Chapter 8
Mats took his morning coffee outside onto the small terrace that ran across the back of the house and sat on one of the wooden chairs.
It was a little damp, but he needed to change out of his sweatpants before he left the house, so it didn’t bother him.
Mist was hanging over the fjord in places, but it was a still day with only a hint of drizzle in the air.
He was still thinking about what Anders said about things that change your life.
He was right, and his words meant a lot to Mats.
They’d both lost their parents within years of each other and that was life-changing in a way that made you feel as if you were on a rollercoaster with a desperate need to get off.
The way he felt about the enormity of his project was similar, but the difference was that he wanted it to change his life.
Yes, he’d spent the past few years thinking about leaving his job, leaving Oslo, but this was the only plan he’d actually come up with, and he had no way of knowing if it was going to work out. It was a leap of faith.
But he knew the moment he stepped onto the island later on, he’d feel so sure it was the right thing, that would be just as overwhelming. Overwhelming enough to drown out the worry that his father wouldn’t understand.
‘Morning,’ said Becca, popping her head out of the door. ‘Mind if I join you?’
‘Not at all, but bring a cushion to sit on.’ He pointed to a wooden chest inside the house next to the door. ‘The chairs are damp.’
She sat next to him, her hands wrapped around her mug as she surveyed the view. ‘I love it here.’
‘More than Iceland?’
‘It’s different to Iceland. I love it there too. I’ll always associate this place with falling in love with Anders and your island, all at the same time.’
‘Was it love at first sight?’
‘Not with Anders. Maybe with the island,’ she laughed. ‘I heard from Ida about your friend Lotta.’
‘Of course you did,’ he said with a rueful smile. ‘Ida thinks I have fallen for her already.’
‘And have you?’
‘I don’t think so. She’s captured my imagination, I think that’s the best explanation. And I want to see her. All the time,’ he said, watching for Becca’s reaction. It meant a lot to him what his friends thought.
‘Oh, that’s something, Mats. Probably not love yet, but you’re on the right track.’
‘She lives in London.’
‘So do I. That hasn’t stopped me and Anders.’
‘Becca. When was the last time you were even in London?’
She laughed. ‘Um, Christmas? I’m working in Reykjavik. It’s just a coincidence that’s where Anders is. My work could have taken me anywhere.’
‘Right.’ Mats grinned. ‘I’m glad you’re finding ways to be together.’
‘I wouldn’t be doing what I love if it wasn’t for you being willing to take a chance on me.’
He shook his head and smiled at her. ‘When I saw your face the first time you came to the island, I knew you’d fallen in love with it.
You didn’t see the repairs that are needed, the roofs and windows that need replacing, the rotten timbers, and the money it’s all going to take.
You saw it as it will be. Like the dream is already a real thing. ’
‘I do see it like that. Right down to the chandelier in the hallway.’
He laughed. ‘Ida has been on my back about that this week. It is funny that’s the only thing we’ve bought so far.’
‘It’s the starting place for the vision. And it’s not any ordinary chandelier, I did tell Ida.’
‘As soon as she knew it was you that had ordered it, she backed off.’
‘You know where you are with Ida, I love that about her.’ She stood up and stretched. ‘Right. I’ll take a coffee up for Anders and we can get going.’
Less than an hour later, the three of them set off down the winding garden path that led to the water’s edge and the boathouse, and Mats piloted the small motorboat across the fjord towards Radfjorden and the island.
The drizzle had set in now, and the mist had hidden the tops of the mountains that rose from the edges of the fjord.
It was a pretty miserable day, but a miserable day doing this was way better to Mats than spending a day in a comfortable office in Oslo.
He took a left turn out of the bigger fjord and into a smaller one.
A few minutes later, the tip of the island emerged from the mist as they got closer.
He pulled the boat up against the small wooden jetty and Anders jumped out and tied it to the mooring post. Mats killed the engine and he and Becca followed Anders.
He took a deep breath, finally feeling relaxed in the way that only seemed to happen here.
‘I can hear Knut’s boat,’ he said.
Minutes later another boat appeared from the mist, slightly larger than Mats’, and pulled up on the other side of the jetty. Mats caught the rope that Knut threw for him and tied it off.
‘God Morgen,’ he said, shaking hands with Knut and the man who was with him, before switching to English again. ‘This is Anders Egilsson, he has a hotel in Iceland and is an old family friend, and this is Becca Samuels, my designer.’
Knut introduced Lars Nilsen, the local building contractor who had tendered for the work. ‘Great to meet you all,’ he said. ‘This is an exciting project.’
Mats smiled and led the way through the trees to the old farmhouse, which would be the first stage of the project and the main building of the hotel.
Hopefully, Lars would see the place the same way he and Becca did.
He needed to get a good feeling about him to know whether the relationship was going to work.
Knut was different. They’d known each other at school, and since then Knut had worked all over Norway, project managing all sorts of things.
He seemed to be able to turn his skills to anything, having worked for oil production companies, manufacturing companies, and even Norway’s biggest salmon farmer, and Mats felt lucky to have him on board.
Knut was on a similar path to Mats; having made his money, he wanted to stop travelling for work so he could settle in Bergen and have a chance at family life.
