One Starry Christmas (2014) on Netflix

Plot summary

Holly Jensen is a doctoral student in astronomy at Brenfield University of Chicago. She has submitted her dissertation and is waiting for approval, with a permanent teaching post at Brenfield in reach and a finalist spot for the Geneva Lewis Fellowship. She cannot visit her parents in New York City, and she plans to spend Christmas with Adam, her boyfriend of three years. Adam is a corporate lawyer who suddenly leaves for New York to pursue a client and a permanent position. Then Holly learns her dissertation has been accepted, freeing her from holiday work, and she buys a cheap bus ticket to New York to surprise her parents and Adam. On the journey she meets Luke, a Texas rancher and cowboy traveling to a New Jersey rodeo and planning to see his brother Bull.