Recently divorced from his Hollywood screenwriter husband, Nick Holly returns at Christmas to the home of his childhood in Vermont to start a new life in his familiar hometown. Almost immediately he runs into his best friend and crush from high school, Jolly Whitaker, who is also recently divorced and as sexy as he ever was.<br><br>With Nick’s mom encouraging him to see if there is anything still between him and Jolly, Nick embarks on a holiday of discovery and the knowledge that coming home to Vermont is more welcome than he believed. Perhaps this Christmas it really will be a Holly Jolly Christmas.

Holly Jolly

To my surprise, Jolly reached for my hand and I surprised myself by putting my hand in his. We stayed that way for a moment or two.


“I’m glad you’re home and I’m glad you agreed to go out with me.”


“To be honest, I was surprised you were interested.”


He laughed and took a sip of his wine. “I’ll never live down high school, will I?”


“No,” I joked. “But more than that, Jolly, we’re just not those kids anymore. Don’t get me wrong, you’re still pretty hot, but we’ve both had other relationships, it’s been years, and I just…I didn’t know what to expect coming back to Vermont. But I definitely didn’t imagine this.”


“Hey, at least I’m still pretty hot.” He smiled. “I think you are, too, by the way. So fucking hot.”


I felt myself blush and tried to hide it behind my glass of wine. But white wine didn’t hide much, I’m sure.


Chapter 11