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As I watch, his phone buzzes. He pulls it out, checks the screen, then stands. “I need to do something,” he mutters. I open my arms, and Daisy climbs into them, snuggling into my neck. Cole gets dressed up in his winter clothes, grabs a shovel, and heads outside. This is pretty normal behaviour for Cole, so no one really questions it.
A few minutes pass, and then our conversation is interrupted by a scraping sound over our heads.
Daisy frowns at the ceiling. “Is he clearing snow off the roof? Right now?”
Eli and I both shrug. “He has odd priorities,” Eli explains. “Hey, I have a question.”
She settles closer in the curve of my arm. “Shoot.”
“Do you want us to start calling you Jenny?”
She shudders delicately. “God. I don’t even like hearing you say it. No. I think I like being Daisy better. It’s still technically my name, and since I’ve been using it…” she shrugs. “I don’t know. My life has been a lot better. I’ve stopped teaching and started painting. I finally drove up here to Sweden. I’ve started a new relationship. It feels like a fresh start. I look back at who I was before, and I barely even recognise her.”
“Daisy it is,” I promise, kissing the tip of her ear. She smiles, catching my hand and entwining our fingers.
The clanging stops, and Cole comes back inside, shaking snow off his boots.
“The storm has cleared,” he tells Daisy.
She blinks. “Um. Yeah. I know. It was kind of an important part of my day.”
“The skies are clear,” he emphasises.
She nods slowly. “Good?”
He holds out his hand to her. “Come see.”
Reluctantly, I let her slide off me and follow him outside.
Eli stretches next to me, letting his head loll onto my shoulder. “I can’t believe how cute he is with her. I never thought…”
“I know.” After losing Rickard, I thought he’d locked that soft side of him away. But maybe all he needed was her. Our missing puzzle piece.
My thoughts are interrupted by a gasp from outside. “Riven! Eli! Come look!”
Bemused, we both grab our coats and go to join them. As soon as we step outside, it’s clear what has her so excited. The Northern Lights are out.
Even after living up here most of my life, they still take my breath away. They hang right over our heads, a glowing green curtain of light, like a rippling piece of silk. As we watch, the cold biting at our faces, they twist and shift, spreading over the dark sky.
Daisy makes a little noise, and I turn to look at her. She’s crying, tears rolling down her cheeks. Her face is shimmering green and blue under the wash of coloured light. I put my hand on her back, rubbing circles through her coat, and she lays her head on my chest. “It’s so beautiful,” she whispers.
We stand there for five, ten minutes, as the lights burst and flame over us. She cries quietly the whole time, and we huddle around her to keep her warm. Eventually, though, she starts shivering too hard for us to ignore. I check her face. Her lips are turning blue.
“You need to get back inside.”
“But—”
Cole puts a hand on her shoulder, turning her back towards the house. “I cleared the snow off the skylight in Riven’s bedroom. You can see them there.”
“Oh!” Wiping off her face, she practically runs back inside the house.
We all glance at each other, and none of us can hold back our smiles.
Thirty-Two
Daisy
I curl up in the middle of Riven’s bed, stretching my neck to watch the lights shifting through the thermal glass skylight. The boys traipse through the doorway, and I hold out my arms. “Come here.” They all fall into the bed around me, huddling close enough that I can touch all of them at once.
