Tallie only stayed on the sidelines of the game long to eat. Once she was done, Case pulled her onto his team and the next hour flew by. When parents finally started appearing in the parking lot, looking for tired children to take home, Tallie's cheeks were red and her jacket was in the pile with all the other discarded ones.

Even as the younger kids began to leave, the game continued until everyone was called inside to help clean up. The rambunctious crowd trooped inside, bursting with energy, and Case's mom put it to good use. In record time, they had the social hall returned to its normal state, all the dishes clean and the floors swept.

By the time the cleaning was done, the crowd's energy had waned and everyone called out tired goodbyes as they headed in their different directions.

Tallie waved goodbye as she pulled on her coat and looked for Case as she headed towards the door herself. She didn't see him until she was almost out the door and he came up the back stairs, his guitar on his back.

"Tallie, wait up," he called, quickly crossing the hall to join her. She waited, holding the door open for him.

The night they stepped into was quiet. Long gone were the cheers from the crowd in the parking lot. The parking lot was now empty and all the families had gone home. Almost all the lights in the church were off, and the tree in the center of the square shone the brightest.

"Oh, it's cold," Case said, zipping up his jacket and reaching for the gloves in his pocket. Tallie pulled out her gloves and looked up into the inky night as she pulled them on.

The sky was clear but there were few stars in the sky. It looks like snow. She took a deep breath. The air always got a crisp, fresh scent before a snowstorm, and Tallie thought she could almost smell it, but there was no snow in the forecast.

"It almost looks like snow," she said.

Case looked up and examined the sky. "It does, but I thought there wasn't any in the forecast."

"There isn't," she confirmed. She slowly started walking and he followed. They were silent for a little bit, letting their footsteps ring throughout the square.

"I missed this," Case finally said.

Tallie looked at him. "Do you mean the cold? I thought I had heard New York can get chilly at times."

He chuckled and shook his head. "Oh they have the cold but they don't have the kickball games or the potlucks."

She looked at him in mock horror. "How tragic."

"I'm serious," he said. She stopped smiling and nodded for him to go on. "I've enjoyed figuring out life in New York and getting to know people in school and at the law firm, but..." He looked around the square, "there is nothing in New York like Holly Oaks. Don't get me wrong, I've met nice people and had good times, but there is something about being around people who you have known your whole life.

"There is no explaining and there is no apologizing. Yeah, you bump into people and have squabbles, but at the end of the day, there is a deep-rooted understanding for each other."

As Tallie listened, a soft smile slipped onto her face. She had experienced firsthand what he was talking about for the last two years. The Holly Oaks community had shown up for her family in the last two years, never asking for anything in return.

"It is pretty special here," she agreed.

"It is. I mean, look at that," he said, stopping her and making her look at the Christmas tree. The lights twinkled against the dark sky and cast tinted shadows on the stone of the square and the benches along the edges.

"Want to sit?" he asked, moving towards one of the benches. "Unless you need to be somewhere? Or someone is expecting?"

She went to say no but stopped at the way he had said 'someone'. "What do you mean by someone?" she asked.

He shrugged awkwardly as he sat. "I just mean, you always seem to be dashing off on me. I didn't know if you had a boyfriend?"

She laughed softly and joined him on the bench. "I don't have a boyfriend."

She hadn't had time in the last two years to even think about liking someone, let alone have the time to have someone in her life. He only nodded and kept his eyes fixed on the tree.

After a moment, she couldn't help but ask, "do you have a girlfriend?"

"No," he said, but the way he paused after made her think there was more than his simple answer. But she let it be and looked at the tree. They sat in companionable silence for a while, entranced by the lights.

Case was finally the one to break the silence. "You've been home for a while," he said. It took a minute for Tallie to understand the point he was making because he hadn't said it as a question.

She hesitated before looking at him and found him looking back with warm, compassionate eyes. She nodded. He studied her closer and must have seen something that made him add, "you've been home for a long time."

She looked back at the tree feeling just how long she had been home. Some naive part of her had hoped that she wouldn't have to tell him about the last two years. If she didn't tell him then she could keep being the Tallie from the past, the girl going to Berklee with a whole world of opportunities at her fingertips. Telling him felt like the final straw to accepting that the last two years weren't just a weird blip in time in an old life that was still waiting for her return. Holly Oaks was her life now.

She knew she had to tell him. It would be a disservice to her dad and all he had been through if she didn't, and she knew Case wouldn't want her to be anyone other than who she was.

"Two years," she finally answered.
He nodded like he understood but she could see in his gaze that he didn't.

"What...? When...?" He searched for the question that would get him answers and Tallie helped him out.

