Book excerpt: Mysterious, beautiful women with secrets are to be avoided. Leanne Dresher knows it with her head, but her heart has other plans. It's that wonderful time of the year in Christmas, Arkansas, when tourists descend and the little town's Winter Wonderland Festival pays everyone's bills through the rest of the long winter. Lee Dresher's art gallery will soon be swamped with consignments and bargain-hunting out-of-towners. What makes this season unlike all the others before it? Newcomer Becka James, whose pain-filled eyes speak of a loss she won't put into words. Lee tries her best to ignore the secretive Becka. But the newcomer seems to be around every corner, in the backdrop of every painting and the chorus of every lovelorn song on the radio. The flood of tourists brings thousands of new eyes to look over the residents of Christmas. But the only eyes Lee sees belong to Becka, who seems to be hiding something more than pain. It doesn't take long for Lee to discover that she could lose something more than her heart. 2007 Lambda Literary Finalist Frankie J. Jones (The Road Home) returns with this poignant and classic story of regrets and new hope.