Nikki Mancini, a high school teacher in New York, has loved Mike for as long as she can remember, though she was never more to him than his best friend's little sister. She claims to be a homebody, but secretly fears moving beyond her comfort zone.
Mike Branagan has his own emotional wounds to resolve, having lost his parents in an accident when he was fourteen. He's tried to escape painful memories by leaving New York and starting a new life on the West Coast, but years later, new facts indicate that his parents' deaths might not have been an accident.
At Christmas, Mike returns to New York for the first time in three years to visit and to chase down a lead in his parents' case. Romantic sparks fly, but their mutual attraction takes an unexpected detour.
Nikki is shattered that she's lost her chance with Mike. She impulsively takes a one-year teaching opportunity in Paris to face her own fears and get over Mike.
> "One December sizzles with romantic tension, taking the reader on a roller-coaster ride from New York to San Francisco, with a delightful detour in Paris. I couldn't put it down!"
- Elizabeth Musser, author of The Secrets of the Cross trilogy and The Swan House.