From the moment they met, Anya and Manny were inseparable. It helped that a friend for Anya suddenly appeared at her sides and with his arrival, Eve and Christopher's worries for their newly acquired ward eased. It also helped that Manny didn't mind Anya's somber and quiet mood. He loved being the only one of them who talked at all. And Anya was a great listener.

It also helped that Anya didn't have any other friends or any sort of inclination to go and make some. She was the new girl with dead parents at school and that rang out as a massive red flag to all of her new classmates. Everyone, that is, except Manny.

He had done as Gloria had told him to, he had gone and sat next to Anya that fateful Christmas night. His determination to stick around was his own doing.

It took a while but Anya eventually found her voice again, found a way to deal with the pain and loss of her parents and found reasons to start to smile and laugh again.

She would never know it but Manny had taken it upon himself to try and make her smile at least once a month at the beginning of their friendship. When the laughter started to come easier from Anya's lips, Manny made it a weekly goal, then a daily goal. Within a year, Anya was laughing and smiling as if she was just like any other young teenager.

Anya even found friends of her own. Manny was considered popular at school and so she had a large group of people willing to let her join them for lunch every day but they still stared at her and whispered when Manny wasn't looking.

If he caught them, then they received the death glare of the century. They didn't know it was a family trait to stare people down until frightened and Manny's used his natural-born talent on anyone who dared say anything remotely negative about Anya.

Life slowly but surely started to take on a normal routine for Anya. She was even finding ways to help out around the inn. It made her feel useful and less like she was constantly in everyone's way.

She became Christoper's shadow and followed him around every day after school, asking a million questions about everything thing he did. Eve spent most of her time behind the front desk or up in her office, dealing with the business side of things. There was nothing interesting there for Anya to learn about just yet.

She had made it through the first Christmas at the inn with moderate success and so she was ready for when the next one came around. She found out very early on that Christmas's at the inn were the same each year. The same parties, the same food, the same jazz band, the same games, and outings.

It grounded her year and it furthered established her new life living with her grandparents when she knew what to expect at least for a small portion of the year.

The sadness was still there. It was easier to manage and look like she was happy and getting along just fine during the day. She still had nights where she woke up from a dream and had to come to terms that the parents she had just seen were no longer there. She was no longer in her childhood home. They were all gone.

With her room next to theirs, it made it easier for Eve and Christoper to hear when she would wake up crying. It took two years for the dreams to finally become pleasant memories instead of harsh reality checks.

To keep herself busy, Anya joined up with clubs at school. The thought of maybe one day going away for college first became a dream and then a goal. The thought that she could go explore the world past the small towns she had grown up in gripped her down to her very core but she only ever dared tell one person.

When Anya began to add to his one-sided conversations, Manny had to learn to become a better listener. And he always gave her his full attention when she talked about her dreams for life.

Manny didn't have many. He liked his life, his family, his friends, his small town. He knew he wanted to do something but never knew what. He liked that Anya did and joined in on hers, making her dreams his.

The two of them would go away to college together, then off to explore the world. They would see Rome and Sao Paulo and all the other cool places they learned about in school.

It was obvious from very early on which one of them was the smarter of the two. Anya thrived in academics while Manny thrived everywhere else, leading up both the basketball team and the co-ed choir, making choir cool at their school.

When it came time to apply to college, Anya had all the right qualifications whereas Manny was still barely passing his classes due to an uncanny ability to test well and his never-ending charm.

He had taken the job as being his cousin's roadie because there was no else there to help at out the band's first show. Manny had shown up early and ended up working instead. He kept doing it, even without any sort of promise of future pay or reimbursement, because it was the only way he got to hang out with his cousin.

When graduation rolled around, Anya had a spot waiting for her down at a big prestigious university in New York and Manny had just started getting paid twenty dollars per gig. For the first time since meeting, Anya and Manny's life were starting to veer off in different directions.

There was an unspoken agreement that, no matter what, they would always be friends. There was a solid foundation between the two of them, built over so many years, that they knew could withstand both time and distance.

Manny was the one who made the road trip down to New York with Anya to help her move into her dorm. He was the last of her close circle to give her a hug, say goodbye and wish her well on her new venture.

She stayed on the curb outside her dorm building, watching Manny's old beat-up station wagon, until it disappeared out of sight, headed back up north. She gave him one last wave just before he turned a corner, the silhouette of his return wave visible through the rear window.

