Nory had not. Isaac moved aside, and she joined him out on the worn stone step, the cold seeping through her thick woolen socks. She looked up and sighed with delight. The navy-blue sky was peppered with silvery stars that seemed to stretch on to infinity without a single cloud to bar their way.

“It’s going to be a cold night,” said Isaac.

“Yes,” Nory agreed. “I miss the stars when I’m in the city.”

“I felt the same when I lived away from here.”

“I like how small it makes me feel,” she said, her face still tilted toward the stars. “There is something comforting in feeling there is so much more than just us and our silly lives.” She turned to find Isaac looking at her. She smiled. “What?”

“It’s nothing, it’s just, I feel exactly the same way.”

“Well, perhaps we are more alike than you imagined.”

“Perhaps we are.”

Nory could feel the crackle between them. She had an overwhelming urge to lean over and kiss him. But she resisted.

“I’ve got a telescope at the cottage. Maybe you’d like to come and look through it later.” He smiled, suddenly shy, and shook his head, looking at the ground. “And I’ve just realized how incredibly lame that sounded.”

Nory laughed. “Do you often ask women to come and look through your telescope?”

“Hardly ever.”

“Well, I would love to look through your telescope, Isaac. Thank you.”

He looked straight at her, the lamps behind her in the porch making his eyes glitter, and she felt that pull again, that almost irresistible urge to put her mouth on his.

“Did you call me out here to look at the stars?” she asked, trying to distract herself from his full lips. Oh my god, she wanted to bite them!

Isaac shook his head as if suddenly remembering why he was there. “Er, no, I didn’t. That was an aside. I just came here to return this.”

He handed Nory the scarf she’d left in her parents’ kitchen this morning.

“Oh. Thank you, you didn’t have to do that.”

“I saw Thom in the White Hart pub earlier, and he asked me to give it to you with a message.”

Nory was suddenly wary. “Yes?”

“He said, and I quote: ‘I’m sorry for being a twat, Bugs.’ ”

Nory laughed, half out of relief.

“Why does he call you Bugs?”

“No reason, you know how nicknames are.”

“Can I call you Bugs?”

“No, you cannot.”

“He also asked me to give you this . . .”

Isaac leaned into her and kissed her cheek. Nory’s breath caught. This was very confusing for her body; she did not want to be feeling the things that Isaac’s warm lips on her cheek were making her feel when the kiss was a message from her brother!

She cleared her throat.