Page 25 of Ignited in Iceland
Siggi didn’t want to admit that he’d never been friends with a woman. ‘Maybe. I mean, not Rachel or Gudrun. But in theory.’
‘Hmm, I wonder if you’re the type of guy who is never friends with women.’
Was she reading his mind?
‘That is like a knife to my heart,’ Siggi said, dramatically clutching his chest. ‘I am not a womaniser, Iris.’ But in his heart of hearts, he knew that’s exactly what he was.
‘Friends works for me. I had a friend in Hawaii who I worked with and we went to the beach together a lot.’
‘So we can hang out?’
She shrugged. ‘I have no objections to that. We both know where we stand.’
‘In that case, would you like to go out for dinner tonight?’
‘Two nights out in a row?’
‘Is that against the rules?’
‘No, but I’m not sure my head can take another night like last night.’
He laughed. ‘We will not have the bad influence of my friends. We could share a bottle of wine instead of drinking four beers each.’
‘That sounds good to me.’
They were quiet on the drive back to Reykjavik, mainly because Iris fell asleep, her curls falling over her forehead as her head lolled to the side. Siggi kept glancing at her, taking in her long dark eyelashes against her pale cheeks. Her full lips, slightly apart.
Siggi exhaled deeply. What had he just agreed to? Being friends with this woman was going to be difficult. He wasn’t surewhere to go after the exchange of looks and the hand-holding. Were men and women ever just friends? Not in his experience, and he felt that by the time Iris left Iceland, he was likely to be an expert on why that was.
Siggi dropped Iris at her hotel, having gently awoken her as they reached the city limits, giving her time to gather herself.
‘Oh, we’re here.’ She pushed her hair back and blinked a few times.
‘Shall I pick you up in an hour?’
‘Actually, I feel wiped out now. I’m not sure I’d be very good company for dinner. Another time, maybe?’
‘Oh, sure,’ he said, his heart sinking in the way it definitely wouldn’t if one of his friends suggested a rain check.
‘Thank you so much for an amazing day.’
She leant over and kissed his cheek. He’d have read something entirely wrong into that gesture if they hadn’t had the conversation earlier, but now he knew where he stood, so there was nothing to question. But it was hard to ignore how good it felt to have her kiss his cheek. Her hair smelled amazing.
‘I enjoyed it too,’ he managed to say. ‘You are a very interesting friend to have.’
‘Thanks, Siggi,’ she said, grinning from ear to ear. ‘I’m sorry about tonight. I’ll see you soon?’
He nodded and smiled, inwardly desperate to pin her down as to exactly when that was going to be. She got out of the jeep, then grabbed her things from the back seat before heading into the hotel.
Siggi sat and watched until she was out of sight and even though he spent most evenings alone, he suddenly felt bereft and had no idea what he was going to do. What he didn’t want to do was go home to his empty flat.
He parked the jeep back at the office and then headed for Olafur and Gudrun’s house. It wasn’t far away, so if they were out, it wasn’t much of a detour to get home.
As he walked up the path, which still had mounds of snow piled at either side after the last storm, he could see the lights were on and he felt a deep sense of contentment at knowing what he was going to find inside; friends who wouldn’t judge him; friends who would be on his side.
‘Hey,’ he said as Gudrun opened the door.
‘Come in, come in,’ she said, turning and going inside without waiting for him.
