Christmas at Holly Lodge

Sophie Bennett owns and operates Holly Lodge, on the mountain in a ski area, in Overton, Colorado. It was her parents' house and after their passing she decided to convert it into a lodge to extend the spirit of Christmas that her parents fostered in welcoming friends into their home, guests who now return Christmas after Christmas in that sense of family. It will be bittersweet for Nadine, who lost her husband this past year and thus will be on her own. It will also be bittersweet for mother and daughter Lucia and Zoe, whose stay for the third year in a row once again means that Lucia's husband/Zoe's father Frederico, in the military, is stationed overseas this season, Zoe, for the first time, old enough to understand the full implication of not being with her father for the holidays. Among staff, including Sophie's chef/clerk Nadine, and Vince, who does odd jobs for Sophie while not at his regular job on the ski hill, there is legend that a miracle happens every Christmas at the lodge, often in the realm of love and romance, that miracle which could apply to Callie and Vince if they just open themselves up to it as a possibility. It could be Sophie's year when an unexpected guest checks in for a few days, Evan Hunter from New York City, there an immediate attraction between the two. Things change when Sophie secretly learns that Evan is there specifically for his company, Elite Resorts, he who is to assess the probability of buying the lodge for a song to redevelop it into a high end resort. The expected low price is in Evan probably knowing that Sophie is in financial straits, six months behind in mortgage payments in having a few bad snow years and often treating her guests more like family than paying guests. Sophie's first inclination is secretly to make Evan's life at the lodge as miserable as possible, until she figures she should adhere to the old adage, "keep your friends close, your enemies closer". But in being close, Sophie will have to remember that Evan is indeed the enemy. Conversely, in Evan falling for Sophie, he has to decide if he should stick to his original mission for Elite or try to find some way for Sophie to get out of her financial problem to keep the lodge.