Her Fake Christmas Cowboy

Ivy Being the kindergarten teacher in a small Montana town means Christmas is never quiet. Between shepherd costumes, crooked angel halos, and rehearsals for Havenstone's Christmas Nativity, I already have more than enough to keep me busy. What I don't need is another festive dinner where my loving parents casually remind me how wonderful it would be if I met someone, settled down, and gave them grandchildren. They mean well. Really. But this Christmas, I decide to give them exactly what they've been wishing for. A boyfriend. There's just one problem. I don't actually have one. Then Everett "Wire" Hooper comes home. Big. Broody. Ex-Navy SEAL. And currently being bossed around by Mary Maas while he fixes every strand of Christmas lights, microphone, and temperamental piece of wiring in the town hall. So I ask Wire to be my fake boyfriend until Christmas. A few dinners. A little hand-holding. Maybe one or two convincing kisses. Simple. At least, that's what I tell myself. Wire Mary Maas asks me to come home and help with the Christmas Nativity. By "asks," I mean she tells me the town hall wiring is a disaster and expects me to fix it. I can handle faulty circuits, tangled cables, and a sound system older than half the kids in the pageant. Ivy is another problem entirely. She's sweet, stubborn, beautiful, and surrounded by tiny angels who seem determined to drag me into every rehearsal. When she asks me to play her boyfriend for Christmas, I agree. It should be easy. Stand close. Hold her hand. Kiss her when people are watching. Except the more time I spend pretending Ivy is mine, the less fake any of it feels. And somewhere between the Christmas lights, Nativity rehearsals, and one too many kisses under the mistletoe, I stop wondering when this arrangement ends. I start wondering how to make sure it doesn't.