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Soon enough, Arden found herself engaged in conversation with a woman who had been a teacher for forty years, the two of them exchanging stories of student misbehavior and meddlesome parents, then in a group of younger people with Kayla leading a game of Heads-Up, then in a surprisingly interesting chat with an older gentleman who mistook her for someone’s niece but then, once she corrected him, was happy to regale her with gossip about half the people at the party.

All the while, she felt a tug toward wherever Sam was in the room. Occasionally, he would catch her eye and wave. She hoped she wasn’t being rude by not being glued to his side all evening. Honestly, she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to act. Sure, Sam had invited her—and escorted her… on his arm—to this party, but only because Phoebe had told him to. It wasn’t like this was a date. She’d ruined that chance after their first meeting, when he’d been about to ask her out and Arden had shut him down.

“Rugrats Chanukah,” Kayla was saying.

Arden looked over her head, distracted by the sight of Sam laughing so hard his head tilted back and his chest bellowed.

“What do you think?” Kayla prompted.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“All the kids are going in the movie room to watch A Rugrats Chanukah. We need a couple of grown-ups to stay with them. Ryan and I are heading that way, so I was wondering if you wanted to join.”

“Rugrats? Now, that takes me back.” Arden glanced over at Sam, wondering if she should decline and go talk to him instead, but Kayla grabbed her hand.

“Come on. There’s popcorn and hot chocolate in there.”

As Kayla whisked Arden away, Sam looked up from his conversation with two older men and raised his brows in amused surprise.

Where you going? he mouthed.

Movie, Arden mouthed back and shrugged.

The next moment, she temporarily forgot about Sam. The movie room—she should’ve known with a name like that—was incredible. She didn’t know people had rooms like this in real life. It had actual movie theater–style chairs, a huge projector screen on one wall, and a retro popcorn cart in the corner. There was also, unbelievably, a catering server manning a small coffee cart, handing out cups of cocoa piled high with whipped cream. A dozen or so kids occupied most of the chairs. Kayla and Ryan grabbed some popcorn and settled into seats in the back row. Arden followed suit.

As the intro credits to A Rugrats Chanukah started up, Arden dug her hand into her blue-and-white paper bag of popcorn as disbelieving delight spread through her. It was surreal. She had flown across the country without knowing anyone in this city—actually, in the entire state—and now here she was, having an incredibly fun, festive evening in someone’s gosh-darned mansion.

She grinned to herself, savoring the salty, buttery goodness on her tongue.

“Hey,” someone whispered, hopping into the seat next to her and startling Arden enough that she sent some of her popcorn flying.

“Sorry,” Sam whispered, scooping up the popcorn that had landed in his lap. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Hi.” Arden felt happily flustered, a feeling she chose not to analyze right now.

“Have you seen this before?” Sam leaned in so that she could feel his breath ruffling her hair. Is that cologne? It smelled sort of salty, like the ocean, but also like a forest of evergreen trees. Maybe that was just how he smelled.

“When I was about ten, probably. You?”

Sam chuckled quietly. “Only five hundred times. My parents play it every year.”

“Every year?”

“There’s an appalling lack of Hanukkah movies for children.” Sam leaned closer to whisper this, his hair brushing against Arden’s. He seemed to realize their heads were almost touching and tilted back in the other direction.

“Want some cocoa?” He nodded toward the coffee cart, then groaned. “Oh no. Does that make you think of our disastrous experience earlier today?”

“Disastrous? What do you mean?”

“I mean…” He gave her a look that said, Isn’t it obvious?

“No.” Arden shook her head firmly. “It wasn’t a disaster.”

“Well.” Sam glanced around, making sure they weren’t bothering anyone with their whispered conversation. He lowered his voice even more. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I was trying to ask you out, and you kinda brushed me off.”

“I’m sorry about that. I was distracted. I’d just gotten a phone call from home, and I was—well, I was thinking about that.”

“Is everything okay?”