Mistletoe Bet: Fake Dating the Grumpy Hockey Star

She only agreed to one fake date to help her brother’s grumpy best friend. She never meant to fall for the single-dad hockey star who swore he’d never love again. Holly Winters runs Heartstrings Connections, the matchmaking agency that turns Evergreen Hollow into a year-round Christmas-card town. Rowan Kane is the Evergreen Bears’ brooding captain who hasn’t celebrated a holiday since his wife walked out on Christmas Eve four years ago, leaving him and two-year-old Lily behind. One lost bet. One gala. One tiny white lie that snowballs into town-wide rumors, forced proximity, midnight kisses under northern lights, and a little girl who starts calling Holly “my Holly.” But when Rowan’s ex-wife suddenly reappears, carrying secrets that could destroy everything (bipolar disorder, a lost pregnancy, crushing debt, and a mysterious man who will sacrifice his entire life to protect them), the fake romance becomes the only real thing either of them has left. In a winter that refuses to end, four broken people and one fierce little girl will discover that sometimes the greatest love stories aren’t the ones you plan; they’re the ones that save you when you’re too terrified to save yourself. Snowed-in nights. Desperate proposals. A stranger’s ultimate act of love. And a sky that catches fire just to prove happy endings still exist.