Christmas Comes Home: A Sweet Second Chance Romance : (The Evergreen Inn Christmas Collection #4)

She left without explaining why. He waited eight years. This Christmas, thirty days could heal everything or destroy them both.

Holly Sullivan hasn't been home to Pine Haven in eight years. Not since she joined the Army two months after her parents' funeral. Not since she broke up with Danny Brooks via letter and never looked back. She's a combat medic now, good at saving lives, terrible at living her own.

Then her commanding officer orders her home. Thirty days leave before her next deployment. A deployment with a fifty percent casualty rate that Holly volunteered for because dying in combat feels easier than dealing with the PTSD that's slowly destroying her.

She doesn't plan to see Danny. Doesn't plan to stay longer than a few days. Definitely doesn't plan to face everything she's been running from for eight years.

But Pine Haven is a small town. And Danny Brooks is impossible to avoid.

He's a high school history teacher now. Beloved by his students, settled in the life Holly abandoned, and he's spent eight years trying to understand why the girl he loved disappeared. He volunteers at the veterans center, learning about PTSD and military service, hoping to understand the war she's been fighting.

One look at Holly and Danny knows two he never stopped loving her, and she's barely holding herself together.

Thirty days. That's all they have. Thirty days before Holly deploys to almost certain death. Thirty days to figure out if eight years of hurt can be healed. Thirty days to discover if the girl who ran can learn to stay.

But Holly's nightmares are getting worse. The panic attacks are more frequent. And when she nearly hurts Danny during a PTSD episode, she's ready to run again. Ready to deploy, to disappear, to die halfway around the world rather than risk staying and failing.

Danny can't watch her self-destruct. Can't spend six months wondering if each day brings news of her death. He loves her, but he can't save someone who won't fight to save herself.

Holly has a submit for medical evaluation and stay in Pine Haven to heal, or deploy to a war zone she probably won't survive. It should be simple. But nothing about coming home is simple when home means facing your trauma, accepting help, and believing you're worth saving.

Christmas Comes Home is an emotional second chance romance about healing from PTSD, learning that staying is braver than running, and discovering that home isn't a place but the person who loves you through the darkness. Perfect for readers who love military heroines, patient heroes, and the journey from broken to whole.