Page 32 of Entwined in Norway

‘That sounds great! Same place as before?’

‘I may as well take you.’

They went outside and headed behind the hotel, following the shoreline towards the far end of the island.

‘I think he’ll be over here,’ Ida said when the cabins nearest the water came into view. ‘Mats!’ she called out as they got closer.

‘Hey!’ He appeared from behind the farthest cabin.

Good to see you again.’

Mats held his hand out, and Erik took it. They were grinning at each other, already bonding over the timber, Ida supposed.

‘What are you working on?’ Erik asked, surveying the cabins with his hands on his hips.

‘I’ll see you both later,’ Ida said, before they were too deep into all of this to notice whether she was there or not.

‘Oh, Ida, Lotta is going to pick Emil up today.’

Lotta had done that a few times to help Ida out, but doing it when Ida could was new.

‘I don’t mind. Emilie is coming in early to cover me.’

Mats shrugged. ‘Lotta’s happy to.’

‘So we can go out for dinner after all?’ Erik said.

Mats grinned at Ida. ‘Seems like it,’ he said.

She’d have to talk to Erik about boundaries.

‘Come and find me when you’ve finished drooling over the timber and we can discuss it.’

She walked away, listening to them seamlessly fall back into talking about the structure of the cabin.

There was nothing she’d rather do than spend time with Erik. And now that it wasn’t happening, she realised she’d been looking forward to taking him home with her to hang out with Emil. Still, it was nice that Lotta was building relationships with the whole family, not just Mats. So maybe going out for dinner again was the best option, but it meant a repeat of yesterday in that she had nothing to wear and no make-up with her. Perhaps she was going to have to turn into one of those women who had a handbag full of things for every eventuality that might strike. Her sister, Ingrid, was like that, but Ida had never had any call to be that person until yesterday. Last-minute dinner invitations were tricky when you worked on an island.

Ida was at the reception desk doing a handover with Emilie when Erik strolled back into the hotel.

‘I think we should still kayak,’ he said.

Ida could feel Emilie’s wide-eyes on her without turning to see.

‘Where would we go?’

‘We’ll go to your house. I’m guessing you’d like to change before dinner?’

‘She would,’ Emilie said. ‘She’s ready to leave whenever you are.’

‘Great.’ Erik grinned, and before Ida could think of any objection, he was striding up the stairs, his bad leg hardly slowing him down.

‘Emilie!’

‘Ida. Mats is already here, so there’s no one to fetch your clothes today. Don’t be difficult for the sake of it.’

Ida was almost lost for words again. ‘I could have said that myself.’

Emilie simply raised an eyebrow and went back to the screen.