The new environment of the big city was overwhelming to Anya's small-town tastes but the feeling was exciting, the chance to explore and figure out a new home for herself invigorating.

Anya came home that first Christmas changed, different, grown-up. She had faced down New York City in a head-on battle and had yet to die in the fight for survival and she wore her accomplishment on her sleeve as a badge of honor.

By the time Christmas had returned to the small of Holly, Manny himself found he had changed. He had spent most of that fall traveling all over the Northeast with his cousin and his band, making it as far south as Washington DC and as far west as Albany.

He had spent the past nine months sleeping in a van, showering at YMCA's, and eating fast food for every meal. He was more than ready for a Christmas at home and a real bed to sleep in.

Anya returned home first and dove headfirst into work at the inn to help out with the holiday rush. Manny appeared one day from the crowd of incoming guests, freezing in the front hall when he caught sight of Anya standing behind the front desk.

She had grown up, found herself in the city. She was thriving and finally happy and it was evident most of all to Manny, the one person who knew her best. And the sight made Manny's heart stop.

She didn't notice him until there was a lull in activity and she felt someone watching her. She found a rugged young man staring at her, the beginnings of a very scratchy and scraggly beard covering half his face and making him almost unrecognizable. But Anya would have recognized those dark brown eyes in the dark in the middle of a snowstorm.

"Manny!"

She left her post and hurried across the front hall, standing on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck. It took him just a beat to welcome the embrace and wrap his arms around her waist.

"Hey, Anie."

It had been too long since anyone other than her grandfather had called her that and the sound was music to her ears. The tone in which he said it was different than usual. There was no playfulness and lighthearted laugh attached to it and when she let him go and took a step back, she found a look on Manny's face that she had never seen before. And the sight made her blush.

She took another step back and gave him more room, all of a sudden aware that they were two young attractive adults. That Manny would be considered a very attractive young man. She had never noticed before as he was always Manny to her.

"It's so good to see you."

She forced a brightness to her words in hopes of breaking through a slight haze of tension that had placed itself between them.

"You too."

"There are cookies in the kitchen. Do you want some?"

"Sure."

It was over a plate of Gloria's best sugar cookies and two large glasses of milk that Anya and Manny finally found their old manners. It took until the second cookie for both of them to finally loosen up around the other.

The tension was there and something had changed between the two of them in the three months of separation. There was a different kind of magnetism pulling them together now, different from the magnetism of friendship and companionship that had been there ever since Manny had taken his seat next to Anya that first Christmas.

Christmas at the inn went as was expected, the same events, the same music, the same everything but that year, the season felt brighter to Anya. Richer, more enjoyable. The change between her and Manny had illuminated the season and turned up the saturation on the myriad of Christmas lights that filled her sights everywhere she turned.

She still couldn't put her finger on just what had changed but it seemed as if everything had. Their chatter back and forth had a hint of flirtation that grew stronger with each passing day. They could now make each other blush at the drop of a hat and they seemed uninterested in anyone else when they were together.

All the outings, all the activities, they did together. Anya even joined him for the Christmas eve open mic night and they sang White Christmas together, despite her serious stage fright. With Manny, she didn't care how she sounded. It was simply an experience just to be seated on the piano bench next to him as he played the piano.

Manny had long since joined the staff at the head table during the Christmas dinners. That Christmas, his place card was magically reassigned next to Anya's. Neither of them knew it but they weren't the only people who had noticed a change. Gloria and Eve kept a close eye on the two of them, a long since agreed-upon fact finally coming to fruition.

Christmas night was the ball, as it was every other year. This time Anya took extra time and care to get dressed for the evening. She was relieved to find that the dress she had bought for New York the month before still met her standards. She twirled and the dark velvet green skirt twirled with her. It was perfect for dancing.

And dance she did. She barely left the dance floor. Or, as was most likely, Manny didn't let her leave the dance floor. They spent the whole evening moving to the sounds of the orchestra, her hand in his, his hand on her waist. He told her jokes as they moved and her light laughter added to the merriment filling every inch of the room.

Her feet were sore by the end of the night and she had her heels in one hand as she helped clear away tables. The snowstorm set for that evening landed just as the last of the guests from the town drove away from the inn. The snow saw it's opening and poured everything it had down upon the ground at an alarming rate.

