Tidings of Joy: Based on a Hallmark Channel original movie

by Nancy Naigle

  David rolled the head for their snowman across the park slowly, building it bigger and bigger until he made it all the way over to where the others were.

  “That’s just the right size.” Ben picked it up and plopped it right on top. Now Mr. Snowman was nearly as tall as him.

  “Do you ever wonder how much risk is too much?” Hannah asked.

  “What’s too much? Even if you’re unsure what it will be at the end, isn’t it always worth a try?”

  Katie overheard Hannah’s conversation and wondered if she wasn’t talking more about herself and Elliott than Ezra and his situation. Katie would bet the advance on her next novel that there was very little risk in that area. Those two were meant to be.

  Yearning a bit for that magic Hannah and Elliott so clearly had, an emptiness fell over her. Time had gone by so quickly, and she’d be leaving all of this behind. She watched Ben. Her stomach filled with tingly wonder. If only.

  She could easily picture being with him. Walking hand in hand, silly inside jokes, snuggling up to his shoulder as he played his guitar by a firepit on a cold night. Even ice skating and laughing until she couldn’t breathe every time she fell. But as much as she cherished every single moment here in Evergreen and every person she’d met, she knew deep inside she could never live in this town. She loved the city. It was where she was meant to be.

  Across the way, Michelle and Ben put buttons on the front of their snowman.

  Thomas took in a big swig of winter air as he watched Michelle and his son working together.

  “You two okay?” Katie asked.

  “Yeah, sure,” Hannah said. “Katie, you can keep a secret, right?”

  “Of course. Besides, I’m getting ready to leave town. Pretty much any secret would be safe with me at this point.”

  “I’m going to miss you. We all will,” Hannah said. “But while Michelle is busy, Thomas, I have something I have to give you.” She turned back to Katie. “Don’t tell anyone.”

  “I promise.” Katie leaned in, now even more curious about what it was.

  “Merry Christmas. I have a present for you.”

  Thomas tilted his head. “It’s pretty early for a Christmas present, don’t you think?”

  Hannah pulled an old leather ring box from her coat pocket. “This is too special to wait. Merry Christmas.” Flipping the box across the snow, Thomas caught it midair.

  Puzzled, he opened it. “What’s this?”

  “I found it,” she whispered. “It’s Mom’s wedding ring. I know it is. It was in the Tinker Shop in a vintage bail jar full of glitter. Remember how Mom used to keep things in those jars?”

  “I do.” His mouth dropped wide, realization spreading across his face.

  “This one was filled with white glitter, and it had been pushed all the way back under one of the bottom cabinets.”

  The words came out in a rush. “I can’t believe you found it.”

  Katie couldn’t imagine what Hannah and Thomas must be feeling. Finding the ring after all of this time. Her romantic heart fluttered.

  Hannah touched her brother’s hand. “I think Mom would have wanted you to have it.”

  Katie pulled her hands over her mouth. How precious!

  Thomas turned the ring over in his hand. “It’s just like I remember it. I always thought the design on the sides looked like rope, the way it twisted. This is it.” He lifted it closer, then looked into Hannah’s eyes. “Wow, and lost all this time.”

  “You should have it,” Hannah said, stepping in front of him and focusing on Michelle across the way. “Just in case you were thinking about doing something, I don’t know, something where a ring would come in handy.”

  His smile grew as he watched Michelle and David interact. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about something like that lately. How did you know?”

  “I’m your sister. I know these things.”

  Thomas glanced over at Katie.

  Katie raised her right hand. “I’m just the secret-keeper, but I think that’s a wonderful idea. You already make such a beautiful family. You should make it official.” She’d never felt so excited for someone else. Evergreen certainly had more magic than its fair share.

  “Mom’s ring.” Thomas tucked the box into his pocket. “I can’t believe the timing.”

  “I’m going to leave y’all to this.” Katie took a giant step back, practically bouncing with excitement. “I need to help my team build the best snowman before I have to catch my train so I can leave my mark on this town.”

  “Second-best snowman,” Thomas and Hannah yelled to her.

  Katie bolted back over to help her team. The excitement of Thomas’s secret was difficult to hide. So romantic. How would she ever keep a straight face with Michelle? She was dying to run over and hug her right now.

  Thank goodness Katie came across Nan first.

  “Does anyone have an extra carrot?” Nan wandered from team to team in search of supplies for her and Nick’s snowman.

  “I don’t.” Katie patted her pockets.

  Nan’s lips pursed so tight she looked like a kissing gourami. “Nick wants to use a pinecone for the nose. That’s just not right.”

  Michelle pulled a carrot from her pocket. “I happen to have an extra. I always come prepared.”

  “I should’ve known you would, Ms. Mayor,” Nan said.

  “Hey, do you have an extra one of those for us too?” Thomas yelled over to Michelle.

  “For you?” She grinned with a flirty lift to the edge of her smile, then handed another to David with a nod.

  “Of course we do.” David ran it over to his dad.

  Katie clapped her hands. Of course Michelle would share with Thomas. She’d never let him down.

