Chapter 23 #2
“You guys can go anywhere you want and get there fast and cheap. Your flight to Iceland probably cost you less than if I just wanted to fly from Massachusetts to California.”
He chuckles softly. “It’s possible.”
The car in front of us pulls down a road that’s narrower than the last, but then the road starts to climb upward.
“Are we going the right way?” I thought the direction we were going in was taking us closer to the ocean, but now I’m wondering if we’re driving up a mountain instead. The terrain of Iceland couldn’t be more different than back home.
“We’re heading to Dyrhólaey.” He says the name easily, like he’s grown up here. Either that or he completely butchered the word with a lot of confidence.
“As if I know where that is.” I let out a nervous laugh as I follow the car in front of me up a road with a switchback. What in the world had I signed up for?
Tom laughs. “It’s a stone archway in the ocean, but the parking lot to view it is up high.”
“Got it,” I say, putting all my focus into driving up this road in the dark. After another minute or two, the road evens out and the cars in front of me park. I follow suit.
“Well, that was a bit of an adventure!” Archie exclaims as he opens his door. Theo and Amelia get out of his car and Lily and Elise pile out of the other.
“Now what?” Elise asks, pulling her jacket tight.
“We wait for the sky to change colors!” Archie says, expanding his arms.
§
We all open the trunks of our cars. Thankfully they’re all hatchbacks, making it a little easier to sit on the tailgate while we wait for the northern lights to show up.
We make ourselves pretty comfortable, since Elise had brought some blankets from wherever they’re all staying to use while we’re waiting.
In the darkness, it’s almost impossible to tell where I am, but I look it up on my phone while we’re waiting.
The photos online are stunning. At the edge of the water there’s a massive rock jutting out from the sand with a huge cave.
It should be viewable from where we are, but the darkness hides it away, leaving only the sounds of the water crashing against the rock.
“So have you seen the northern lights before?” Tom asks, sitting in the back of the rental car with me. Everyone else is sitting in their own cars or walking around.
I shake my head. “Hoping to see them before I go home.”
He smiles. “It’s spectacular.”
The way he says the words makes my stomach flip. Why are men with British accents so sexy?
I glance away, trying to hide my blush. And that’s when I notice everyone else is gone. Off in the distance, I can make out a few figures running around, the phones from their flashlights bobbing all over the place.
“Archie likes to torment them,” Tom chuckles.
I raise an eyebrow, turning back to him. “He seems like he’s the type to keep you on your toes.”
“Oh yes. There’s at least one prank per trip. He promised Theo he’d wait until after the proposal, so now that it’s done, we’re all doomed.”
“What type of prank?”
Tom shrugs. “Some are harmless, maybe swapping out sugar for salt. Last year he snuck some green hair dye into Elise’s shampoo.”
Elise’s hair is the most beautiful shade of strawberry blonde I’d ever seen. I wonder how she’d look with green hair.
“What did she do?” I ask, a little awestruck.
“She cut nipple holes into all his shirts. We were in Paris at the time, so imagine that bloke walking around with his nipples out in the fashion capital of the world.”
I laugh so hard at the mental image that if I’d been eating, I probably would have spit out my food. “You guys are ruthless.”
He shrugs. “It’s all in good spirits.” He reaches out to grab the blanket I had wrapped around my shoulders, pulling it up higher. “Warm enough?”
“Yeah.” I wish I had said no just for an excuse to get closer to Tom.
This friend group seems like fun, though I’d never want to be on the wrong end of one of Archie’s pranks. I let myself wonder for a minute what it would be like to be a part of the group, traveling from country to country. The idea makes Iceland seem like just a drop in the bucket.
Tom reaches his arm out, wrapping it around my torso lightly, inviting me closer. “Then you should stop shivering.” He leans closer to me. His eyes linger on me, and I wonder if this is what it’s like to meet someone by chance and just fall into them.
“Sorry, I guess I just need to warm up,” I say, the words almost a whisper.
Tom smiles, as if my words are permission, and leans closer until our lips meet. It’s a quick, soft touch until our attention is pulled away.
“Hey!” Archie shouts, coming back to the cars. Tom and I both break away, the kiss barely even a peck. “Looks like it’s going to be too cloudy to see anything tonight.”
Tom and I both look up at the sky, which is black. Not a star in sight.
“Let’s pack things up then,” Tom says, getting up.
I get a text from Luke: Everything okay? He’s probably worried that I got lost or fell off a cliff somewhere.
I type out a quick response. Yeah, heading back now. Be there soon. I leave it vague, feeling a bit weird about telling Luke I’ve been hanging out with someone. Kissing someone.
