Los Angeles, California

Mallory Taylor sat in her apartment with her cell phone in hand, waiting for it to ring. Her agent had told her about yet another part. He had the uncanny ability to always throw her another bone just when she was ready to pack up and go back home. This one was for another television show. But she was tired of waiting. Tired of maybes. Tired of not being any farther along with her dream of making it in Hollywood than she had been three years ago when she had moved here.

But this time, instead of checking her agent’s text, she checked her sister’s. Jocelyn and her husband, Caden, were having a baby... and the baby was expected to arrive around Christmas.

Christmas.

This Christmas would be three years that Mallory had been away from home, Christmas Cove, the place where Christmas lived year-round. Mallory looked around her apartment. She hadn’t even had time to decorate for the holiday... and it was just a few weeks away. She hadn’t made many friends since she arrived in Hollywood, and the friends she did make were just as superficial as she was when she first arrived. But if the past few years hadn’t taught her anything else, it was that family and friends, and the time spent with them, were the most important things in your life. When she walked down the Hollywood Walk of Fame, dreaming of seeing her own name there one day, what good was it if there was no one to share it with?

How are you feeling? Mallory texted, pushing her long, dark brown hair over her shoulder. It was funny that as dark as her hair was, her sister was blonde, all light and sunshine. But that was one of the things Mallory had always loved about her sister. Jocelyn had always seen the good in life and in people.

Is this my long-lost sister, back from the dead... or Hollywood? Jocelyn teased.

Even though Mallory knew it was true, it was still hard to hear. The one and only, she texted back. Mind if I come to visit this Christmas?

You’re kidding me! Jocelyn texted back. Yes! When are you coming? How soon can you get here?

Mallory smiled at the phone, remembering her sister, unable to believe that she had stayed away this long. I’ll leave in the morning.

Leave now, she texted back.

See you soon! Mallory texted back. Don’t have the baby until I get there.

LOL! Tell that to the baby, Jocelyn texted back. See you soon.

See you soon. After Mallory clicked off, she hurried to her bedroom to pack.

She flung open her closet door and started throwing warm clothes onto the bed, remembering that it always snowed at Christmas time back home. Even though she had become sick of Christmas all year long, she found she missed it when she moved to Los Angeles. Now, she was ready for some of her kind of normalcy, which consisted of Christmas decorations and every reference to the North Pole and Santa Claus imaginable.

Unwilling to wait another minute, Mallory dialed her boss’s number at the local bar, having had to take a job bartending until she got her big break.

“Hello?” Josey answered the phone, sounding stressed with the sound of glasses clinking and patrons yelling in the background. Someone was even singing a Christmas song to the piped-in music.

Man! The bar was packed tonight. Major, her boss, wouldn’t be happy. They called him Major as a joke because he was retired Navy and it stuck. Now, everyone called him Major, even though his real name was Fred.

“Josey, it’s Mallory. Can you put Major on, please?” She waited while the phone was passed and said, “I’m not coming in tonight—”

“What?” His voice rose four octaves. “Mallory, we’re packed tonight! Why on earth are you not coming in? The tips will be fantastic! You’ll probably be able to pay your rent in one night!”

“Yeah, right.” Mallory chuckled, knowing how prone he was to exaggeration. “I’m going home to Christmas Cove and I won’t be back in until after Christmas.”

“What?” Major’s voice bellowed. “Get in here now or you’re fired!”

“I’ll see you after New Year’s.”

“Oh! Now it’s New Year’s?”

Mallory chuckled, never dreaming she would be having this conversation with her boss... at a bar. But she had to do something to pay the bills. She hadn’t had any acting jobs since a toothpaste commercial she had the year before, and recently, a deodorant commercial. She sighed, thinking that it may be time to move on to another profession.

“Thanks, Major!” Mallory yelled into the phone over the din of clanking glasses in the background. “Have a good holiday!”

“Mallory, don’t do this to—” He was still screaming when she hung up. But for the first time in a very long while, she felt free. Maybe her luck was about to change after all.

