Chapter 37
Ella tied the dinghy to Leif’s dock and made her way up the path to his house.
Before knocking on his door, she paused for a moment on his lawn and rubbed her beads, asking for strength and luck.
Luck, because she had tied a cleat hitch and hoped that it would hold.
Strength, because she could really use it after that talk with Erik.
She understood that his lies had hurt Leif deeply, and she wanted to offer some comfort to Leif before she left Lyng?r, but she couldn’t let him see how much it hurt her to say goodbye.
Before she could knock, Leif opened the door. “Hey you,” he said, “I was just heading to your place, but I’m glad you’re here.” He seemed genuinely happy to see her, but there was pain in his eyes.
“Erik came to see me, and we talked. Are you OK?” she asked as she hugged him.
He frowned. “I’ve been better.” Catching a lock of her hair, he brought it to his nose. “Grapefruit. Cinnamon. Sunshine. My Sunna. Just the medicine I need. Come on in.”
She followed him into the kitchen, pausing near the trunk with the painted scene from the Battle of Lyng?r.
She was fighting a battle of her own, having decided to end her relationship with Leif—blowing it to smithereens, along with her heart.
How was it that she felt closer to him after two weeks than she did to Petal, her best friend of fifteen years?
He turned down the volume on the stereo, which was playing Bill Evans’s “Peace Piece,” and offered her a cookie from the tin on the counter. She sat down at the table while Leif brought her a mug of coffee and placed a hand on hers.
“I should have asked—are you all right?” He pulled up a chair next to hers.
“I’m OK.” She threaded her fingers through his. “I’m worried about you though. I can’t believe Erik lied about your father like that.”
“I’ve had enough of Erik’s crap. I don’t even know what to do . . . I mean, what do you do when your father figure has killed your actual father and then lied about it your whole life? I have no clue.”
“Maybe you should talk to Inger and Mia about it.” Ella knew they’d be there for Leif after she went back home to Colorado.
“Well, I’m not looking forward to that.” He reached for a cookie and snapped it in half. “Inger, Mia, and the others might feel obligated to take sides. I don’t want that.”
“This has to be awful for you. I can’t imagine.
And I hear you—I wish I could make things better before I go.
” She fidgeted with the bear in her pocket.
None of this would have happened if she hadn’t shown up.
Even though it wasn’t her fault, she’d set everything in motion.
Well, she knew that wasn’t true. She was just a baby when this all started, but the unraveling of the tragedy and the lies began with her trying to solve her family mysteries, and she felt some responsibility for that.
“Do you think you guys can get past this?”
“How could he have lied to me all these years? He knew how much guilt I carried!” Leif jumped to his feet, grabbed the whittling knife from the mantel, and threw it on the hearth with a clap.
Erik had probably given him that knife. Leif and Erik shared their lives and their friends, and Ella hoped that with time they might patch things up.
“Maybe you and Erik could speak with a counselor together, and try to untangle all this to get your relationship back on track?”
“Counseling? You must be joking.” Leif let out a bitter laugh.
“I’d have a better chance of landing a whale with a fishing rod than getting Erik to spill his guts to some stranger.
Besides, it’s not just what he did to me.
How am I supposed to even look at Erik without thinking about what he’s done to you?
If it weren’t for him, your mum would still be alive. ”
“I don’t know. I wish I could help but I need to go home.” Ella closed her eyes against the sting of her tears. No way could she stay without telling anyone that Erik was her father.
“Sunna, what’s all this talk about going?” He took her hand, and she felt a spark of longing, of love. It caught her off guard.
Quickly, she asked, “Could you give me a lift home?”
“Now? But you just arrived. I thought I would cook dinner.”
She swallowed hard. “I can’t stay. I need to pack. I brought your dinghy back—I tied it up out there—but I don’t have a way to get myself back to Ringpynten without getting a ride, so could you please take me home, now?”
“Why? I . . . I don’t understand,” he stammered. “Please stay—don’t let Erik force you out.”
“No one’s forcing me out. I have my business to launch, and I’m behind schedule. And I’ve spent enough time here, and this feels like the right time to leave. Maybe I can come back here on vacation after I get my store up and running.”
“Give me a couple more days with you,” he said. “Please stay.”
His voice was raw, and her heart caught at the emotion in it. “You can visit me in Boulder whenever you want.” Even as she said this, she wondered how they could have any kind of real relationship from two sides of the world.
“Stay.” He tented his hands like he was begging.
“I have a business, an employee, deadlines. Obligations. I have to get back to them—back to my life.” Her voice wobbled and she steadied it.
Leif seemed to be grabbing at options, anything he could think of. “Just give me a few more days. Sew those jackets for Nina—I bet they’ll sell fast. Have you bought your return ticket?”
“I’m booking the flight this afternoon.”
There. He’d found his opening.
“Then you can stay one more day.”
He moved closer and swept her hair from her shoulders. She reached out to the window box full of rosemary and rolled some in her fingers to breathe in the relaxing scent.
“Please say yes to one more day—and a date with me tonight? I’ll bring you back to Ringpynten, you can pack and get ready, and I’ll do everything else.
You don’t have to worry about it at all.
” He held out his hand, with the finch he’d carved for her balanced on his palm.
“A little bird, named after your store.”
As she took it, she swallowed the lump in her throat. “It’s so sweet. It’ll always remind me of you and our time together.”
“It’s just a small thing.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not a small thing,” she said in a shaky voice.
“So you’ll go out with me?”
She hesitated. She slipped the finch into her pocket with the bear and secretly clutched both, out of view.
She didn’t want him to know that his gift had melted her, and her determination was in a puddle at her feet.
She also knew that he was right; she hadn’t booked anything, and she couldn’t realistically leave immediately.
“Ah, come on. You’ll make me the happiest man in the world if you say yes to dinner with me.” His dimples deepened. She thought her heart might burst.
“OK, one final date,” she said.