He did, effortlessly weaving a story about Karina tracking down a German spy whose mission was to assassinate FDR. It was a great story, equal parts exciting thriller and delightfully absurd soap opera.

When Dani felt the car come to a stop, she opened her eyes, intending to thank Max for an extraordinary night, but he’d already hopped out and was opening her door. She hoped he didn’t think he was going to come inside.

“Thank you for taking me to The Nutcracker,” she said as they approached the front door.

“Thank you for teaching me how to make snow angels.”

She stepped onto the stoop and turned to him. “Oh, you knew how to make snow angels.”

“Well, it turns out I’ve been doing them wrong my entire life, so . . .” He shrugged. Because she was standing a step above him, they were eye to eye. “Live and learn.” He winked.

She was tempted to thank him for coming to the party with her yesterday, too. And for the drunken dinner. And for tucking her in—both last night and in the car. And for the story, which was making her think of another story, one that had been rattling around in her head for a long time. But she didn’t want to sound like she was fawning over him, so she just said, “Have a safe flight home.”

“Please don’t hesitate to be in touch if I can ever be of service.” He stuck out his hand for her to shake. She didn’t want to shake his hand, though. She wanted another hug, like in the park. But, she reminded herself sternly, that hadn’t been a hug. That had been him trying to keep her from landing headfirst in the snow. Any resemblance to a hug had been purely circumstantial.

So she shook his hand. Put her mittened hand in his bare one and squeezed—maybe a little harder than she should have.

“Merry Christmas, Dani,” he said.

“Merry Christmas, Max.”

Chapter Five

When Max landed in Zurich, he went directly to the palace in Witten. His family always spent Christmas with the royals, and it was close enough to the holiday now that he could get away with not going home in the interim. He told his parents that Marie and Leo needed him for some man of honor duties. The royal wedding was coming in handy as an excuse to be away.

“Max!” Marie was waiting for him in front of the palace when he got out of the car.

“Max!” As was Gabby, Leo’s little sister. For reasons that remained mysterious to Max, Gabby was turning into his biggest fan.

“Hello,” he said to Marie, and as Gabby tackled him, “Hello, poppet.”

“Did you do my deliveries?” Gabby asked.