Page 20 of Viktor at Sea

“Yes.” I nodded and took a sip from my ale. It did nothing to hold back the large grin that took over my face. “I wanted to speak to your parents before I approached Astrid about it.”

“But I thought you two hated each other,” Dustin murmured, staring at me with wide, disbelieving eyes. “Are you doing this to get back at her for something?”

“I have to admit, that crossed my mind at first, as well,” Daewon chuckled. “But after dinner, I’m confident that’s not the case.”

I stared at him in surprise. “You didn’t believe me earlier?”

“Not really,” he denied. “I’m confident now of your feelings, but it doesn’t matter as I’ve already given you my blessing. As long as Astrid says yes, that is.”

“I still appreciate it, thank you,” I smiled warmly at him, grateful.

“That’s great, but back to me now, please,” Dustin demanded our attention. “So, you don’t hate my sister?”

I shook my head and laughed. “No.”

“Was it all an act?” Dustin asked, surprised.

“Nothing has ever been an act with Astrid. I simply enjoy teasing her, and I guess the feelings grew from there.”

“Well, you’re certainly a very good actor then,” Dustin snorted and laughed.

“I have to admit, I only realised when I was away at sea this time. I guess I’ve been suppressing my feelings for her this whole time, and not seeing her for months finally forced me to acknowledge them,” I admitted, my face warming.

“I have to admit,” Dustin chuckled, pausing to take a sip from his ale. Thankfully, this sip didn’t end up on the floor like the lastone. “I’m still in shock that you want to marry my sister, but at the same time, I’m also kind of happy about it.”

“I’m still in shock as well,” Daewon chuckled. “And even though I think of you like a son, Viktor, remember that my blessing is conditional. As long as you can get Astrid to agree to marry you, I have absolutely no objections.”

I nodded, and when the conversation steered away from the topic of Astrid and me, I felt far more relaxed. However, the relaxed mood went out the window the moment I stepped out of the Skaus hut an hour later to head home and ended up with cold carrots thrown at my face.

“Astrid?” I questioned in surprise, unable to think of what I had done to deserve such a strange punishment. “Did you just throw carrots at me?”

“Yes,” Astrid spat at me, her eyes blazing with anger. It matched the look on Kis’ face whom she held in her arms.

“And what did I do to deserve that?” I chuckled, wiping a hand down the side of my face where the carrots had hit me.

“You fed Kis carrots,” she stated, as if her words were self-explanatory.

“Wait, how did you find out?” I asked, afraid that Katarina also knew the truth about me sneaking food to Kis.

“Kis doesn’t like carrots. She always throws up when she eats carrots. They give her an upset stomach!” Astrid ground her teeth, absolutely seething by this point. “She’s just thrown up all over my new dress. I wanted to wear it tomorrow, but now I can’t. So, thanks a lot for that!” I wanted to tell her that regardless of what she wore, she would always look beautiful, but with the way she was glaring at me, the tips of her red ears poking through her dark hair, I bit my tongue. “Now I’ll probably be up all night tending to Kis and soothing her upset stomach.” Astrid glared at me one last time before flicking her hair overher shoulder and pushing past me to get back inside the hut. She made sure to slam the door behind her.

As if it wasn’t obvious enough that she was mad at me.

I stood there for several moments, just blinking at the closed door. After the initial shock of what had just happened passed, I threw my head back and laughed loudly.

I was supposed to prove to Astrid and her family that I was worthy of being her husband and spending the rest of my life by her side, but it appeared that old habits died hard. Even unintentionally, I made her angry, though I had to admit, there was just something about an angry Astrid which I found the most endearing. She looked so much like an angry kitten, but I was sure that if I told her that, she’d throw a whole lot more than carrots at me.

However, an angry Astrid also meant I had my work cut out for me if I wanted to make myself her husband.

Astrid Thostenson…what a nice ring that had to it.

CHAPTER TEN

Ididn’t mean to make things worse for myself. If I knew that carrots made Kis sick, I would have never fed them to her. And I certainly wouldn’t have fed them to her if I knew that she would go and throw up on Astrid’s new dress, forcing the blame on me.

I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I had difficulty sleeping last night. Even though it wasn’t that deep, and Astrid was probably over it by now, it bothered me that instead of making things better between us as I had intended, I had just made things worse.

Sleep only came to me after I formulated a plan to earn her forgiveness for last night.

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