Page 80 of Entwined in Norway

‘I rejected it.’

She looked surprised. ‘Why? It was a fair offer.’

‘More than fair. But it wasn’t what I wanted.’

‘What do you want?’

‘I want the couple of weeks I spent here to be more than that. I want to live here, work here, and belong here. For good. Come with me.’ He held out his hand, and his heart leapt when she took it. The familiar tingling feeling was right there, just as it had been before.

‘Where are we going?’

‘Not far.’ He led them through the forest towards the fjord until they were opposite the spot where he’d hiked up the mountain a couple of days after he’d arrived the first time. He stopped and took Ida’s hands in his.

‘I’ve asked Mats if I can build a cabin right over there on the opposite bank and in return I’m going to help him restore the cabins on the island and actively manage the forest so that it will continue to be a legacy for future generations of both of our families.’

‘You’re not doing this for me?’ The frown lines on her forehead warned him he’d better not be.

‘No. I love you, Ida, but I’m doing this for me. Since I couldn’t board anymore, I haven’t felt like I belonged anywhere. Until I came here. It was the best two weeks of my life and I never thought I’d be able to say that about anything again.’

‘Why did you leave then?’

‘Because all of this stuff about the forest was why I came here, but then it became about everything except that. I fell in love with you knowing that our families were entwined together by this old agreement, and I knew that once you found out about that, you would think I had an ulterior motive.’

‘I… I did think that.’ She looked devastated.

‘No, it’s okay. I know you,’ he smiled and reached to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘You are fierce when it comes to your family, and I love that. But I had to leave because I hurt you and I didn’t know what to do about that. I couldn’t see how to make it right. So I went home, fell off a bike and hurt myself some more, but that made me realise that the worst hurt I had was in here.’ He tapped his chest.

‘You fell off a bike?’

‘Yes. And it hurt like hell, still does actually,’ he said with a half-smile. ‘But nothing worse than this.’ He tapped his chest again, and Ida put her hand over his. ‘I thought I’d been recovering from a broken leg for eight months when actually it was my heart that was broken. Being here helped mend it. You helped mend it. Then, when I left, it broke again because I turned my back on everything that had made me whole again.’

‘I couldn’t ask you to stay.’

‘I know. And that was the right call. It’s too soon for either of us to change anything in our lives for each other. Going back to Canada, I realised that what I need is somewhere to belong, doing something that heals my soul in a way that nothing else does. Building stuff with the wood that our ancestors left for us means something to me.’ He paused because standing there with Ida’s hand on his felt like some kind of agreement. But he had to know for sure. ‘This is okay with your brother. Is it okay with you?’

‘It’s okay with me. You did say you’re in love with me?’ She was smiling now.

‘Uh huh.’ He took her in his arms.

‘And you’re staying here? But not because of me.’

‘Nope. Because this is what I want. What I need. With or without you.’

‘I’m leaning towards with.’

He threw back his head and laughed. ‘That’s great!’

With a smiling Ida in his arms, and a plan for the future, he could finally start living again.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘I have something else to show you.’

29

It was so ridiculous that Erik was still in this tiny room when he could have had room 204, which had a king-size bed.

Her head was lying in the crook of his shoulder, her cheek against his chest, and one leg across his hips.

‘You know you should have told me about the timber forest legacy when we were in bed like this. I probably would have felt differently about it,’ she said, tracing a finger across his other shoulder and down his arm, marvelling at the various shades of bruising there.