Page 76 of Entwined in Norway

‘As good as Uncle Mats?’

Emil laughed as if that was the most hysterical thing he’d ever heard, and Ida couldn’t help but join in.

By the time Emil was tucked up in bed, Ida was feeling better. He’d shifted her mood from devastated to something closer to plain heartbroken, and she hadn’t cried for hours.

She missed Erik so much it physically hurt. So much that she had started to wonder whether she’d been wrong to be so angry about him keeping the real reason for his visit a secret. It felt as if he had used her to become close to the family, giving himself the upper hand. But then he had made no demands of Mats, as far as she knew. The whole thing was such a mess.

‘Hey.’ Mats came into the kitchen through the back door. ‘Is Emil in bed already?’

‘Yes. I saved you some pasta, and there’s a waffle you can warm up for after.’

‘Have you eaten?’

‘I had something with Emil.’ She’d picked at the fruit on his waffle to help him out when he’d added extra blueberries for hair.

‘Liar.’

She smiled. ‘I’m not hungry.’ She went back to staring at her laptop because she couldn’t remember what she’d been planning to do, but she sensed Mats was building up to saying something.

‘I’ve been thinking about the timber forest.’

She sighed and ran her hands through her hair. ‘I can’t talk about this now.’

‘Ida, we need to discuss it.’

She shook her head. ‘What is there to say?’

‘I want to formalise something with Erik. He came here to find his family’s legacy, and he left without knowing what that means for him. I don’t think another generation should grow up not knowing the story of their family. It’s important.’

‘It says he can have half the timber forest. That’s quite straightforward,’ Ida said.

‘But it’s not like we’re chopping down the trees and dividing them between us, is it?’

‘What are you trying to say, Mats?’ She didn’t want to be exasperated with her brother, but it was difficult when he insisted on talking about this.

‘I don’t know, but we can’t ignore it.’

‘Can’t we? For a bit longer?’ She let her guard down for a moment, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

Mats came to sit next to her and pulled her head onto his shoulder. ‘I think this will help. Sitting on things for too long is no good in the long run. I think we both know that. He hurt you, but I think a plan might help you feel better.’

‘It feels like you’re picking at the deepest cut, Mats.’

‘I don’t know what he told you, but you need to know that he didn’t ask for anything. And he could have. I’ve checked it out with a lawyer friend of mine, and he has a legal right to half the forest. He could chop all the trees down on half of the island, and that would ruin Lysgården. I need to make sure that doesn’t happen. Because Erik is a guy we can deal with. What happens if he has kids that aren’t as nice as him and they do that?’

‘You think his kids are going to be mean and cut all the trees down?’

Mats shrugged. ‘It’s a risk. And we can manage that risk by making a proper agreement now.’

Ida sighed and listened to Mats as he put his idea into words. He kept referring to Erik as the Olsen family, which helped, but all Ida could think about was that beautiful, broken man who seemed to find some happiness while they were together.

Shared happiness. Was he feeling as lost as her? Back in Canada, had he slipped back into his old life? She knew the answer was no because he didn’t have that life anymore; that was the whole point. But had he kept any of the progress he’d made, or was he feeling worse off than before, like she was?

‘Ida.’

‘Sorry. I was thinking about…’

‘You were thinking about Erik. I get that this whole thing is entwined with him and it’s hard for you to separate it. But we have to try.’