In ONLY A PORTION OF THE HOUSE, power went off for a couple of hours. Breakers were all intact and power returned on its own and has been OK since. Should I be concerned about a short?

Call your power company and ask them to check bot legs. Most homes have two power lines coming it, you can drop one and still have power in much of the home

Yes, sounds like a transformer or line feed problem and 1 hot leg was lost for a while.