He’s a true Santa at heart, pining for a Mrs. Claus. She’s a big city lawyer who’s lost her way. Could a pact they made years ago give them both the gift they’ve been longing for? What good is mistletoe with no one to meet beneath it? That’s what Jace Hoffman would like to know. After giving up his military career to care for family in crisis, he chose to find his joy in supporting those closest to him, neglecting his own personal life in the process. Now he’s thirty and single. All he wants for Christmas this year is to play Santa in the town circle for the families of Sweet Bloom and forget about his empty house for a little while. But when his childhood best friend walks back into his life, he can’t stop thinking about a secret pact they once made. The song on repeat in his head changes from Blue Christmas to a Holly Jolly one—especially the line about someone waiting beneath the mistletoe. Sadie Harmon finally decided to take a vacation from her law office and come home for Christmas. Reconnecting with her small-town roots makes her career-driven lifestyle feel even more unappealing than it was at the end of her last fourteen-hour workday. After years of climbing the proverbial ladder of success, she’s only gotten ten years older and ten times lonelier. When she runs into Jace, she can’t escape the memory of the pact they made before either of them left home—a promise to marry each other if they were still single by the age of thirty. As her milestone birthday looms on Christmas Eve, she can’t help but wonder if he remembers their pact, too. With Christmas festivities in full swing, they pick up their friendship where they left off, only now, they’re doing the turtledove two step around the topic of their marriage pact. Who will bring it up first? Could following through with it put the jingle back in their bells, or would it be the worst mistake since the invention of fruit cake? A Gift for Her Best Friend Veteran, from award-winning author Kristen Iten, is a small town, best friends to lovers, Christmas romance that blends everything you love about the season into one heartwarming story of hope, romance, and dreams reborn. Perfect for fans of wholesome, Hallmark-style romance who love all things Christmas.