When Victor Hill bought a house with his boyfriend, Jian Kouri it was a dream come true. But now, two years later, instead of living their happily ever after, they hardly see the other awake.<br><br>With Jian out the door before Victor gets up in the morning, and asleep on the couch nearly as soon as he walks in the door, the life Victor imagined couldn’t be further from reality. They don’t talk; they don’t touch, and Victor fears he and Jian have already drifted too far apart.<br><br>The holiday season is a time for hope, but when Victor comes home to find Jian with a plan to woo him for Christmas, is it too little, too late? The dates are great, and there are filled with Christmas fun to get Victor in the right spirit for the holiday, but are they enough for the two of them to fall in love again? Or is there just too much in their relationship that needs fixing?

24 Dates

Jian gave him a funny look. “It’s just a lamp.”


“No, it’s more than a lamp. It’s hope.”


“It is! Remember counting down the days to Christmas as a kid? Mom always made me an advent calendar with one gift every day from December first to the twenty-fourth.”


“It was magic. And she put up a star in time for Advent, so when the star was lit in the window, the countdown had started.”


Victor picked up a grape and threw it on him. “Don’t be like that. It was magical. Weren’t your Christmases magical?”


“I grew up in a Muslim home, Vic.” There was an echo of pain in his voice, and Victor cursed himself for not thinking before speaking.


“Sorry. I’m so stupid sometimes.”


“You’re not, and I get the excitement, I do. I loved the holidays when I was a kid, at least before I was old enough to know who I was and what it meant for me and my family. I never understood why a star in the window was important.”


Chapter 12