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“Is he okay?” I unwrap my scarf from around my throat.
Riv shrugs. “He will be. He just needs to axe something.” He runs a hand through his hair. He looks so sad and worn out. Stepping out of my boots, I cross the room and slide into his lap, winding my arms around his neck.
He stiffens in surprise, then relaxes. “Hello,” he murmurs, pulling me into his chest.
“Are you okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I told her we’d tell her about Johanna,” Eli says, stepping into the kitchen and flipping the lights.
Riv frowns. “What? Why?”
“Don’t you think she deserves an explanation, after today?”
“Is that a good idea, though?”
Eli snorts. “Do you think she’s gonna get inspired to turn evil, or something? I don’t see how there’s any harm in telling her.”
Riven pulls back slightly, reading my face. I stay quiet. I’m dying to know the story, but I’m not going to press them for it.
“I guess not,” Riven says quietly. “I’m gonna need a drink for this conversation, though.”
“On it.” I turn and see Eli pulling a cocktail shaker out of a cupboard. “I’m making thesestrong.”
Twenty
Daisy
Twenty minutes later, the fire is crackling in the grate, we’re all on our second whiskey sour, and we’ve migrated to the couch. I’m sitting cuddled up against Eli, watching as Riven sits down stiffly. He looks like a man who’s just been sentenced to death.
“Let’s get on with it, then,” he mutters.
I reach across and squeeze his hand.
“Right.” Eli strokes my arm. “Well. We met Johanna down in Kiruna, seven or eight years ago. Cole and I were both working at a sports centre, and Riv was doing hisallmäntjänstgöring.” I nod sagely, and he tilts his head. “It’s like… the internship you do after medical school, to get your license. Johanna moved into the flat next to ours. She was pretty, and sweet. We fell for her immediately, and it got serious pretty damn fast. We actually spent Christmas that year with Riv’s family in America, all four of us.”
“Oh.” My eyes widen. “You guys are open about this?”
“It’s not like we’re doing anything to be ashamed of. The next two years went by. She eventually got bored of me and dumped me, but we were all living in the same flat at that point, so we were still roommates. One day, the police knocked on the door. I’d rented a car earlier that day, and the rental place found a massive baggie of coke stashed down the back of a seat. Johanna had also used the car, but it was rented in my name, so I ended up getting arrested. Nobody believed me when I said it wasn’t mine, I got sent to jail—you know that bit of the story.”
I nod, squeezing his thigh.
“Right after the trial, Johanna told Riv that she wanted to be exclusive with him. She wanted to dump Cole and get married. And Riv was head-over-heels for her, so he proposed, and they moved out and started planning the wedding. The only problem was that a few months in, she found out that she was pregnant. She did the calculations, and said thatColewas the father.”
I take a sip of my cocktail. “This is like Eastenders, or something.”
“Glad we’re entertaining you,” Riven says drily.
Eli elbows him. “Riv wasn’t thrilled about it, but it’s a risk of what we do. They only went exclusive after the engagement, so it wasn’t like she cheated on him or anything.” He downs the rest of his glass. “The baby was born. Rickard. Johanna and Cole worked out an arrangement where Cole looked after him on weekends. He was so excited; he renovated a room in his flat into a nursery, bought all this baby shit. Andthen…”he pauses dramatically. “One night when Cole was on baby duty, a man arrived on his doorstep and told Cole thathewas really the father. Cole was furious. He loved this kidso much.He almost beat the guy down in the street. When Johanna came to pick Rickard up, he told her what happened, and she got all weird and defensive. So he demanded a DNA test, and lo and behold—Cole wasn’t the father.”
“She was cheating on you?” I ask Riven. “Um. Both of you?”
Riven nods.
“But I don’t get it. Why would she say the baby is Cole’s and not Riven’s?”
Eli gives me a pointed look.
