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Eight a.m. was probably a strange time for a grown woman to be sitting on a swing in the park, but Alesha Reed didn’t care.

It had been almost twenty years since she’d last set foot in this park, and in the quiet of the early morning it felt exactly the way she remembered—peaceful, familiar, and somehow smaller than it did when she was nine.

Alesha tucked her hands deeper into the pockets of her coat and let the swing move gently back and forth, her boots brushing the frost-covered ground. The cold nipped at her cheeks, but the bright winter sun made the whole town sparkle under a thin layer of snow.

Coming back to Harbortown was exactly what she needed.

After her parents’ divorce, her mother took her west to Oregon, and since then, Alesha had never made it back to the East Coast. Not because she hadn’t wanted to. She had, more times than she could count. Harbortown was the only place she’d ever truly felt at home.

During the five short years her family had lived here, she’d made friends, started school, and built the kind of childhood memories that stayed with a person long after they were gone. Even at nine years old, leaving had felt like saying goodbye to something important.

Now she was back to spend the holidays with her father for the first time in…well, almost twenty years.

Martin had always been the one to make the long trip to Oregon to see her, but lately the cross-country trip had been getting harder for him. When her mother cheerfully announced she’d booked herself on a Jingle Bell seniors’ cruise for the month of December, Alesha had taken it as a sign.

Two days later, she’d packed a suitcase and booked a flight.

And the moment she drove into town the night before, she knew she made the right decision.

Main Street looked like something out of a Christmas movie.

White lights wrapped the lampposts, garlands draped across storefronts, and a towering evergreen stood in the center of the square, already decorated with ornaments that glittered under the streetlights. Fresh snow lined the sidewalks, and nearly every shop window held some kind of festive display.

But it was the familiar bookstore halfway down the block that made her slow the car to a stop.

The Lit Loft.

Warm golden light had spilled through the large front windows, illuminating shelves of books and the cozy loft that overlooked the store’s main floor. Even from the street, she could see the Christmas decorations inside—twinkling lights along the railing, a tall tree in the corner, and a stack of wrapped books displayed beneath it like presents waiting to be opened.

It looked exactly the way a bookstore should during the holidays.

And for the first time in a very long time, Alesha felt like she was home.

Off in the distance, she watched joggers making their way along the paved path.

That had never been her thing.

Every once in a while, she managed to guilt herself onto the treadmill, but beyond that she was perfectly content just thinking about being athletic.

She’d take ice cream over jogging any day.

With the early morning temperature hovering around twenty-two degrees, ice cream probably shouldn’t have been the first thing on her mind, but…well…ice cream.

A happy sigh escaped her as she set the swing in motion again. For a few minutes she allowed herself to simply enjoy the sun on her face and pretend she couldn’t feel the bite of the cold.

Apparently, the temperature wasn’t stopping anyone else. Honestly, she was amazed at how many people were already in the park. If she hadn’t been up early out of curiosity—wanting to see the town in daylight for the first time in years—she would still be inside where it was warm.

And probably still sound asleep too, because her body was still technically on West Coast time.

“I wonder if I know any of you,” she murmured.

She was nine when she left Harbortown, and she doubted anyone would remember her now, but the thought still made her curious. Maybe over the next month, she’d reconnect with a familiar face or two.

One of the things she definitely planned to do was visit the Lakeview Harbor Resort and see it decorated for the holidays. Her father had been gushing about how the reopening had revitalized the whole town, and that alone made her want to check it out. After going online and reading about all the events and activities planned for December, she knew she had to see it for herself.

Deciding it was probably time to head back to her father’s house, Alesha let the swing slow to a stop. Just as she planted her feet on the frosty ground, she heard approaching footsteps.