Holiday Romance: Christmas In Australia

When shore leave brings a naval engineer to Sydney's summer shores, he never expected to find the one person who checks all the boxes. Miles Armstrong has spent decades keeping aircraft carriers running across the world's oceans. With retirement on the horizon, his Christmas shore leave in Sydney is meant to be simple and a few weeks of peace before his final deployment. Talia Summers has commanded the skies over Australia for most of her adult life. Independent, accomplished, and, she's built a life she loves-one that doesn't require anyone else to complete it. But when a chance encounter on a harbor ferry sparks an unexpected connection, both discover something neither knew they were missing. Between beach walks and Christmas barbecues, harbor cruises and shared dreams, Miles and Talia find themselves falling for each other with an intensity that surprises them both. The problem? In three weeks, Miles ships out for eight months. And at their age, with their careers, their independence, their carefully constructed lives-is love really worth the risk? As distance tests what they built during those sun-drenched weeks in Sydney, Miles and Talia must decide: Will they play it safe and protect the lives they've always known? Or will they dare to believe that some connections are worth crossing oceans for-even when you've spent a lifetime sailing alone?