He was tempted to suggest that they join forces, so to speak—that was the logical, bantery comeback—but for some reason he could no longer joke with her about that. “I have a plan for today that will distract us from our mysteriously enduring celibacy. How do you feel about a hike up the mountain? It’s my favorite place in the world, and I’d very much like to show it to you. I’ve spoken to the kitchen, and they can pull together food for us, and there’s the hot spring as an inducement. We can practice our Dirty Dancing lift.

“If you want to,” he added, studying her face, which suddenly seemed to contain a great deal of emotion he could not identify. “We can also just stay here so you can work.”

“No,” she croaked. Something strange was happening. Her voice sounded almost pained. “I want to.”

“Max Minimus can accompany us, if you like.” He patted the little imp, who responded by licking him, which should have been off-putting but somehow was not. “It is a fairly steep hike, though, so we could leave him with the gardener, who’s a lovely old chap and a bit of a pied piper for the animals on the estate. He has his own dog, and there are some resident stray cats that hiss at everyone else but follow him around like he hung the moon. It’s up to you.”

“Let’s leave him. He’s not really an athlete.” She sounded herself again.

“Grand.” He got back up and refilled her coffee. “Drink up.”

An hour later, caffeinated and breakfasted, they strolled off the manicured part of the property and Dani said, “Well, clearly my dog is going to hold a grudge against me for the rest of my life once he’s back in New York.” They had left Max Minimus rapturously cavorting in the snow with Lorena, the gardener’s Sennenhund, who was four times his size. “Playing all day after slinking off to sleep with a baron last night.” She shook her head and mock-scowled. “The traitor.”

Max had been in bed last night doing his usual insomnia thing when something vaguely wet nudged his shoulder. “Something vaguely wet” had turned out to be Max Minimus’s nose, so he’d lifted the covers, and after a moment of shuffling to get comfortable, his namesake had fallen asleep nestled in his armpit.

Oddly, Max had fallen asleep, too, and wakened refreshed several hours later. That was unusual.

“Like, seriously,” Dani said. “I haven’t woken up without Max Minimus for years. Even when Vince was still in the bed, Max slept on my side.”