Epilogue #2
They carried everything back between them, and Ida marched around the side of the farmhouse and found the log pile that had been moved when the veranda was being worked on.
Olafur seemed to start a fire from nowhere as soon as he realised what Ida was trying to do, and then helped her to fetch logs, building up the fire until it was hot enough to cook on.
Mats went inside for the first time since they’d started work that morning and was stunned to see the progress that had been made.
The two reception rooms had been freshly painted, and the floors had been cleaned.
In the hallway, the first coat of primer made the wood appear as if it was intentionally uncoated, and instead had a trendy wash, rather than being unfinished.
‘I think this looks pretty good now,’ said Becca, appearing with a paintbrush in her hand.
‘I’m going to get some cheap muslin fabric to hang from the ceiling so that you can’t see the landing when you come in the front door, but I think once we hang the chandelier, it’s a nice enough entrance for now. ’
‘I can’t believe what you’ve managed to do in one day,’ said Mats. ‘It’s incredible.’ The dark wood that had dominated the hallway had mostly disappeared, aside from the shiny wooden treads on the stairs, which did enough by themselves to stop it all from feeling too new.
‘We’re just about done,’ Lotta said, appearing from the lounge. Her hair was in its usual state of dishevelment, tied up with a scarf, which along with the denim dungarees she was wearing, Mats found ridiculously sexy.
‘You’ve got some paint on your nose,’ he said.
‘So have you.’ She tapped him on the nose with her paintbrush.
‘Hey!’
She grinned and ran outside. He ran after her, and she squealed when she saw, and raced off into the woods towards their cabin.
Mats followed, slowing his pace so that he wouldn’t catch her until she was outside the cabin. After the craziness of the morning, it would be nice to have a few moments to themselves.
As Lotta reached for the doorknob, he caught her around her waist and pulled her to him. She was laughing so hard that she collapsed into him. He lost his balance, and they ended up lying on their backs next to each other, panting.
‘I love you,’ he said, grinning at her.
‘I love you too,’ she said, laughing and leaning over to plant a kiss on his cheek.
‘Today has been amazing. Last week, I couldn’t see there was any other option but to give up and wait for my apartment to sell. And now, we’re starting a whole new business together.’
‘I hadn’t thought of it like that,’ said Lotta. ‘I guess we’re about to be restaurateurs.’
‘That certainly wasn’t part of the plan.’
‘No, but isn’t that the best part? The stuff you can’t plan is sometimes what makes life exciting.’
She was absolutely right. The past few months he’d been flying by the seat of his pants most of the time, and maybe it was a more stressful way to live, but it was also far more rewarding.
‘I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’re right.’
‘Who knew Mats Larsen would be happy without having a plan?’
‘Well, I didn’t say that…’
Lotta got to her feet and held out her hand. ‘Come on. We’ve got guests to entertain.’
‘Hold on, I have something to show you.’
He opened the door of the cabin. A large package was leaning against the wall.
‘What’s this?’ Lotta’s eyes were shining.
‘Open it.’
She opened one end of the package and reached inside, pulling out a long, flat object wrapped in tissue paper.
She laid it on the floor and gently pulled away the tissue to reveal a beautiful piece of rosemaling.
V?r Hytte was written in white in the middle of the black wooden sign.
Then surrounding the letters were beautiful hand-painted flowers and vines in soft colours.
‘Our cabin?’
‘Our cabin,’ he said, pulling her into his arms.
‘It’s beautiful.’
‘Oda made it for us. I told her about the cabin when we were at the party, and she sent this via Ingrid.’
‘Well, I love it. Maybe we should name all the cabins and have signs like this?’
‘Maybe,’ he grinned. He wasn’t sure Lotta would ever stop coming up with new ideas, and he loved hearing them.
They strolled back to the farmhouse through the woods, the shade of the trees bringing a welcome coolness from the afternoon sun.
The campfire was in full swing. Ida was passing Emil and Freddie foil-wrapped potatoes to toss into the fire, then Olafur was poking them into the bottom of the flames to bake.
‘Where did you two disappear to?’ Freya asked. ‘Actually, I don’t want to know.’
Lotta laughed. ‘We just went to take a look at the cabin. I’ll take you over to see it before we go.’
Fredrik appeared carrying two bottles of champagne. ‘These have been chilling in the fjord,’ he said, handing one to Mats and one to Lotta. ‘Let’s start the celebrations.’
They each popped the champagne corks to cheers from everyone, and Ida handed them a stack of paper cups to pour into.
‘Sorry, this was the best I could do,’ she said.
‘This is perfect, thank you,’ said Lotta, handing the first cup to Ida.
They passed champagne around to everyone. The boys had a can of lemonade each, then Fredrik raised his cup.
‘To my big brother, Mats. Congratulations on finding Lotta and convincing her to move to Norway. Welcome to our family, Lotta.’
Mats put his arm around Lotta and kissed the top of her head. ‘Thank you all for helping us out today and for being here to celebrate the fact that we finally live in the same place as each other,’ he said.
Everyone cheered.
‘You all know this project is close to my heart. When Lotta came up with the idea to run a restaurant, it turned what seemed like the end of the road into a new opportunity.’ He smiled down at her. ‘Lotta, I can’t wait to share a lifetime of dreams with you.’
‘To Mats and Lotta!’