“Santa, My friends say you're just a story, like my dad.”

Trish's heart aches when she reads the note from her five-year-old son. She needs a man, but only to play Santa for Tyler. Widowed several years earlier, she's not quite over the scars left by her dishonest husband. She isn't looking for a relationship, although having someone to rely on is tempting. So is Sam, but she's not going to fall for an unambitious man. Not again.

Sam doesn't want a relationship, either. Recently burned by his ex, who had her eye on the top of the corporate ladder, he's willing to let Trish think he's poor and out of work to keep her at arm's length. When she and her son invade his heart, there's this little misunderstanding in the way. He has to win her over, but can he help her bury the past?

Trish's former mother-in-law isn't making things easy, either. Her friend was recently granted custody of her granddaughter, and Miriam thinks raising Tyler is an ideal way to reinvent the past. She just has to oust Trish from the picture.

When things look their gloomiest, it doesn't hurt to have Santa on your side.

Megan Kelly