‘Here we are,’ Mats said, once they reached the clearing and the farmhouse. ‘The veranda is rotten so stick to walking on the beams until we’re inside,’ he said, leading the way up the wooden steps towards the front door.
‘Wow, this is a time warp,’ said Lars once they were all standing in the hallway.
‘Have a look round and then we can talk through what we have planned,’ said Mats.
In the kitchen, the old table was covered with the plans drawn up by an architect friend of Knut’s. They all gathered around while Mats explained the plans with reference to where they were standing.
‘There will be a double height extension on this side of the building to give us a purpose-built kitchen. The upper floor of the extension will give us two big suites and two smaller guest rooms. We’ll raise the height of the roof so that we can get four guest rooms on the top floor, and the rest of the work will be internal to reconfigure the layout for more guest rooms and en-suite bathrooms.’
Mats looked at Lars’ face, trying to read him.
‘It is as I expected from the tender document,’ he said. ‘It’s easy to translate these plans into what you want, but I think it’s important to do that with great respect for what is here already.’
Mats wondered if Lars heard his sigh of relief. ‘That’s exactly it. It should feel the same afterwards even with new parts.’
‘I know this might seem fast, but I have another client who is delayed because of a planning issue. We could start next month if that works for you? I don’t know where you are with ordering materials or if this fits in with you at all, but otherwise it would be the other end of the summer if you went with us. ’
Knut raised an eyebrow. ‘Lars, would you mind giving us a minute. Maybe take a walk into the wood, have a look at the cabins that will be part of the second phase.’
They all waited in silence until Lars had left.
‘That’s an amazing offer,’ said Anders.
‘Is that true about his client, though? It seems too convenient,’ said Becca.
‘I can ask around,’ said Knut. ‘But originally he’d said the earliest he could start would be August so it stacks up.’
‘It means we could get the building work finished over the summer. The weather should be on our side, then we can concentrate on the interiors over the winter ready for a spring opening,’ said Mats.
‘That works for me,’ said Becca. ‘I’m finished with my Reykjavik project by the end of May.’
‘It feels too good to be true,’ said Mats. ‘After having to wait for months for the approvals, I thought it would be months before we could get started. Can we get the materials in time for next month?’
‘The biggest problem isn’t ordering the materials, it’s getting them here,’ said Knut.
‘We have a plan for that already, we’d just need to put it into action sooner than we thought.
The biggest thing you need to worry about is making sure the unit is clear of everything that came out of here, otherwise there won’t be room to store the materials while they wait to get ferried over here. ’
‘Okay. So we’ll take Lars up on it,’ Mats said, feeling a rush of adrenaline. This was it. His project was actually about to become a reality.
‘The quicker you can do it, the cheaper it will be in the long run,’ said Anders. ‘Weather delays can cost money while people are waiting around, unable to work. This gives you the best chance of avoiding that. It’s an excellent decision to take Lars on.’
By the time they left the island, having shaken on the deal with Lars and ironed out a few other details, Mats felt as if the end was in sight when, really, nothing had changed since that morning.
‘If you need some help to clear the unit, I could work from here for a week,’ said Becca. ‘The snow in Reykjavik has delayed the floor installation at the restaurant, and everything else I need to do I can do online.’
‘That would be amazing, thank you. I know Ida said she’d deal with it, but time isn’t on our side anymore, and I can’t get away from work at the moment,’ said Mats.
‘I’ll stay if you are,’ Anders said, putting his arm around Becca’s shoulders. ‘Embla will be happy to have some peace for a week or so.’
Mats felt quite emotional at his friends’ willingness to help. Going through everything that had been emptied out of the house was going to take a while.
That evening, the four of them went into Bergen to eat. They’d booked a table at a fish restaurant on the harbour and headed to a bar for a drink beforehand.
‘Have you seen how much stuff was in that house?’ Ida said when Mats mentioned that the sorting out needed to happen now, and quickly.
‘We can start with the furniture,’ Becca said.
‘I already know which pieces we’ll keep, and the rest can be sold or given away.
That clears most of the space almost straight away.
You should concentrate on the personal items, Ida.
Things that mean something to your family.
Anders and I can sort the rest between us. ’
‘It sounds like a five-minute job when you put it like that,’ said Mats.
‘I can’t believe you’ve delegated the worst part of the whole project to us and you’re not even going to help,’ said Ida.
‘I didn’t know it was going to happen this quickly,’ Mats said.
‘I would rather be helping you than going to work, but I don’t have a choice at the moment.
Sorry.’ He felt bad about it, but the work he’d been doing with Ole was about to turn from strategy into a live project, and he had to be there.
‘It’s okay,’ Becca said. ‘It’s all for the best in the long run. The sooner the project starts, the sooner you can be there all the time.’
His phone buzzed with a message, and even before he pulled it out of his pocket, he knew it would be Lotta.
They’d been messaging all day, starting with one from her telling him her trip had been weird, and he wasn’t sure what to make of that.
Good weird? he’d asked. Different to what she’d planned, was all she said.
Lotta: What are you doing now?
Mats: I’m in Bergen. Having dinner with some friends.
He wanted to tell her about the island, about the hotel, about everything, but it was too much over text. He wanted to talk to her, to see her face. Without waiting for a reply from her, he texted again.
Mats: Could we have a call tonight?