My Christmas Wish List

A twelve-year-old on my doorstep, calling me Dad. My little sister's best friend crashing in to help... Sophie Wilson, wedding planner, here to save the marriage I was hired to end. Nine years of restraint, and Sophie and I are one kitchen counter away from the naughty list..This Christmas is a disaster waiting to happen.She's my little sister's best friend, a wedding planner who can fix everyone's problems but her own, and the woman I kissed at a masquerade nine years ago and never quite forgot.Our first run-in in years involves a runaway donkey, my hoodie, and enough unresolved heat to make professional distance a lost cause. She should hate me. She mostly does. It's never once stopped me from wanting her.Then twelve-year-old Grace shows up with a cat and a paternity claim.While we wait on the DNA results, she moves into my guest room and starts drafting Dad Laws. I have no idea how to be the father she came looking for — so when Sophie offers to help, I let her.Now Sophie's wearing my clothes, rewiring my Christmas lights, and telling me exactly what she imagined doing on my kitchen counter. Wanting her was never the problem. What she does to my judgment is — and there are twelve-year-old ears down the hall.But Grace has already watched too many adults leave. If I'm going to be her father, I have to stay. And if I ask Sophie for more than one night, I owe her more than promises.I've spent my career proving happily-ever-afters don't exist.This Christmas, I might have to object to my own evidence.