“I would love to go with that, but it’s Rose’s ring tone. Wait here, and I’ll get the message.”

I ran up to the office, where he’d been working. Five minutes later, I came back down. When he saw his cell phone in my hand, he tensed.

“No worries,” I said. “She was just asking about dinner. I said we’ll be fine. And your phone is now off.”

I laid it beside mine, and he handed me a glass of champagne. We settled in front of the fire, me resting against his leg, but no closer than that, the old tension strumming between us, the one that said we couldn’t just slide back to where we’d been, that it was still too new, too uncertain.

I sipped my champagne and watched the flames. Then I glanced at him and said, “For the record, you’re an amazing kisser,” and he laughed—a spray-his-mouthful-of-champagne laugh.

“No one’s ever told you that?” I said.

“I believe the only time any opinion was given on the matter, it was to inform me that I was wretched at it. Which only gave me the excuse to not do it.”

“You just had a bad partner.”

His eyes sparkled. “That’s the answer, is it?”

“Obviously.” I took another sip of my champagne. “Or maybe it was an anomaly.”

“No, I’m quite certain everyone I’ve kissed has had the same opinion.”

“I mean it might have been an anomaly with me. I was never very good at science, but I remember a teacher pounding into me the need for a significant sample size before drawing a scientific conclusion.”

“Are you asking me to kiss you again?”

“Normally, I’d be fine with taking the initiative, but with you, it seems best to double-check my invitation. Maybe triple-check. Which leaves me doing that thing where I hint for a kiss instead of just trying my luck.”

“It seemed like more than a hint.”

“I’m no good at subtle.”

“Well, as you rightly pointed out, we have a very poor track record with this. I believe the only way to circumvent that is to be clear.” He set down his champagne flute. “You do not need to second-guess the invitation, Olivia. It is as open as it is unequivocal. Any advances you make are welcome.”

“In that case…” I put down my glass beside his. Then I knelt, leaned over, and gave him a peck on the cheek before starting to rise. “Now, I believe we have work to do and—”

He tugged me back down and pulled me into a kiss. And while my old teacher would insist that a sample set of two was not the basis for a scientific conclusion, I felt very confident in theorizing—based on that second kiss—that the first was definitely not an anomaly.