A Texas Christmas Homecoming — Nancy Robards Thompson

Elijah Lane left Whiskey River under a cloud of suspicion about a car theft he didn't commit. After a stint in the army and years learning the wine industry, he's back, ready to develop an elite boutique winery. With backing from a Hollywood A-lister, Eli intends to prove that this boy from the wrong side of town has made it big. There's no one he wants to prove it to more than Rachel Wilson, the high school sweetheart who didn't believe in his innocence and married someone else practically the minute he left Whiskey River.

Busy running her specialty baking company, widowed Rachel has no interest in romance -- even when her first love comes back to town. Though she feels guilty that she didn't stand behind the boy her mother persuaded her was certain to become a Barrels ne'er-do-well like the father who abandoned them, she has neither the time nor the energy to explore second chances.

Moved by the star-crossed couple's repressed passion, which is hotter than cinnamon candy and sweeter than sugar icing, a benevolent Christmas ghost, who lives for happy endings, might just be cooking up a delicious new chance for Rachel and Eli.