Cody Laughman, a lonely firefighter in New York City, gets a blast from the past when his late father’s lawyer approaches him with news. It has been three years since Cody’s father’s death, the family house needs to be sold. Although Cody is glad to get rid of this part of his life, there is one final thing he needs to do -- fly home to Muffin, Alaska, and make the property presentable.<br><br>He expects this to be a quick visit, just cleaning up some old memories he usually ignores. But memories are stubborn, and on top of everything else, he finds a real Christmas elf living in the attic of his house. Not a tiny fairy, but a full-grown, deliciously handsome man. He doesn’t even have pointed ears.<br><br>But can Cody open up to the possibility of finding love, when the ghost of Christmas past is still haunting him?

The Firefighter in the Snow

Cody crawled out from under the car to see. Candy stood in a corner, ankle deep in knick-knack. In his hand, something that looked like a mangled action figure. Cody’s heart made a painful jump when he recognized it. His He-Man doll. Twenty years ago, he had thought he’d never find it again.


“I thought I’d lost it,” he said, astonished.


Candy, beaming broadly, walked over to him to lay the pathetically mauled doll on the car’s hood. They both looked at it as if it were an object of tremendous value. Cody moved his hand closer to touch it. It felt real and magical at the same time.


“I searched for it for weeks,” he murmured. “It was my favorite toy, I got it for my eighth birthday. Funny, I don’t even remember playing with it down here, I only remember looking for it for weeks.“


“You wished for a new one for Christmas that year,” Candy finished for him, not taking his eyes off the doll—or Cody’s fingers that were stroking the doll.


Cody fixed him with a stare. “How do youknow?”


Chapter 9