For the Holidays

Is there anything worse than getting sick on the four-hour flight home for the holidays? How about the fact that my childhood rival, Jasper Jensen, is there to not only witness it, but to take care of me so he can hang it over my head for all of eternity? Or maybe when an old fling is waiting to pick me up at the airport, hoping to rekindle our past over the holidays, and I'm so desperate to avoid him that I present Jasper as my boyfriend. Jasper agrees to play the part if, in return, I attend his family's famous Christmas Eve party to keep his meddling family from setting him up. It's a small price to pay for my holiday peace. But nothing is peaceful about the holidays this year. My sister's getting married on New Years' Eve and wedding planning is taking over Christmas. My family has no time for our holiday traditions; we don't even have a Christmas tree. Until Jasper swoops in. Between helping me decorate for Christmas, taking me to look at light displays, and wrapping presents for underprivileged kids, Jasper shows me a side of him I've never known. I've vowed to keep the hostility between us-my heart is safer that way-but that might be one tradition that I can't hold onto this Christmas.

Last Christmas, I gave Liam Hargrove my heart… Okay, maybe not my heart. But I was ready to give him something else-until he panicked and dropped me on my ass, bruising both my tailbone and my ego. Now I'd like to forget the whole mortifying mess ever happened. This year, I'm moving on. I've traded my silly crush on my brother's best friend for a dream come true: opening Blush & Binding, Cedar Hollow's first romance-only bookstore. With a calendar full of holiday events, this Christmas is going to be my best one yet. Until Liam shows up. With my parents' house overflowing and the local inn booked solid, my mom oh-so-generously offers up my guest room. Now he's in my space, helping with inventory, charming my customers just by existing, and reading my annotated romance novels like they're a guidebook. He says he wants to make it up to me…starting by reenacting a few of my favorite scenes. His gingerbread house building skills are impressive, so I just might let him. But this time, I'm not falling so easily-or at least not without a fight.