Page 49 of Ignited in Iceland
‘You believe in fate?’ Jonas asked him.
‘I don’t know,’ Siggi said, shrugging. ‘But I do know that meeting Iris is something out of the ordinary and being in Hawaii at the same time… it seems unusual that our paths might cross twice in places that are so far away from each other.’
‘Man,’ Jonas said under his breath.
‘Shush,’ Rachel said. ‘It’s not so long ago that you were getting just as smooshy over me.’
‘I am not being… smooshy,’ said Siggi, frowning.
Jonas laughed. ‘You are! I have not seen you like this about anyone since we were at school.’
They looked at each other, the greater meaning behind the flippant comment, not lost on either of them.
‘You had a serious girlfriend at school?’ Rachel asked.
Again, the men shot each other a look. It wasn’t something they ever discussed.
‘It was a long time ago. It’s not the same when you’re young. You think you know what love is at that age, but you don’t.’
‘Right, I’m going to the loo. Do you two want a coffee while I’m up?’ Rachel asked.
They both accepted, then when Rachel was out of earshot, Jonas began speaking in Icelandic.
‘You haven’t told Iris about Arna?’
‘No.’
‘Should you? I mean, she is working in Hraunvik.’
Siggi sighed. ‘She wanted me to knock on their door and ask if she could set her equipment up in their garden.’
‘And did you?’
‘Yes, because what could I do? Tell her that I can’t knock on that door because the fourteen-year-old daughter that I never see lives there?’
‘And?’
‘There was no one home.’
‘That was a lucky escape.’
‘I know. But I know how it sounds too. I already knew then that I liked Iris. It wasn’t a good way to start out.’
And he was ashamed. Ashamed that fourteen years ago he hadn’t wanted to be a father and by the time that changed, his daughter’s mother was intent on keeping him away because she’d created the perfect family with someone else to be Arna’s father. And who could blame her? Siggi hadn’t wanted the job. He’d realised the moment that he’d found out about the pregnancy that he wasn’t capable of being the guy who stepped up and took responsibility. He’d hated himself for it, but he hadn’t known what else to do other than leave.
‘You will have to tell her if things do get more serious. You can’t keep a secret about something like that.’
‘I know. And I appreciate you not sharing this with Rachel.’
Jonas bumped his fist into Siggi’s biceps. ‘It’s not my business to tell your secrets. But it would not make the difference you think it would to tell everyone. I am not talking about Iris, I’m talking about Rachel, Anna, Gudrun, all of them.’
Siggi would love to believe that was true. But the fact was, he’d walked away from his child. And he would never forgive himself for it. He couldn’t defend what he’d done, so he didn’t expect anyone to think any better of what he did than he did himself. No. It was better to leave it in the past. It was the biggest regret of his life, but there was nothing to be done. It was too late.
16
IRIS SPENT MONDAY morning immersed in data from the IMO’s monitoring sites. She and Bjarkey had mapped her own data onto it and had come up with what they hoped was a solid prediction of what might be about to happen on the Reykjanes peninsula. Bjarkey had run it past her bosses, making them aware that while it pinpointed the timing of a possible event much more accurately than the current data they were using, it wasn’t yet reliable until it had been proven by the thing actually happening.
What was becoming apparent was that there were lava tubes forming underneath Hraunvik, fed by the Sundhnúkur volcano. The data that Iris and Bjarkey now had, was predicting the activity increasing until an eruption of the lava that was currently travelling underneath the ground, in less than a week.