  Nan trudged through the deep snow where Nick had started their snowman. Three snowballs stacked, their project wasn’t much over three foot tall, but he had all the personality of an elf with pointy ears and even shoes that rolled up to a point at the end. Nan jabbed the carrot into the snowman’s icy face and struck a satisfied pose.

  Katie leaned into Ben’s shoulder as she enjoyed the moment until she realized the intimacy of that move. “Oh, sorry.” She straightened.

  “No, don’t be.” Delight danced in his eyes. “Are you glad you stayed?”

  “Yeah. So glad.” She gulped the emotion back. “Doesn’t make it any easier to leave, though.” She checked her watch. “It’s almost time.”

  Did Ben just catch his breath?

  Hannah and her team interrupted the moment when they walked over. “Wow, that looks great.”

  Thomas stepped behind Michelle and wrapped his arms around her. Katie was pretty sure that was a tear he just swept from the corner of his eye. He has to be so excited.

  Michelle must have noticed too, because she asked him if he was okay.

  Covering his emotion, Thomas said, “Yeah. Absolutely. Just cold out.”

  Hannah and Katie both sighed at the same time, then shared a panicked look. Trying to recover, Hannah quickly said, “Katie, thank you so much for choosing this activity.”

  “No, thank you. All of you.” Katie would miss them all. “For everything. You really know how to make a girl feel at home. As much as I would love to miss my train, I’ve really got to go home now.”

  “Merry Christmas, Katie.”

  She and Ben went to pick up her luggage from Barbara’s and go to the train station.

  The Evergreen train depot was crowded with families welcoming their arriving guests from the city for the holiday. Only a few people stood by, ready to load up and head back that night.

  Katie walked alongside Ben on the walkway next to the red-and-gold train, wishing the ramp was about a mile longer, because she wasn’t ready for this to end.

  “Well…” Ben was moving at a snail’s pace too.
“I guess this is it.”

  “Right.” The time had gone so fast, and honestly, she wasn’t ready for it to end, either. If only the one more day she’d stayed was still one more day away. Would he come to visit? She looked up, wishing she could read his mind. “If you get to the city, maybe we can—”

  “Yeah. Definitely.” Ben licked his lips. “Or if you’re ever back in Evergreen and decide to spend a Christmas here—”

  “Don’t I have to come back for the snowman-building event next year?” Katie stopped near the stairs. This is really goodbye.

  “Yes. You do.” He looked like he had more to say.

  She could barely breathe. Please ask me to stay. Or promise me you’ll call. She folded her fingers into tight little fists; silence hung between them. He’s not feeling it. Her eyes darted past him to the town. Maybe what she was feeling had been temporary Evergreen magic, not the real thing after all. She glanced back over to him. But it felt so real.

  “We…” It came out almost a breathless stammer. He swallowed visibly hard. “If we weren’t in such different places in our lives, and such different actual locations…maybe we’d be—”

  Her heart fell into a thousand tiny icy fragments. She’d envisioned it. “Sitting by a fire after making a snowman?” She nodded with complete resolution. This was goodbye.

  The conductor took her bag.

  “Thank you.” She stepped up backward on the first tread, eye-to-eye with Ben. “Merry Christmas, Ben.”

  “Merry Christmas, Katie.”

  She leaned forward, placing her left hand on his shoulder, kissing him softly on the cheek. She paused long enough to breathe in his scent one more time, then stepped away and turned to board the train.

  Ben stood there as she boarded.

  By the time she got to her seat, he’d begun walking back toward town. Her heart hung heavy in her chest, making it hard to breathe. She didn’t want this to be goodbye.

  As if by magic, Ben must’ve felt it too, because he stopped midstride and turned to look, then waved.

  The announcement echoed throughout the station: “All Aboard for New York Penn Station!”

  Following one long whistle, the train eased out of the station. Katie watched from the window as they pulled away. With each mile, she longed for Evergreen. Or maybe it was just for Ben.

  She recognized the red bridge that led into town, the only way in and out of Evergreen.

  Somehow, the beautiful countryside, although still just as picturesque as it’d been the first time she’d seen it, had lost its amazement. It lacked the sparkle without the people she’d met in Evergreen. More than just people. Friends.

  Katie’s phone rang. She looked down, her heart doing a little giddy-up hoping it was Ben, but it wasn’t. “Hi, Mom.”

  “Hi. Just checking in, is the article—”

  “Mom, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to turn this in.”

  “What do you mean?” She sounded disappointed.

  “I mean, I wrote an article about a town for Christmas. And I thought I might be able to make it work for the magazine. I think I wrote…something else. I might need a little longer to—”

  “Katie. You’ve never missed a deadline.”

  “I know. And I’m sorry. I know you were counting on me.”

  “Send me what you have. You’re always so hard on yourself. I bet it’s wonderful.”

  “Mom, I—”

  “I am not asking as your mother. I am speaking as your editor.”

  Too tired to argue, she turned on the hotspot on her phone. “Right. I’ll email it now.”

  She pressed send, then rested her head on the window as the train chugged along.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Hannah arrived at the church to get things set up for choir rehearsal. She cherished her time alone in this church where she’d grown up. Normally, she was the only one here this early, but when she walked inside the vestibule, she was met with an unexpected surprise.

