Page 57 of Adrift in Iceland
‘I don’t care. I won’t notice anyway.’
He hadn’t changed the sheets. Hadn’t cleaned the bathroom. Had a pile of dirty washing behind his bedroom door.
‘You’ll have to promise to wait in the lounge for a few minutes when we get there.’
‘No! Don’t be silly. Leifur.’
‘Astrid. I mean it. Agree to that or I’m taking you home.’
‘Oh my god!’ She looked at him with wide eyes, realising he wasn’t joking. ‘Do you need to get rid of a body or your secret wife before I can come in?’
He was going to have to guilt-trip her. It was the only way. ‘I’ve had dinner with your parents. I’ve fixed your neighbour’s toilet at great personal cost to myself, I should add.’
‘In what way?’ She burst out laughing.
‘If you think about where we were heading when she asked me…’
‘Okay, you win.’
He knew he would because so far, he hadn’t asked her to do anything for him. He didn’t need to because the only thing he wanted was for her to want him. And he wasn’t sure if she saw his cottage in the state it was now, whether that would be the case. He only hoped ten minutes was enough.
24
ASTRID SAT IN the lounge listening to Leifur moving around inside the bedroom, tidying up and changing the sheets on the bed. She loved that he was so concerned about his cottage being perfect for her first visit, so even though she’d found it funny that he wanted her to stay in the lounge, she didn’t mind at all.
The first thing she noticed when she walked in was the driftwood mantelpiece. It was exquisite and perfect for the cottage. A huge squashy sofa faced the fireplace, with small tables on either side of it and a compact dining table behind. Two equally comfy-looking smaller chairs faced a tall window that reached from floor to almost the ceiling and gave a wonderful view over the fjord. The dark hardwood floors added to the cosy feel, as did the creamy-coloured walls. Leifur had lit the stove and a couple of candles as soon as they came in and the fire flickered welcomingly as the flames took hold.
‘This is gorgeous,’ she said. ‘Exactly as I imagined it would be. It’s like you in cottage form.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment,’ he said.
‘It is. You’re snuggly, safe and strong. This place is all of those things too. I love it.’
‘I won’t be long,’ he said.
She checked her emails while she waited, excited to see she had one from Sofie. It was the first time she’d heard from her friend since she’d left Tromsø, but she decided not to read it now but wait until she had time to savour it, and there was a response from the Costa Rica research team which was almost certainly a rejection after all this time. But there was no time to check now since Leifur had finished.
‘Want to see the bedroom?’ Leifur said softly, but with a glint in his eye. He held out his hand.
‘Thought you’d never ask.’
He led her into his bedroom, which was at the back of the cottage, also with a view over the fjord from the two small windows. It had a dark wooden floor like the rest of the cottage, and the walls were navy blue, which gave it a masculine feel. Astrid felt almost intoxicated with it, the feeling of being totally immersed in Leifur’s space. It felt more intimate than anything else they’d done so far. The bed was enormous, low to the ground and with a headboard that reminded Astrid of the driftwood mantelpiece in the lounge.
‘You made the bed?’
‘Clean sheets and everything.’
‘No, I mean, you made the bed.’
‘Oh. The headboard, not the entire bed.’
‘I love it. It’s beautiful.’
‘It feels as if I made it for you. I didn’t know then, but I knew it was for someone I was going to fall in love with one day.’
Astrid felt a lump in her throat. He’d fallen in love with her?
‘Leifur —’
