“No. As far as I can tell, January is just the month where everybody lies to themselves about getting in shape, and I refuse to become victim to the gym- and weight loss–industrial complex. If I ever do make a resolution, it’s to eat more chocolate, and I usually meet that just fine.”

At that he laughed and then said, “You’re delightful, do you know that?”

“Did you just call me delightful? I’m not your four-year-old granddaughter.”

“Sorry not sorry,” he said while shrugging. “It’s how you make me feel. You delight me.”

“In that case, you may delight me just a little bit, too.”

“Just a little bit?” he teased, moving in closer to me. I wondered if he realized that he was doing it.

“A teeny bit.” Not wanting things to get too flirty, I thought of a question to shift the mood. “So what is your biggest regret?”

I fully expected him to talk about the army again, or some part he’d passed on, so it surprised me when he said, “Never having a birthday party.”

“You’ve never had a birthday party?” That was so immensely sad to me. I’d been pretty poor growing up, but even I’d had birthday parties.

“No friends,” he said. “I was a working actor from the time I was six years old. And I always had to work on my birthday.”

My plan had backfired. That feeling was back, the one that made me want to kiss him. Not just because I was attracted to him—because believe me, I completely was—but because there was a connection there and the only way to express how I felt was to kiss him.

I gulped, knowing what would come next, my heart already racing and my stomach churning, but it was worth it. “Would it be okay if I kissed you?”

The smile spread slowly across his face, and I felt the warmth of it all the way down to my toes. “You never have to ask me. The answer is always going to be yes.”

The way his voice sounded, the low, urgent tone to it, had me catching my breath. In a good way. I asked, “Does that mean I’m allowed to touch you, too?”

“Juliet, you can do whatever you’d like to me and there’s no way I’ll ever object.”

With a smile of my own, I leaned forward to press my lips against his.

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY