Charlotte stared curiously out the window as the snow continued to pile up on their front lawn. Their front lawn, she couldn’t get enough of saying that she had a front lawn. Sure her parents had one that was technically hers, but it wasn’t theirs. This one was though. Their front lawn, their house, their furniture, it was all theirs. Nick was getting a little tired of her pointing those facts out time and time again. 

When they had reconciled she was surprised to find out that the money her parents had sent him had gone towards getting a house. He had no interest in renting and going through the joys of boarding again so he’d done what he had wanted to do from the day he left home and got himself a house. It was a small house, two bedrooms with a small garden out in front of the main window (when it wasn’t covered by a foot of snow). The house suited her so well Charlotte swore every day that Nick must have had her in mind when he was looking. The greatest thing about the house was that they had their very own indoor toilet, the latest of luxuries. She felt like some kind of princess every time she used it even though every person on their street had one too. 

She would have never imagined being able to afford something as lavish as their own house on their budget (their house) but given that the price of living in Winter Harbor was quite lower than in Cambridge they did it with ease. Charlotte gave the rest of her saved money to Nick to be put away and saved once again, his Cambridge money was being used on new tuition fees and he was happily working as a teacher’s assistant at a grammar school in their parish. It sort of felt like everything was working out for what seemed like the hundredth time, and no matter how hard she tried Charlotte kept waiting for the bottom to fall out. 

“Déjà vu,” Nick chuckled as he walked into the room and spotted Charlotte sitting on the window bench looking at the snow. 

“Why do you say that?” 

He sat down across from her, taking a moment to look out the window at the snow, “Coming in and seeing you here reminded me that Christmas when you told me you wouldn’t miss me if I were dead.”

“I only said that because I was jealous, I did like you,” Charlotte assured him again, having felt guilty for that statement since the second it came out of her mouth.

Nick smiled, “Yeah I figured that out when you said it, otherwise I probably would have been upset.”

She nodded, “You’re smart like that. I probably would have thought I was serious. This is a lot different than then though, so much more snow than we get at home.”

“Is home not where the heart is?” he wondered.

Charlotte sighed and played with the ends of her long hair, “This isn’t home for me it’s foreign. I feel kind of like I’m on vacation. All this snow, being the only person I’ve come across thus far with no accent…”

“With an accent,”

“With no accent,” she stressed then resumed her original statement, “I just feel like an outsider here. I haven’t really made any friends apart from you, and I knew you before plus... you have your own friends. Now I even have to get ready for a holiday that I’ve never even heard of.” 

“It’s called Thanksgiving,” Nick huffed, correcting her, “and it’s not like I’m asking a lot from you. It’s dinner for a few people.”

He was annoyed, she could tell. He spent a lot of time being annoyed but slowly he was getting used to being with her again and getting less bitter about the way she viewed things. Their reconciliation over the past month had not been easy; Charlotte was still trying to regain Nick’s trust. Sometimes he was more stubborn than others, depending on how he was feeling when he woke up that morning. 

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Charlotte muttered with a sigh, “I can’t help that I don’t fit in here.”

“You haven’t even tried!” Nick shook his head and crossed his arms across his chest, “You know this is a great chance for you too. No one here knows anything about you! For all they know we have the best relationship out of anyone. They don’t know about Cambridge, or Sue, or anything else.”

“I’m not supposed to be doing things for myself, remember?” 

Nick sighed and took her hand, rubbing his thumb over her palm. Charlotte was surprised by the sudden touch, not having gotten a lot from him while they tried to work things out, “To think that I want you to do everything for me and nothing for you makes me no better than your former self. I don’t want that. You need to do some things for you, it’s inevitable. Every person deserves to be happy and feel welcome where they live. If you feel like you’re not allowed to be happy then we’ll never work this out. I want us both to be happy; we both need it and deserve it. So, if you do things for me then I’ll do things for you and we’ll both do things for ourselves.”

“Do I still have to make Thanksgiving dinner?” she asked, trying to hide a smile.

“Yes,” Nick laughed, “It’ll be the beginning of a tradition, for both of us. If you do the cooking I promise you won’t have to entertain anyone.”

Charlotte nodded and put her free hand on top of his, “Sometimes I worry I don’t deserve you.”

“Why?” he wondered curiously.

“You always know what to say to make things better, you are so understanding, you’re just so perfect and I’m so flawed.”

“I’m not perfect,” Nick insisted, “I’m really not. My flaws are your perfections and vice versa. That’s why we belong together. I’ve proven in the past few months that I’m not the most understanding person. I can be stubborn, and unreasonable, an idiot from time to time just like everyone else. Besides, I steal most of my good lines from books.”

Charlotte gasped, “You steal them?”

Nick laughed, “No, but I don’t always know what to say, I just say what I feel.”

Charlotte slapped his arm lightly, “You’re always tricking me.”

“You’re one to talk,” he chuckled and Charlotte smiled back, glad to hear him finally joking about everything that happened. If he was able to turn his heartache into laughs then she knew they’d get through it all.

“Are we going to go home for Christmas?” Charlotte wondered as she drew her attention back outside to the ever falling snow.

