Page 37 of Snug in Iceland
“But what if he’s The One? Can you take the risk? There aren’t endless chances for love, Rachel. If you see it, you have to take the chance and if it is Jonas and not Adam, well maybe that’s destiny.”
Rachel had never believed in destiny. She hadn’t believed in the notion of a soulmate. When she met Adam, they got along well, fitted easily into each other’s lives, understood each other’s work and yes, she thought that was love. Being with Jonas was different. From the way she tingled at his touch to the way her head had filled with stars when he kissed her, even if it was just on the cheek. That physical desire had never been there between her and Adam. They had good sex but she had never had that carnal urge to rip his clothes off and pin him down, covering him with hard, passionate kisses like she wanted to do to Jonas.
So, was Gudrun right? Should she give up a chance at what might be her one big love for the sake of loyalty to someone who now, she wasn’t even sure was being loyal to her. Perhaps it was worth getting to the bottom of things with Adam before she went home after all.
Rachel and Gudrun spent the rest of the day running errands in the van that Nick had hired so that he and the build team could easily pick up anything they needed in the way of materials.
They went to IKEA and ordered the biggest sofa they could find, slouchy and inviting with deep seats and a dark grey cover which should make the display of cushions ‘pop’. They also bought a low coffee table and a lovely kitchen island with a butcher’s block top and two stainless steel shelves underneath which would be great for extra display space along with a couple of wooden bar stools to complete the look.
After that, they visited all of the places where they had left leaflets the previous week to see how many had been picked up. They began at Te & Kaffi, just a couple of doors away from Snug, went to the bookshop on the corner then headed for the wool shop.
As soon as they walked in and the lady behind the counter saw Rachel’s hat, she smiled.
“Your hat looks wonderful!”
“Thank you, I really enjoyed knitting it.”
In fact, she had missed knitting since she’d finished it and had thought that maybe she would knit another one as a present for someone.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it and I love the Pom-Pom. Hello Gudrun, how are you?” She came out from behind the counter and kissed Gudrun.
“This is Olafur’s aunt, Katrin. Katrin, I guess you have met Rachel?”
“Yes, but I didn’t know that she was from your shop.”
Gudrun rolled her eyes at Rachel. “It’s not my shop.”
“So, you must be the girl who stayed in my cabin with Jonas on Saturday night?”
Rachel blushed right to her toes. “Yes, thank you so much for letting us stay.”
“Oh, no,” she waved away the thanks with her hand, “Jonas is one of the family, we were happy to help.”
“Katrin, we were wondering whether we could leave some more leaflets for the Sung store with you? It looks like they’ve all gone,” said Gudrun, waving a fan of leaflets in her hand.
“Oh, yes, do leave some more. A couple of people that took them will be just right for you. My friend’s daughter weaves beautiful woollen blankets, she is planning to bring them to show you. She has just started so she hasn’t got anywhere to sell them yet.”
“Perfect, that’s just the sort of thing we’re looking for. We haven’t got anything else like that at the moment.”
Rachel was hoping that this would happen, that people would spread the word and they would find some beautiful things that weren’t already available anywhere else in Reykjavik, or even Iceland if they were lucky.
That evening Rachel ate at the Noodle Bar before she went back to the hotel. She’d had a brilliant day because as well as running errands, she had been through her schedule with Gudrun. They’d tweaked the timings of some things, added in a couple of trips to designers and talked endlessly about merchandising; the thing they were both looking forward to the most.
Rachel had missed a call from her mum at just after 6 pm. Her parents were of the generation who would always wait until after 6 pm to make a call because they still thought it was cheaper. Rachel was pretty sure it didn’t make any difference these days.
“Hi Mum!” Rachel sat on the bed staring at the two carrier bags of wool knowing that’s why her mum had rung, sounding more jovial than she felt.
“Rachel! I tried to ring you earlier, isn’t that funny?”
Her mum had only just got to grips with owning a mobile phone and was not au fait with any of the functions, like missed calls.
“I saw on my phone that you’d tried to ring, Mum. How are you both?”
“Well, Dad put his back out digging up the ornamental cherry so goodness knows when we’ll be able to move that now. It needs doing before it starts to bud.”
It was typical of her to worry more about moving the tree than her husband’s back injury.
“Is he alright?”
