabin all day without going a little crazy if we don’t do something.”
“You’ll have to teach me. I doubt we know any of the same games.” He sipped on his coffee across from me at the table.
“If I managed to teach Isaac and Averi a few games, I’m sure I can teach you.” I dealt out seven cards to each of us. “We’re going to start with a classic. This one’s called crazy eights. The objective is to get rid of your cards first. You have to play either the same suit or the same number as the top card in the discard pile, and eights are wild. See? Easy peasy.”
He fanned out the cards in his deft fingers. “I probably shouldn’t agree to this. My sister always beat me at games, and I wasn’t exactly gracious about losing.”
“I thought you said you’d never lost to a woman,” I teased about his drunken comment back at the motel room.
His eyes flitted up from his cards to meet my challenging gaze. “I may have massaged the truth a bit.”
“I see.” My eyebrows rose to my hairline. “Fortunately, I never believed you for a second.” I started the game, playing a seven of hearts onto the two of hearts in the discard pile.
Tamir played next, discarding a spade and making me draw a small stack of cards.
“It’s not looking good for you,” he prodded. “Maybe you should just surrender this hand.”
“Surrender? Don’t be absurd. I’ll draw the entire pile before I concede defeat to you.”
Two minutes later, Tamir played his last card and won the round with a smug grin.
I collected the cards and began to shuffle. “Beginner’s luck. Get ready to go down, tough guy.” I dealt a new round and won it along with the following two games.
“As much fun as it is to lose, I think I’m done.”
“I’d goad you about being a sore loser, but my head is killing me. I think I’m done too.”
His brows drew together with concern. “You have a headache?”
“Yeah, but it’s just because of my damn hair. Sleeping with damp hair makes my curls wild when they dry. I’ve been keeping my hair in a bun to tame it, but after a while, that gives me a headache.” I massaged my temples, but it was only a temporary fix.
“Why don’t you braid it instead?”
“I can put it in a ponytail and do a braid from there, but that still bothers my head. I’ve never learned to French braid. Tita couldn’t because of the arthritis in her hands, and I didn’t have many girlfriends growing up.”
Tamir rose from his chair and went toward the bathroom. “Take down the bun.”
Confused, I did what he said. When he came back over, he held my brush in his hand.
“I don’t know, Tam. It’s pretty knotted right now.” I was petrified he was going to tear my scalp to pieces and make my headache ten times worse.
He pulled his chair behind mine and sat. “My sister had hair a lot like yours,” he said as he ran his fingers through my unruly waves. “She used to cry when our mother would brush her hair, so I started brushing it when we were little. As we got older, I taught myself to braid her hair. It was a part of our evening routine for a long time. I’d brush out her hair and braid it as we talked about our day at school.” He took only the ends of my hair and gently worked the tangles out, then moved upward, one section at a time.
“I can’t say I’m not a little envious. It sounds wonderful to have a sibling you were so close to.”
“She also loved to tease me and push my buttons, but for the most part, we got along well growing up.” He worked at my hair for long minutes until he’d brushed out every tangle. The feel of the strokes all the way down my long hair soothed the tension in my neck and eased the pain in my head, but when Tamir set down the brush and ran his strong fingers through my hair, I positively melted.
In fact, a moan might have slipped past my parted lips.
“This feels too good; you’re going to make me drool.”
Tamir chuckled. “It’s been a while since I’ve done this, so don’t expect miracles the first time.” He gathered the hair near my forehead and began to weave strands together, slowly working his way downward. “Braiding your hair at night will keep it from being unruly in the morning, and hopefully, it will also keep you from having headaches.”