A man realizes that his best friend since childhood is the woman that he loves.

Family friends Sam and Kat spend every Christmas Eve at the Children's Table. They grow up together, sharing the highs and lows of young adulthood. And at thirty, Sam realizes that Kat is the one...but he's afraid that the past will get in the way.—Anonymous

In this unusual Christmas romance story, spanning nearly 30 years and set over 14 non-consecutive Christmas Eve evenings, Kat Patton and Sam Reed are best friends whose fathers run a furniture making business in a small Illinois town. Every Christmas Eve, Sam's parents and Kat's widowed father gather with other employees and their families at Elissa Beth's house for their annual Christmas Eve dinner and every year Sam and Kat sit at the children's table. Each year, Kat and Sam grow close, then apart, and closer again as their different careers, views on life, and paths make them different to the changing world. After a five-year absence of not attending any Christmas Eve parties after a falling out with Kat, Sam decides to try to tell her about his feelings for her, but he only had one time to do so and will he make the right choice?—Larry B.

Thirty-two year olds Sam Reed and Kat Patton have known each other most of their lives, having grown up in the same small Illinois town. They were four the year that Kat's mom died, their fathers, Bobby Reed and Tom Patton, started their own custom furniture business, Reed & Patton, and family friend Elissa Beth Dixon - E.B. - began what would become the tradition of hosting a Christmas Eve dinner and party at her house. Bobby and Tom built Sam and Kat a small children's sized table that year that serves as their Christmas Eve dinner table to this day, with other children joining them as the years went on. E.B.'s tradition seemed natural as she keeps her Christmas lights up on her house year 'round, and as she amasses more decorations every year. Through the years, Sam and Kat's relationship is not always cordial, especially in their teenaged years. Sam left town to go away to school at age eighteen, eventually settling in New York City as a journalist. He returns to town most Christmases for the Christmas Eve dinner, while Kat has remained in town, she eventually getting a job in the family business. Thus, Sam and Kat only see each other at most once a year during the holidays, however being there in spirit for the other year 'round without really knowing what is truly going on in the other's life. On Christmas Eve, they are there as the other goes through romance and heartache with others. Through it all, there is generally an unspoken knowledge that despite their distance most of the year their friendship is more than that, which is often hindered by one or the other being in what looks to be a serious relationship with someone else. But underlying issues may place walls between them ever coming together romantically, specifically why Sam stays away except at Christmas, and why Kat has stayed in town leading what on the surface seems to be a stagnating life.—Huggo