It hadn’t taken Mallory long to pack and change into traveling clothes. This time of year, it was cold in Los Angeles, but Christmas Cove, Washington, gave a new meaning to the word. It was approximately a twenty-hour drive, so she’d have to stay the night. Although she knew that she should wait and start out early, she was ready to get out of town.

Once the car was packed, she locked up her apartment, put the address into Google Maps, and was on her way. Mallory thought she would never say this, but she was ready to leave Hollywood... maybe permanently. But, on the other hand, Christmas Cove had never had anything for her, either. Sure, there were beauty pageants and her modeling career, but truth be told, Jocelyn had been supporting them both for a while before Mallory moved. Jocelyn had believed in her... and was probably one of the only people who did.

Then when Mallory’s ex-fiancé came back into town, she had changed and so had he. He ended up falling in love with her sister, and she ended up giving them her blessing. Although she had cared for Caden, she had never truly loved him... not like Jocelyn had. And he was a wonderful guy who deserved to be loved by someone special. Now, he and Jocelyn had set up house in her parents’ old place and were expecting their first baby.

Mallory had thought about renting a hotel room while she was there, but hotels cost money... money she didn’t have. So, she had quickly accepted Jocelyn’s offer when said she could stay with them. But this time, Mallory vowed that things would be different. Instead of being the selfish prima donna that she realized she had been before she left, Mallory planned to help Jocelyn in any way she could, from helping with the baby to taking care of the house until Jocelyn got on her feet. It was the least she could do after all that Jocelyn had done for her over the years.

Mallory had driven longer than she had anticipated, and soon, it was so dark out that she couldn’t see past the headlights... and then the snow started falling. She turned on her windshield wipers, but fat lot of good that did. It seemed to make it worse. And there were no hotels anywhere in sight. The snow started coming down in buckets, covering the road to the point that she didn’t know where it was. She slowed down to a crawl, afraid that if she pulled off the road, she’d either be right in the middle of the road or would wind up in a ditch in the middle of nowhere. So, she kept driving, praying for daylight.

Bang! Crunch!

Mallory jolted forward, hitting her head on the windshield as the car came to an abrupt stop. Searing pain rushed through her head and throughout her body as she tried to make sense of what had just happened. Her body was laying over the steering wheel and her head hurt, more than it had ever hurt in her life. When she opened her eyes, she looked up and saw the branches of a tree, coming through the windshield. Luckily, none of them had hit her, but there was a huge crack in the glass directly in front of her. Even though she was groggy, Mallory thought that her head must have hit the windshield. Her chest hurt and she wondered if she had any broken ribs from the airbag rushing out and hitting her in the chest.

Somewhere in the distance, she heard a horn blaring... and realized it was hers. How could she make it stop? She banged on the steering wheel, but she didn’t have enough strength to make a difference and her head was spinning. Suddenly, her door flew open.

“Ma’am, are you okay?” a man asked, his dark brown eyes sparkling in the moonlight. In fact, he wasn’t just any man, but the most perfect specimen of a man she had ever seen. Perhaps a movie star, but it could have just been her groggy state.

“Do I know you?” she asked, fighting to stay conscious. If she lost consciousness, anything could happen to her.

He smirked. “I don’t think so. You’ve been in an accident, ma’am. How do you feel?”

“Horrible.” She let out a deep breath. “I think I hit my head on the windshield and my chest hurts.”

“That’s probably because of the airbag,” he said, his dark brown hair shining in the moonlight.

“Are you an angel?” Mallory blurted out before she could stop herself.

“Nope.” He smirked, looking her over. “Why did you ask?”

“You’re glowing....” She looked away, wobbling. “And I think I’ve said too much.”

He chuckled. “Why don’t you just relax, and I’ll take care of you.”

Even though she shouldn’t, there was something about him that she trusted. “Thank you.”

The next thing she knew, strong arms were lifting her from the car... and then everything went black.