"My dad got diagnosed with cancer, leukemia, two years ago," she said. She watched the effect the word cancer had on him as his face softened with sadness.

"It happened right after Christmas," she continued. "Someone had to come home to run the music store and help my mom. My sister had a new baby and my brother was only a month into his internship in Germany so it made the most sense for me to come home."

Tallie went silent as she remembered the whirlwind of the first few months. Everything had happened so fast, the diagnosis, her moving home, the treatments, her taking over the music store, she hadn't had time to look around and see how much her life had changed until June. When she finally did, she had learned examining her new life only made her sad and made taking care of her father much harder. It was better and easier to stay focused on what was right in front of her.

"Tallie, I didn't know," he said.

"I know," she said, giving him a reassuring smile. The whole town had known within days, but she knew Case's mom hadn't shared the news with Case out of respect for Tallie's family's privacy. After Tallie had made it through the haze of the first six months, Case's mom had gently hinted at telling Case.

"Your mom thought I should tell you, but I didn't want to." He looked confused and a little hurt and she quickly explained. "You had just been accepted into NYU and I didn't want to ruin your celebration with such depressing news. Plus, telling anyone outside of Holly Oaks felt like it made it real." She chuckled at the stupid idea. "As if taking care of my dad every day hadn't already made it real."

She looked at Case, hoping he wasn't hurt that she hadn't told him and she saw he understood. She also saw how sad he was. He had spent half of his high school life at her house and loved her parents the same way she loved his.

"The good news is my dad is in remission as of three months ago," she said.

His eyes brightened a bit. "Really? That's great."

"It is. We are so lucky," she said. "The doctors found it early enough they were hopeful that with surgery and chemo that my dad would be okay. And they were right."

Sometimes in the day to day, she forgot about the remission. It sounded awful in her head, she knew she should be celebrating every day her dad remained in remission, but it was scary to hope.

"But you didn't believe them," he said, picking up on something in her voice.

She shook her head. "In the beginning, it was so scary and overwhelming, but there was a weird peace in the fear. Hoping felt scarier." She paused as she tried to find a way to explain it. "This sounds dramatic but I think of it like if I was drowning."

He gave her a concerned look but she smiled, asking him to bear with her. "If I were drowning and I tried to fight it or hope I could make it out, I would use up all my energy and my last moments would be miserable. But if I accepted I was drowning, I could just peacefully float."

She looked at him to see if her words made any sense but she only saw his concern had deepened.

"Tallie," he said, his voice breaking with sadness.

She shook her head as if refusing his sadness. "That wasn't a good analogy."

"But there's truth to that drowning feeling," he guessed.

"Yeah. It was pretty rough in the beginning." Memories from the first months started popping into her head and she couldn't hold them back.

She told him about the countless doctor appointments, each one delivering more depressing news than that last. She told him about watching her father slowly whither away.

But she also told him how the Holly Oaks community had delivered meals three times a week for the first six months. Looking back, Tallie wasn't sure they would have made it through without the community supporting them, and they didn't just bring. People cleaned their house and others started picking up shifts at the music store to keep it going.

In a weird way, she found it comforting to tell Case about the last two years. Even though there was a lot of bad, there was also a lot of good, and it was cheering to remember how much love the town had poured into her family. Case for his part listened attentively, sometimes sharing his own sadness but he never asked her to carry it as some people had.

"And now my dad is doing so much better," she said. "He got out for a walk yesterday which is a big deal, especially in the cold. There is still a lot of caretaking. The cancer is gone, but now his body is trying to recover from the surgeries and chemo. But my mom and I have a good system down."

She couldn't stop the hopeful feeling creeping in as she realized how far they had come. "They miss being out and about and seeing everyone, especially during the holidays, but they are hopeful that by next year dad could join some of the activities."

"It must be hard on your mom though," Case said. "She use to direct most of the church's activities."

She nodded. "It is, but I was able to help out some last year and I'm helping out a lot more this year and that makes her happy. She always wants to know how the rehearsals go and gives me advice about dealing with the troublesome kids."

"Lucas."

She grinned. After watching the pageant rehearsal two days in a row, he knew with certainty she was talking about Lucas.

"Yes, with Lucas. Even though my mom has to miss out on the Christmas events, she loves my dad so much, she wouldn't want to be anywhere but by his side."

"They're lucky to have each other. And they are lucky to have you." He reached for her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.

"We're lucky to have each," she said.

Something washed over her and she was surprised to find that for the first time in two years, she felt like her old self. It didn't make sense that here, after sharing all the ways her life had changed that she would feel that way.

But sitting on the bench with Case, enjoying the Christmas tree late at night, something seemed to click into place, and for the first time in a long time, everything felt right. 

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Now the mystery is solved!

Did any of you guess it?