Tammy

Coming back here was never part of the plan-but neither was cancer. Now that Dad's gone, I'm starting to see just how much this town has changed. Back in 1985, Bower was a thriving farming community in Northern California. Ten years later, it's clear something shifted.

While the estate gets sorted out, I take a job as an aide in the special education class at my old school. I don't expect to love it, but I do. My student, Donny, is incredible-his antics provide a welcome distraction from the weight of my grief.

This town may have lost its farms, but it hasn't lost its ability to surprise me. Some surprises are good. Some are bad.

And some are named Sam Ford.

Sam

Coming back to my hometown was at the top of the list of things I swore I'd never do. But I need to be here. I need familiarity, something I've only found here. Farms that once thrived have folded. Processing plants are shuttered. Recognizable faces have disappeared.

I thought knowing every back road and street corner would make it easier. It doesn't. Especially not when I see her.

Tammy Little was my first crush. By the time I worked up the nerve to ask her out, it was a week before graduation. I doubt she ever understood what happened after that-why I left the way I did.

I never forgot that night.

And I sure as hell never forgot her.