Page 10 of Entwined in Norway

‘I know. I feel bad not being around for her anymore.’

‘Not to ruin the image you have of yourself being the person holding the family together, but we talk all the time. Just because you’ve moved out of Oslo, it doesn’t mean she’s lost the connection to us.’

‘I know. But it was good to see her in the flesh every couple of weeks.’

‘You ought to concentrate your efforts on getting Thea to visit. Or one of us should visit her. How long’s it been?’

‘Too long,’ said Mats. ‘I think she needed space after losing Pappa, but now I worry we gave her too much space and she can’t find her way back to us.’

‘She never answers when I call. It makes me feel like she’s avoiding us.’

‘Maybe she is. It’s easy not to deal with things when you’re not around everyone else who’s dealing with them.’

Ida knew that. She’d loved to have escaped the house and the memories after her parents died, and there had been times when she’d envied her sisters for being able to leave after that happened. They both went back to their lives without a backward glance, or that’s what it felt like. But someone had to stay and deal with everything. Someone had to stay and help Fredrik with Emil. She didn’t have the luxury of freedom.

But now, when she looked back over the past two years, she knew she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Coming to terms with everything had been hard, but she’d faced it. She hadn’t run away; she’d stayed even when that was the hardest thing she’d ever done. When she had nothing left of the life she’d had before to cling to or go back to. Working on the island might seem like a small step, but to Ida it felt huge. It felt as if she was reclaiming her life, and she was proud that she felt ready to do that. And if her heart racing for Erik Anderson was part of that, she would embrace it, just like Ingrid had said. She had nothing to lose, and she was ready to have some fun again.

When she walked back through the hotel, she popped her head around the door of the dining room and spotted the back of Erik Anderson. He’d changed his clothes. She pulled back, annoyed with herself for even noticing that. It was a sign she was far too invested in the idea of him than the one-minute conversation over checking him in warranted.

She went back to the desk. Her fingers were itching to google him, but she felt as if she were doing something underhand by giving in to the temptation. After another minute of sitting there, unable to do anything else while she was in this battle of wills with herself, she had to give in.

Erik Anderson had been the snowboarding champion of Canada two years ago. She scrolled through image after image of him posing for the camera with his snowboard propped up on end next to him, portraits of him that had been used in magazine articles, and action shots of him in the air, upside down, holding the front of his board as he span. It was incredible. Seeing him on the slopes, his tousled fair hair kissed by the sun, shades over his eyes and a sexy salopette and over-the-head jacket combo did something weird to her insides.

She clicked back to the search page and scrolled down, hungry for more information. The official Canadian snowboarding team website no longer had him listed on the team. Why was that? Some more delving revealed that he’d had an accident. Was he still recovering from that? Out of the team temporarily?

‘Hi there.’

Ida gulped and clumsily tried to close the page she was looking at. Erik Anderson was standing in front of her, and although he couldn’t see her screen, she was wracked with guilt.

‘Hello. Did you enjoy your food?’

‘Yes, thanks. The brown cheese was an experience.’

She grinned and saw a glimmer of a smile begin in his eyes, but it didn’t come to anything.

‘Pål said I should book a table if I want dinner. Apparently, it gets busy.’

His tone suggested he thought that was highly unlikely and clearly some kind of ruse to make him commit to eating dinner in the hotel.

‘We’re almost fully booked tonight,’ Ida said, clicking onto the reservation system, relief at leaving behind the google search washing over her. ‘We have a lot of guests coming over from the mainland.’

‘People do that?’

‘Yes,’ she said, with her best smile. ‘We’re quite well known around here for our traditional Norwegian food. Is eight o’clock okay?’

‘That’s great, thanks.’ He lingered at the desk, his eyes scanning the walls behind her.

‘How are you enjoying it so far?’ Ida wanted so badly to progress to talking about something other than guest business. Maybe get to know each other.

‘It’s nice. Relaxing. Is there anything to see across the water?’

‘Are you thinking of kayaking over there?’ She couldn’t help herself, and immediately regretted the sarcastic tone she’d used. If it had been one of her brothers, they’d have grinned and taken it in good humour, but Erik Anderson didn’t. He clenched his jaw and looked to his right, as if he needed a minute to stop himself from snapping. Ida was quite taken aback. This was a long way from the sun-kissed snowboarding champion of her google search.

‘I mean, you could kayak over there,’ she back-pedalled. ‘There’s a nice walk through the forest that should give you an amazing view of the fjords.’

‘Should? You haven’t done that walk?’

‘You know what it’s like when you live somewhere. You take for granted what’s on your doorstep.’