Page 82 of Sven

“What was it like growing up with Mr. Roper as your grandfather?” Sven asked. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot.”

“I mean, to me it was just normal. You probably understand that coming from your family. He’s just granddad, ya know. He was Santa at Christmas. He would take each of us to work with him whenever he had a guest star he knew we would love. He is the best man I’ve ever known. He’s the same guy you saw onTV reading books to kids, but he’s also the man who testified to Congress and read them for filth when they were trying to cut funding for public television.”

“He sounds pretty incredible,” Sven said before giving over to a yawn of his own.

“He is,” she said, snuggling down under her covers.

“Man, I wish I was there. I want to wrap my arms around you so much,” he croaked.

“Yeah, that would be amazing.”

Her eyelids started feeling heavy.

“I’m going to let you get some sleep.”

“No. Tell me something?”

“What do you want to know?”

“Anything.”

“Hmmm. One winter when we were in Sweden, I broke my leg skating on a pond, and I got to spend two extra weeks with my grandparents. It was wonderful. Have you ever been to Sweden?”

“No,” she said with a sleepy voice, her eyelids getting heavy.

“I love it.”

He continued to talk about Sweden as sleep overtook her.

Around two in the morning,Natalie woke up and saw her phone was still on. It was showing a dark hotel room, but there was a streak of light from the curtains where she could see a sleeping Sven. When she listened closely, she could even hear him breathing. Her heart was fit to burst. How was he so perfect? But that was a thought for another day. She closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

The next morning, she woke up to Winnie’s sweet voice babbling in bed. She sat up with a stretch ready to go get Winnie ready for the day. Her phone was still set up next to her bed, but Sven was gone. He had texted her, though.

Sven: I loved talking to you last night. I can’t wait to see you in a few short hours.

Natalie: It was nice. Can’t wait to see you either.

She texted back as a big goofy grin covered her face. Winnie’s babbling started to turn into little grunts of protest.

“I’m coming, Winnie-Bell.”

27

Sven

When Natalie had fallen asleep on the phone, Sven hadn’t been able to bring himself to end the call. When he woke up and she was still on his screen sleeping, he ached to be home so he could pull her into his arms and snuggle her. He was honest with her the night before, had never felt this way about anyone, and was really looking forward to exploring things with her.

They had just landed in Glendale, and he had his bag, making his way to his car.

“What are you up to tonight?” asked Murphy as he came up next to him, both making their way to the parking lot.

Sven had tried during this trip to be extra nice to Murphy since he had been such a giant douchebag to him in the escape room.

“I’m just planning on hanging out at home with Natalie and Winnie,” he said.

The contentment that statement brought settled deep inside of him. He wanted nothing more than to do just that.

“So, you and Natalie, huh?”

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