Booth Pena definitely didn’t make the smartest of decisions when he was a teenager.

At eighteen, he knocked a girl up and signed up for the military all in the same day—signing his life away in more ways than one. Fast forward six weeks and he’s in bootcamp learning that he’s going to be a father while also learning that not only is he going to be deployed, but it’s going to stay that way for a year.

There weren’t a lot of things that the baby’s mother and he saw eye to eye on after that. He honestly wasn’t sure why he even slept with her in the first place.

Okay, that last part is a lie. He knows exactly why he slept with her. Because the real woman he’s in love with, her twin sister, Dillan, won’t give him the time of day.

Five years later, and he still wants her.

Now he’s home for good, being the best father and police officer that he can be, and still he’s not good enough.

* * *

Dillan Davidsdottir hated Booth Pena. Immensely.

She hated him because he slept with her sister, then left. Granted, she knew that he hadn’t meant to leave like he did, unknowingly and unconsciously leaving his daughter behind, but that didn’t change the fact that he had.

Five years later, and she still dislikes him just as much now as she did when he chose the wrong sister to take to his bed.

Maybe if he’d chosen her, her heart wouldn’t be broken, and his wouldn’t be untouchable.

But when a SWAT officer sees his life flash before his eyes, and decides that enough is enough, what’s a girl to do?

Give in, that’s what.

There are a few lessons one has to learn for themselves. Then there are the lessons that most people don’t have to learn because it’s just not done.

For instance, most people know instinctively that they shouldn’t crave the mother of their brother’s child.

Bourne Pena isn’t most men.

Bourne does everything he can to fight the attraction he feels for Delanie, but in the end, his refusal to go there almost ends up costing him his life.

* * *

Delanie Davidsdottir just wanted to forget. One night, she wanted to feel like a normal human being.

That one night changes her life and gives her a daughter that becomes her heart and soul. From that point forward, she does her level best to keep her head on straight and not make any more mistakes.

And falling for her child’s father’s twin brother—say that three times fast— would be a mistake. Not only is he Trouble with a capital T, he’s also a SWAT officer that puts his life on the line every single day.

She can’t take another loss like the one she suffered once before.

Then again, Delanie never encountered a man like Bourne Pena before, either.

Amelia loves her good friend, Avery. So much so that she agrees to do the stupidest thing ever.

A stranger photo shoot.

You know the type. The photographer takes photos of two individuals. Two individuals that, until that day, have never met in their life.

The moment she shows up at the photo shoot, she knows that she made a terrible decision.

Why? Because the total stranger about to be in an intimate photo shoot with her is the hottest thing that’s ever walked the streets of Kilgore, Texas. If not the entire US of A.

* * *

Adam wasn’t sure why the hell he agreed to something so stupid.

Call it temporary lapse of sanity.

When the photographer who shot his photo for the Kilgore Police Department’s benefit calendar asked him for a favor, he couldn’t say no. Not without looking like a jerk seeing as it was benefiting the Fallen Officer Foundation that he played a rather large part in.

Whatever it was that made him agree, he quickly realizes that it’s not worth it. Not when he walks into the studio and sees the massive bed with blood-red sheets dominating the middle of the room.

So uncomfortable he is at the sight, he’s about to head straight out the door and not look back when she walks in.
Amelia steals his breath away with just one glance, and all of a sudden, getting this stranger into his arms with his mouth on hers sounds like the best idea ever.

He should’ve never left his house. He should’ve stayed at home. He has a legitimate excuse—he’s running a fever and he’s fairly sure he’s developing pneumonia. He should have called in sick…but he doesn’t.

He goes to work, because his team is relying on him.

First, he has to sign about eight thousand calendars—all from women who purchased said calendars to benefit the Fallen Officer fundraiser. And when he’s done with that, he has to endure a television interview along with the rest of the SWAT team seeing as they made national news with their ‘Hot SWAT’ calendar that’s sold a million copies to women all over the world.

Needless to say, when Samuel Adams walks into the pharmacy hours later, he only has one thing on his mind. Ibuprofen.
Sadly, he never gets to the Ibuprofen. Mostly because before he gets there, he finds a junkie waving a gun around threatening to kill anybody that moves.

He’s running a fever. That has to be the reason that the girl in the corner begins cursing up a storm and drawing the junkie’s attention. Has to be.

* * *

Stop it, stop it, stop it!

She tells herself to take a deep breath. Tells herself that she needs to calm down. Tells herself that if she doesn’t get her act under control, things are going to get ugly.

And, of course, that’s when the curse words start flying.

The more nervous she gets, the worse her Tourette’s becomes. Which is, of course, why she stands up and gives the man a perfect target.

Thank God that the coughing giant in the corner makes the same move and saves her life.

And how does she repay him? By calling him every awful word in the dictionary.

Thank you, Tourette’s.

Going from a professional baseball player to a SWAT officer should’ve been seamless. Should have been.

But it wasn’t.

All it took was one single calendar shoot for word to spread that Nathan Cox was not only no longer playing professional baseball, but he was also the man behind saving the life of Reggie Morton, the City of Kilgore’s princess.

* * *

Reggie didn’t know that by agreeing to provide the expertise and the know-how for the Police Officer’s Ball that she would be required to actually attend the function.

What she also didn’t expect was needing to be saved—again—by the same man that had saved her life a year ago when she hosted her debut event.

This time in a not-nearly-as-spectacular way. The moment she falls into his arms like a modern-day Cinderella and takes him in in all his three-piece suited glory, she realizes that she’s been fighting the impossible.

Nathan Cox owns her. Body and soul.

All he ever wanted was to matter to someone.
What he didn’t know was that he did matter to someone.
Someone that worried about him every single day that he was gone.

* * *

Malachi Gabriel Gnocchi was missing for two years. Thanks to a mission gone wrong, not only had he been captured, but his best friend along with his fellow teammates had been taken, too.

He spent two years in hell, hoping and praying that one day he’d get to go home.

And one day he does. Only, he isn’t the same person that left. Every single thing that made him Malachi is no more.

* * *

Sierra started writing to soldiers overseas through the soldier pen pal program when she was in high school. Years later, she had no idea that the one soldier that she’d been paired up with in the very beginning would be the one man that would change her world eight years down the road.

When the letters from her soldier stopped, she knew that something bad had happened.

When they started back up again two years after the last letter, she thought that someone was playing a joke on her.
Only, that joke wasn’t a joke at all.

The man on the other end of those letters is a man that’s dying slowly from the inside out.

He’s a living, breathing mess and there’s only one thing she can do to help him.

Write him back and hope that she can bring him back from the edge.

It was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring…nope. No. Nuh-uh. That’s a lie.
The moment that Caro wakes up, she knows that she’s not alone.
One thump-thump from the living room and she quickly moves into action.
One 9-1-1 call later, and she’s ready to defend herself.
Only, she gets more than she bargains for when she steps out into her living room and comes face to face with a living, breathing nightmare.
And isn’t it just fitting that the man that saves her by coming down the chimney with a large black gun in his hand is named Saint Nicholas?

* * *

It seemed like the start of a bad joke.
Saint Nicholas comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve night, but he isn’t there to bear gifts. He’s there to take out the trash.
When he lands on his silent feet, he has no other choice but to put himself in harm’s way.
One look at Caro’s terrified face, and he can’t stop himself.
He steps in just as the bullets start flying, saving the damsel in distress and taking a bullet to the shoulder for his trouble.
But one thing he can say is, heroes always win the girl.
And Caro is the best Christmas miracle of all.