Open by Christmas (2021)

Nicky Beaton and Simone Cole have been best friends since they were children growing up as next door neighbors in the town of Marsden. Despite their geographic distance in Nicky now living in New York City, they will be spending both Thanksgiving and Christmas together on Nicky's return for the respective holidays. Those holidays end up not being as either envisioned. After her first husband Ryan abandoned her and their now fifteen year old son Anthony years ago, flower shop owner Simone will imminently be getting remarried, this time to high school classmate Jeremy Winters. While Simone is bracing herself for the arrival back of who she considers Jeremy's overbearing mother Miriam Winters for the holidays, she is ill-prepared for the feeling she has of being shut out of the bonding that is going on between Jeremy and Anthony, especially in wanting that precious time with her son before he goes away to college in three years. And what Nicky believes will be her short Thanksgiving stay in Marsden ends up being extended to Christmas upon news that her parents, Linda and Dave Beaton, are selling the family home, making this holiday season their last in that house. In helping her mother pack up the house, Nicky discovers among her old high school things a never seen Christmas card that was apparently secretly placed in one of her textbooks. The card is truly a love letter from the unknown writer who didn't sign his name. While Nicky is now a successful businesswoman operating her own consulting firm, she has many insecurities from her high school days, and thus goes on a quest, with help from her parents and Simone, to discover who her high school crush was in needing that affirmation that high school was not all bad. While she is focused on that past, she may miss what is currently right in front of her in the form of Derrick Marshall, her parents' real estate agent who is a bigger part of Nicky's past than she realizes.—Huggo