“I’m going to be gone a couple of hours. Text me if there’s an emergency. Otherwise, I’ll be back around four.”

Margie, a forty-something brunette with three teenaged sons and a husband who adored her, frowned. “You okay, boss? You look, I don’t know, stressed maybe.”

“I’m fine,” he lied. “I’m going to stop by and see my mother, then I’ll be back.”

Margie sighed. “I hope when my boys are grown, they’re as good to me as you are to her.”

Jake only nodded, because he couldn’t say what he was thinking. That the whole Bali/Tahiti plan made the most sense, but if she wouldn’t agree, he was going to hire some kind of keeper. And take all her electronics away. And possibly her car. He understood she was missing his father and he wanted to be there for her, but there was no way in hell he was letting her move forward with Project: Jake’s Bride. Not now. Not ever. No. Just no.

Home Sweet Christmas

by Susan Mallery

Copyright © 2022 by Susan Mallery, Inc.

Look for it from HQN Books October 2022!