Page 15 of Entwined in Norway

‘Marius called me.’ Marius was the guy who ran the island shuttle boat for them in between his usual tourist work. ‘Can you manage this?’ Mats handed her a bag of flour.

‘No! Take it off me!’ It was far heavier than it looked.

‘It’s only ten kilos,’ Mats said, grinning.

‘Shut up. How was the house?’

‘Not better than what we’ve already seen. Lotta wants to stick with the one we had at the top of our list.’

As they chatted, out of the corner of her eye, Ida noticed Erik Anderson come down the path towards them. He stopped short of the jetty and disappeared behind a bush, emerging with a kayak.

‘Morning!’ Mats said, raising a hand to him.

‘Don’t be nice to him,’ Ida said in a loud whisper. ‘He was rude to me this morning.’

‘Was he?’

‘Yes, he’s too impatient to wait for the water to run hot, and apparently that’s our fault.’

Mats grinned. ‘Well, brace yourself to be nice because he’s coming over here.’

Ida whipped round as Erik Anderson stepped onto the jetty.

‘Can I help you out with that?’ He nodded toward the bag of flour that Mats was still holding.

‘Thank you, that’d be great. I don’t think we’ve met. Mats Larsen.’

‘Erik Anderson. I can take another one,’ he said, accepting the flour from Mats.

Mats handed him another bag, and he turned to head to the hotel. ‘Hey,’ he said to Ida.

‘Hey,’ she found herself saying, then glared at his back as he walked away from her along the path, carrying the flour as if it were a couple of bags of feathers.

Mats climbed off the boat. ‘He seems like a nice guy. Helpful.’

Ida couldn’t think of a fitting retort, so she huffed and marched back to the hotel.

8

Erik felt bad about snapping at Ida that morning, but it was infuriating to wake up aching and stiff and not be able to take a hot shower to ease himself into the day. A shower that only warmed up towards the end had put him in a bad mood, but he shouldn’t have taken his frustrations out on her. If a different room came up now, she might not even tell him about it, and he wouldn’t blame her.

He waited in the hall with the two bags of flour. He knew Ida and her brother wouldn’t be too far behind him. She walked in first and marched past to the reception desk, avoiding eye contact with him.

‘Through here,’ Mats said, walking past her and through a door into the kitchen. ‘Thanks. I appreciate the help.’

‘No problem.’ Erik put the flour on the counter next to the bags Mats had carried. ‘This is your place?’

‘Yes. The island was a farm that had been in my family for generations, but we’re not farmers anymore. I wanted to do something useful with it.’

‘It’s an amazing place. So all those cabins in the woods?’

‘They were for the farm workers. We’re going to renovate most of them eventually to provide more accommodation.’

Erik had been for a walk that morning, after the showdown with Ida, and had come across a renovated cabin. ‘I saw you’d made a start on that. I’m a joiner,’ he said by way of an explanation.

‘I renovated one so I’d have somewhere to stay when the building work was going on, but I’m no joiner,’ he smiled. ‘I had a lot of help from the guys on site, but I’ve just started working on another one for my brother and his son, and I’m on my own this time. I could show you if you have time?’

‘I have all the time,’ Erik said. The kayaking trip to the mainland could wait.