“Want to come back to our place? We’ve got a big rental.” Tom helps put the blankets we’ve been using back in the car.
“No, I have a friend waiting for me.”
“Your friend let you go to dinner alone?” he asks, eyebrow cocked.
I shrug. “We wanted to do different things today.” It was close enough to the truth.
“Well, what are your plans for tomorrow?”
I glance around in the darkness. “See this place in the daylight?”
That wins a big smile from Tom. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and hands it to me. “Put your number in.”
I take it but have to open my phone to find my number since I bought a new SIM card just for Iceland. I hand the phone back to Tom to type it in.
He fiddles with it quickly. “There. Now you have my number.” I hear the text message come through.
See you tomorrow ??
I fight to hold back my smile. “See you tomorrow,” I confirm, turning toward my car.
I give everyone a quick wave as I pull away. The drive down the steep road is just as bad, if not worse, than the drive up. I’ll make Luke drive tomorrow so I can enjoy myself rather than feeling like I’m going to topple off the cliff.
It’s almost midnight by the time I pull up to the Airbnb, and I immediately feel guilty when I pull in the driveway. Not only because I was out so late, but I realize that all of Luke’s belongings are in the car that I’ve been driving all day.
I grab both our bags from the back seat and drag them to the front door of the tiny house. I’m about to open the door, but Luke beats me to it.
“The answer to this next question will determine how mad I am at you.” He crosses his arms and blocks the doorway.
I go rigid, like I’d been caught making out with Tom.
“Luke, I’m sorry.” I hold up his bag as a peace offering.
“I don’t care about that,” he says, taking the bag and tossing it into the tiny house somewhere. I wait, confused. “Were you looking at the northern lights without me?”
“No. I mean, yes. We tried, but it’s too cloudy.”
This time it’s Luke who looks confused.
“Who’s we?”
“Oh.” This time I really do feel like I got caught doing something wrong—which I shouldn’t—but the guilt burns hot on my face. “I met a bunch of people from Wales at this restaurant and they invited me to come with them to go find the northern lights.”
“Harper,” Luke says, full of disappointment. “Where was my invite?”
“You were with Cassie! For all I knew, you weren’t even coming back tonight.”
Luke gives me the face that he always does when he thinks I’m being ridiculous. He steps aside so I can come inside the tiny house.
The place is definitely tiny. It has an open concept living room and kitchen combo.
On the left side are kitchen cabinets, and on the right side is a couch.
A little above the sink and off to the right is a small TV on one of those stands that lets you pull the TV out and away from the wall and angle it however you’d like.
On the backside of the building is one bedroom that is quite literally only a bed.
In fact, it looks like you walk in and there’s only enough room to open the door before you hit the mattress.
The walls are tight on both sides of the bed, with not even enough room to walk around to the side of the bed.
I guess you’re just supposed to just climb in from the foot of the bed?
The room beside the bedroom is a bathroom, which considering it’s a tiny house, looks pretty big, though at this moment, I’d prefer a bigger bedroom.
When I booked the place, it looked adorable. But it was Ava I was supposed to be sharing the bed with, not Luke.
I glance over at the couch, which isn’t even long enough for one of us to lie down on, because again, tiny house.
Luke reaches for his bag and starts pulling things out, which reminds me that I’ve been holding his bag hostage this entire time.
“What time did you get back?” I’m afraid to hear his answer in case it brings me even more guilt for how late I’d been out.
“Sometime around dinner? I assumed you didn’t want to eat dinner alone again.”
“You didn’t want to go to dinner with Cassie?”
The question makes him take a deep breath. “Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be seeing Cassie again.”
The news makes me feel excited, which in turn makes me feel worse about the fact that I’m excited that the person Luke was interested in is out of the picture before she was even really in the picture.
“What happened?” I ask.
Another shrug. “Guess girls don’t like when you sleep in beds with other girls.”
Oh. I’m not sure if I want to know how that conversation with Cassie played out.
“I’m sorry.” Sorry mostly that I was the reason they broke up.
“It’s fine. She was getting to be a bit much.”
“I know,” I say immediately. “I mean—” I stop myself, because I said what I mean, I just didn’t mean to say it. “Sorry, I’m just tired.”
Luke laughs. “You and me both.”
We both take a minute to unpack our things and take turns in the bathroom. Luke goes first and by the time I come out of the bathroom, all the lights in the tiny house are off. There’s a small nightlight in the kitchen, letting me see where I’m going as I make my way over to Luke in the bedroom.
He’s on his phone, the screen lighting up his face, already tucked in for bed.
I climb onto the mattress, crawling up next to Luke. Perhaps the only weird part is how natural it’s starting to feel to get in bed beside him.