Nick thought for a moment and with a deep sigh he shook his head, “I think we should stay here.”

“Why?”

“Why not?” he retorted, “If anyone wants to see us they can come here otherwise I’d like to for once avoid the awkwardness that is our usual holidays. Too many cousins and aunts and uncles and people who expect so much out of us, I can only imagine the kinds of questions they’d be asking if we did go.”

“Then obviously tradition isn’t very important to you after all,” Charlotte huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. She wanted to go home. She loved the house, all of ‘their’ things and everything else but she couldn’t fathom not spending Christmas with her entire family like she had done every year since she was born. She figured that Nick wanted to avoid the whole affair because he was embarrassed to face the barrage of questions that would surely come about the status of their relationship. 

Nick rolled his eyes behind her back, “If it’s that important to you then we’ll go.”

“Why are you even with me?” Charlotte retorted and his eyes widened at her words. 

“Where did that come from? Why are you asking all these questions? Are you trying to talk me out of being with you?”

“Of course not!” she shook her head, “I just want to know why I’m sitting here right now. Why did you even get back together with me? Are you only with me because you don’t believe in divorce? Everything I do you find annoying, everything I want to do is a nuisance, and generally I get the impression that I drive you insane.”

“How many times do I have to explain myself to you?” he demanded to know, “You do drive me insane! You drive me absolutely mad, but for some strange reason I can’t help myself from loving you! The assumptions you make about me should very well insult me but I know you’re just insecure. I’m not with you because I don’t believe in divorce. To be honest if you hadn’t come here on your own I don’t know how long it would have been until I came back, but I didn’t turn you away, I wouldn’t have turned you away! I’ve made my mistakes and you’ve made yours but I thought we were starting from scratch? I’ve really made an effort to let things go and I think you need to let them go also! If I’m able to forgive you for everything you’ve done then you need to believe that I want to be with you! You have no reason not to believe me.”

“You want to change everything,” Charlotte sighed, “and I just want things to be how they were before.”

“They can’t,” Nick said consolingly, “I’m not the one who made the decision that they can’t, that’s just the way it has to be. Life changes, people move on, and we need to move on. We need to make new lives for ourselves that are separate from the ones we had before. I can’t give you all the answers; I can only tell you what I know. One thing I know for certain is that you and I are destined to be together. Everything is pointing towards us being together. Do you believe in fate?”

Charlotte nodded, “Of course I do.”

“Well so do I, and after everything that happened it was fate that I moved here and found something I really loved, and fate that your brother told you I was here, fate that you met up with Sister Mary Agnes that day and found me. It was all meant to be. As much as I try to make it seem otherwise, I really wasn’t that happy here before you came. I would be happy at school and at work but when I got back here at night I was miserable. I didn’t want to buy furniture because I wanted your input, I didn’t want you to not like it. I need you to be there to make decisions like that. I need you.”

“You need me?” she smiled softly, and he once again took her hands with his.

“I do,” Nick nodded, “Like I said before in all the ways that I’m flawed you are perfect. I’m never going to find anyone else who will be able to put up with me the way you do, and you need me too I think. You need me to point you in the right direction.”

Charlotte moved forward and wrapped her arms tightly around Nick’s shoulders, “Thank you. You always know exactly what to say to put my mind at rest.”

“I love you,” he whispered softly in her ear, kissing the lobe gently.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love you,” Charlotte replied and to her surprise Nick chuckled.

“I just had to tell you all that and you can’t even tell me how much you love me?” he joked, pulling back to look into her eyes.

“I can do better.”

“Oh?” he wondered, raising an eyebrow.

“I can show you,” Charlotte smiled devilishly and pulled him up by his shirt collar until he was standing. 

“I think I’d like that,” Nick grinned and ran a hand through his wife’s hair before kissing her passionately. She led him through the house, still pulling on his shirt until they got to their bedroom. 

Charlotte slowly undid Nick’s shirt, softly touching the flesh beneath as it was revealed, “I think I know something you’re going to love even more,” she chuckled and put his hands on her back where her dress was done up, “No corset.”

“Oh, do I ever love you,” Nick smiled and kissed her while his hands went to work on easily removing her dress. 

Soon they were lying against each other skin to skin on their small bed, Nick’s hands exploring every inch of Charlotte’s petite frame.

“Wait,” she whispered and he cocked his head to the side, wondering why she was stopping.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she smiled, pushing his blonde hair back from his eyes, “I just want to look at you for a second.”

“Be my guest,” Nick whispered, kissing her quickly.

“I have a feeling,” Charlotte said cryptically and Nick had to hold back his chuckles.

“You have a feeling? What kind of feeling?” he wondered.

“That this moment right now is the beginning of the rest of our lives.”

“What's special about this particular moment over others?”

She thought for a moment then shrugged while her hands rubbed his sides, “I don’t know. It’s just a feeling, but it’s a good one.”

“I think I might know why you have a good feeling,” he said slyly with a smile, not able to help himself. 

Charlotte rolled her eyes and slapped him on the shoulder playfully, “Not that kind of feeling. Just trust me, this moment will mean something someday.”

“I trust you,” he swore before leaning down to capture her lips with his once again.