The staff was sent home early so that they wouldn't be stuck at the inn for the evening. The inn did not have the capacity to keep them there for the night. It was left to Anya, Manny, Gloria, Eve and Christopher to do the clean-up.

Anya and Manny sent the rest off to bed once the dining hall was put back in place and all there was left to do was a mountain of dishes. With hot water running, Anya slipped on a pair of rubber gloves over the three-quarter length sleeves of her dress and got to work, Manny ready, standing right next to her.

The inn was dead silent by the time they finished, their conversation and laughter back and forth the only sound in the entire building when they finally made it out of the kitchen.

Their voices quieted once they stepped into the silence, the quiet demanding their respect.

"Wait here."

"No, Manny! Where are you going?"

Manny disappeared back into the kitchen, Anya's hushed calls following right behind. He reappeared with a cold bottle of sparkling cider clutched in his hand.

"I figure we deserve to treat ourselves after that mountain of dishes we just demolished. Come on. Follow me."

He grabbed her hand and led her through the empty floor. The window seats were waiting for them, the snow falling softly just beyond the wall of windows.

Manny popped open what Anya knew to be the last bottle of sparkling cider in the whole in. He passed the bottle first to her and she took a long drink. They drank in silence and let the sight before them still their attention.

"It's so beautiful here."

Manny looked over at Anya at the sound of her whispered words.

"I was afraid you'd come back from the big city hating this place."

"Never."

Anya met his gaze and then forced herself to look away as she felt a wave of heat flood her cheeks.

"What's it like? Down in New York."

Anya took a beat to find the right answer, to put to words everything the city had come to mean to her.

"It's incredible. Amazing. Inspiring and terrifying, all at the same time."

Manny let out a soft laugh.

"I can imagine."

"But I love it. I feel like I'm finally getting on with my life. I'm finally out in the great wide world and I love every second in it."

"It's certainly not a small town hidden upon the mountains of Vermont."

Anya shook her head, looking back out at the snow.

"No. It's not. But this will always be home. This will always be where I came back to. No matter what. I mean, you're here."

Anya hurried to amend her statement.

"And so are my grandparents and Frank and Gloria."

"Of course."

Anya looked away so she didn't have to see the smirk she was sure he was wearing.

"Shut up."

She gave his shoulder a shove when she looked over and found he was still wearing that same smug expression. He caught her hand before it could go too far.

"I think, no matter how far either of us go or where we end up, we'll always somehow find our way back here. How can we not? This place is in our bones. You could end up working at some grand hotel in Budapest and you'd still want to return to this little country inn."

Anya stared at her hand in his, trying to find words to say.

"I don't know if I'll make it as far as Budapest. I would settle for New York. But I get what you're saying."

"I got you something."

Manny let go of her hand and Anya wished he hadn't the moment he had. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a postcard that he then placed in her outstretched hand.

A picture of the Jefferson memorial looked up at her from where it glowed in the DC night, reflecting out over the river, lighting up the night sky above it. Anya turned it over and read the inscription and found the most beautiful five words she had ever read.

"I wish you were here."

"Do you like it?"

Anya was trying not to cry, her heart suddenly overwhelmed with a wealth of feelings. She managed to nod as she swallowed the lump rising in her throat.

"Thank you."

"I got it last week. The band booked a gig down in this tiny pub down in Georgetown. We managed to spend an extra day exploring the city and all I could think was how much you would have enjoyed being there with us."

"Maybe. One day. We'll get there someday. Together."

Manny nodded.

"Together."

The hum of the snowplows heading out broke through their little bubble and they found a world existed outside the two of them.

"I should head to bed. It's late."

At Anya's words, the grandfather clock in the front hall rang out the hour at two o'clock.

They stood up at the same time, Manny reaching for her hand as they walked to the base of the stairs. Anya took the first step up but paused when Manny didn't let her hand go.

Just as she turned to face him, Manny kissed her. It took Anya to respond in kind. It had lasted a second or it had lasted an hour, Anya was never quite sure. But too soon after it started, Manny stepped away.

"Good night, Anya."

Before she could remember what words were, she watched as he made his way through the empty inn, turning back once before disappearing out of sight, meeting Anya's eyes where she stood frozen on the bottom step.

A/N:

If I had to sum up this chapter in one word it would be romance!