  She opened the door to the sanctuary, and beautiful music washed over her so loud that she closed her eyes to take it in.

  A nimble flurry of piano chords, as gentle and unpredictable as rain drops, filled the space. She let the gentle vibrations of the piano strings hang like delicate ornaments among the Christmas lights that filled the tiny church. The candles on the piano were lit, casting a heavenly glow over the instrument.

  She drifted in slowly, not wanting it to stop.

  Was she imagining this? Elliott sat on the worn bench at the piano. Sure, they’d played songs side by side as kids on that very piano, but she had no idea he’d continued to practice over the years, or had become so accomplished.

  Everything seemed to pull in around her, tugging her further into the sanctuary. He wasn’t that little boy anymore.

  The weight of his hands on the keys sent pure notes feathering into her heart, so clearly that even though she didn’t recognize the song yet, she hummed along.

  He hadn’t heard her come in. He looked relaxed, at peace, his long fingers moving across the keys. Overwhelmed by the music, she followed it further inside past the first couple of pews, standing there taking it in until Elliott looked up and saw her.

  He stopped immediately.

  “Don’t.” The abandoned song hung between them.

  He stood up, his cheeks red with embarrassment. “You heard all of that? Sorry. I was just…”

  “Just amazing.” Hannah raised her hands and clapped slowly. “It was beautiful.” She walked toward him in awe. “I had no idea you could play so well.” And she’d thought she knew everything about him.

  “You spend so much time over at the Arts Center. I thought…” He shrugged. “Maybe I should help you out with the choir.” He played a couple of notes.

  She shook her head, her heart pounding. “You’re incredible.”

  He looked down, but he was smiling.

  She felt so brave right now. And surer than ever about her feelings.

  “Hey, do you remember this one?” He started playing “O Christmas Tree.”

  “Do I? Oh, yeah. Hang on.” She twisted out of her coat and laid it on a pew as he continued to play. “Oh my gosh. We must’ve played that five thousand times together as kids.” And like that, the romantic notion had turned playful, and she’d let it pass. She hopped onto the bench next to him, picking up the high notes.

  He played the low ones, and they laughed as they made their way through the notes until the very end, when Hannah reached across him to hit that last note. When she did, she was so close she could feel his breath on her cheek as they both laughed.

  And the laughter felt like the old days, but the warmth of his body so close to her and his smile as he looked into her eyes was not childlike at all. Had her true love always been right here in the neighborhood?

  She faced forward, letting out a long sigh. Fear raced through her mind. If he didn’t feel the same way, she could ruin the best friendship of her life. But if she didn’t…

  “Elliot, I don’t know how to say this…so I’m just going to say it.” She pulled her hands into her lap, pressing them together. Wanting to be brave, but afraid to make eye contact. “I like you.” She looked up, and he was already looking at her. She swallowed past the lump that had formed in the back of her throat. “I like you a lot. You are on my mind all the time—”

  “I like you too, Hannah.” He hitched closer. “I’ve been wanting to tell you that for such a long time.”

  She gulped a breath of air. “Really?” Tears tickled her eyelashes. Thank you.

  “Yes. I just didn’t know how.”

  The candles on the piano flickered, and there was something soothing, almost confirming, about that.

  The fear fell away. You know what I’m feeling. “This is…so hard. You’re my best friend.” She shook her head
. “I’m so afraid. Elliott, I would never want to lose our friendship. What if it doesn’t work out?”

  He shook his head emphatically. “What if it does?” His eyebrow shot up. “I’m more afraid of what happens if we don’t try. Because I feel the same way, Hannah.”

  She nodded. Taking in the whole moment, still a little shaken by the fact they’d missed the signs for so long.

  His voice was light and joyful. “Where should we begin?”

  It didn’t have to be fancy. Some of their most special moments were like this. Unplanned and simple, but so true. “How about we start with some hot cocoa?”

  “It’s a date,” he said with a wink.

  Hannah covered her face with her hands. “I can’t believe you just said that. I said that to you, didn’t I?” She lolled her head back. This was only the kind of thing you could laugh about with a real friend. I’m the luckiest girl. Thank you, snow globe.

  He joined in the laughter. Not at her, but with her. He placed his hand gently on hers. “You did. I thought it was sweet.”

  “I was hoping you hadn’t noticed. Oh my gosh, I’m so embarrassed.” She rubbed her brow with her fingers.

  “It was beautiful.” He stood from the piano. “And now it’s really happening. Let’s get that choir rehearsal going so we can get done and go on our first date.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The taxi raced down the busy streets, swerving in and out of traffic, honking impatiently. Katie held on to the door handle. She used to be so at ease in a cab; now she missed those meandering rides in the old red truck. Outside, the snow here in the city was wet and slushy, almost gray. Nothing like the puffy mounds along the streets of Evergreen.

  People moved with purpose down the street, their faces tucked into the collars of their coats against the cold.

  Not a single wave or smile.

  The taxi turned onto her street.

  She’d always loved the sleek warehouse style of the condos that lined her block. The tall walk-ups looked strong. A red building next to an orange one, next to a yellow, next to a blue…like a box of felt-tip markers.