Page 53 of Entwined in Norway

He laughed. ‘Trust me. That’s not it.’

20

Telling Ida about his accident was cathartic. Letting her know how it still affected him sometimes didn’t feel like the admission of weakness he thought it would. She understood. If he was grumpy sometimes because of it, better she knew why. A pang of guilt made him resolve to be more open with his mom when he got home. He’d seen the hurt in her eyes when he snapped sometimes, but it was easy to push the guilt aside when he was hurting too. But after all she’d done for him, literally nursed him back to health, she didn’t deserve that. It had taken being away from her for a while to see it.

‘You know when you got here, you said you’d come to do family research. Have you managed that yet?’

He’d been waiting for the right time to bring this up and Ida had done it for him.

‘It’s hard to know where to start. I think my great-grandfather was from the Bergen area. He may even have worked on the farm, Strandgården, it was called then.’

‘We found a map when we were clearing out the house that had that name on. That’s amazing. Our ancestors might have known each other.’

‘Pretty amazing.’ He shifted in his seat. He loved Ida sitting on his lap but it was kind of uncomfortable at this point, and not because of his leg. This felt like the moment it was all going to come out.

‘What else have you found out?’

‘I found a newspaper article with a photograph of my great-grandfather. I think there’s definitely a link between my great-grandfather and the island.’

‘Isn’t that incredible,’ she said, her eyes shining.

It was too much. ‘Ida.’ He shifted so she had no choice but to get up.

‘Sorry.’ She got up and went back to her own chair. ‘You have to tell me when you’re in pain.’

‘I’m not.’

‘Liar.’

He sighed and rubbed a hand over the back of his head. He felt like a liar, but not in the way she meant, even though at the moment, it was an omission. He’d said all he could without actually telling her. And he didn’t want to tell her here.

‘Really. It’s just a hard ache from the walk up here.’

‘Liar.’

‘Ida…’ He smiled and shook his head. ‘How did you become so good at reading my mind in a few days?’

She grinned and shrugged then sipped her wine. ‘It’s my superpower.’

‘Huh. Want me to show you my superpower?’

She laughed. ‘Yes!’

He stood up and pulled on her hand until she was standing in front of him. She felt so good in his arms. He didn’t want to ruin these precious days by admitting that some of her brother’s land might actually belong to him. Once they got back to Bergen would be soon enough.

The following morning dawned bright and sunny again and Erik felt the urge to explore. Kayaking was a good option, not as strenuous as cycling but limited to the fjords, which he already felt he’d seen.

‘I have an idea,’ said Ida over coffee. ‘We could take the gondola to the top of the mountain. There are some great hikes we can do from there but it’ll give us a head start.’

That sounded good to Erik. He trusted her to choose what they did and knew he’d be able to tell her if he needed to tap out.

‘It goes from the centre of town so we can pick some food up on the way and maybe eat at the restaurant afterwards.’

‘It sounds like the perfect mix of exercise and relaxation.’

‘I aim to please. Also, I haven’t been on the gondola for years and I wouldn’t have been interested in hiking around when I got to the top.’

Erik laughed. ‘Are you being outdoorsy for me?’