Page 116 of River
CHAPTER30
Oslo
River
Noah’s mother and stepfather had invited us for Easter, and when Noah extended the invitation to include Liv, Charles, and Saffron, we ended up flying to Norway in a private plane.
“I’ve never been on a plane this small before,” Noah said when we settled into the luxurious seats.
Charles had brought his laptop and spent the first hour working on something urgent before he put the computer away and listened in on our conversation about Norway’s history.
“I hope your parents were serious about wanting us to come along,” Charles said.
“My mom is ecstatic. She’s only met River via Facetime, so she can’t wait to meet her. With our wedding only six weeks away, it’s good that you all get to know each other. I prepared my parents, telling them that you and Liv are very young.”
Saffron sat spread out over two seats with her legs up while reading a book. Liv offered her some crackers before answering.
“Well, it was an unusual situation when we adopted River and the others. We were about your age.”
“You were twenty-nine?” Noah asked Liv.
“Charles had just turned thirty when we signed the papers, and I was twenty-seven.”
“That’s crazy.” I had known Liv and Charles were young when they took on the responsibility of us survivors, but now that I was twenty-six myself, it seemed insane.
“Everything about that time was crazy,” Charles said and took Liv’s hand. “Except that amidst all that chaos and confusion Liv and I fell in love. We were like two sailors navigating through a storm on a ship full of holes. But we kept working hard to make sure we didn’t drown, and eventually, the storm died down, and we began repairing the boat and got the rudder to steer us to safer ground.”
“Our love affair sounds almost boring compared to that,” Noah said with a smile in my direction. “Our biggest challenge is to figure out where to live and what to do with our lives. Imagine if we had five adopted children to consider as well.”
“The children weren’t the only thing that stressed me,” Charles said with a round of tics that made his nose scrunch up. “My grandfather died and left his company to me, which meant that on top of my new family in Ireland, I was handed the responsibility of running a Fortune 500 company.”
Noah leaned in. “That must have been hard. Didn’t you consider selling it and cashing in the money?”
“No. My grandfather wanted to keep it in the family, so I powered through. But, to be honest, I wouldn’t have made it without the support of Liv.”
“Inheriting that much money must have been confusing to you, though,” Noah said with a stern expression.
Charles shook his head and brushed his thumb across the back of Liv’s hand. “I’d known from my early childhood that I was my grandfather’s sole heir, but it felt heavy for sure.”
“I can imagine,” Noah turned his head to look out the window. I picked up on sadness, but before I got a chance to think more about it, I was distracted by Liv, who pulled at Charles’ tie.
“Why did you put on a tie? Noah told us to dress casually.”
“What’s wrong with my tie?”
“Look at Noah, he’s wearing jeans and a sweater. There’s no need for you to look like you’re going to a board meeting.”
“But I came straight from the office.”
“I know, and you look very handsome. Just take off the tie and unbutton the top two buttons.”
Charles did as Liv asked him and rolled up his tie.
“Let me take it.” Liv took the tie from Charles and bent down to place it in her handbag.
“Better?” he asked.
“Perfect.” With a satisfied smile, she sank back in her seat and took his hand again.
