Midsummer Sweetheart (33 page)

Katrin couldn’t help herself and giggled right along with Gabrielle, like a couple of silly high school girls swapping stories of their first dates.

She glanced at her watch again then looked at her injured arm, which appeared as good as new. No more swelling, no more discoloration. There were still moments when it hurt her, and she had to be careful, but she was almost completely back to normal.

She’d gone down once for Wade’s arraignment, and she was grateful to have Erik and Kristian with her as she entered the courthouse. But, her fears had been for nothing.

Wade, who’d already spent some time in prison without bail, was a small, broken man with a terrible road ahead. He was being charged with aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon, criminal harassment, trespassing and public intoxication. He had a long sentence ahead in prison or a psychiatric institution, but he would not be back to bother Katrin anytime soon.

He had given her one sober, sad smile, and even nodded once at Erik. She wanted Wade to serve his full sentence, but she hoped he could rebuild his life—far, far away from her—someday.

Speaking of rebuilding, José was ready to turn the clinic over to the town of Skidoo Bay and move forward with plans to start a new clinic in El Paso. José and Gabrielle were leaving for Texas from his apartment early tomorrow morning. A new doctor had been hired full-time for the Skidoo Clinic, and would be moving into the upstairs quarters in two weeks, which left Katrin and Erik two weeks to find new digs.

Much to Erik’s relief, José’s replacement was an older, gray-haired woman doctor. Katrin liked her at first sight, and was staying on as the clinic nurse. She felt content with her position and her new boss, but she simultaneously grieved how much she would miss her friends, especially since José and Erik had managed to put their differences behind them and become friends.

As if on cue, Katrin looked up to see José coming out of the clinic. He took a seat beside her on the swing. “Erik coming home soon?”

“Mmm. He’ll be here in a little bit.”

“What are you two up to this fine afternoon?”

“We’re going to check out two apartments he found.”

“Moving in together for real, huh?”

She smiled, nodding. “You two also, huh?”

“Uh-huh. Sure wish you could join us for the start-up in El Paso, Tiki. We were a good team.”

“We were.” She nudged him in the side with her elbow. “
I’ll let you bag me.”

José chuckled, remembering. “Boy, that got Erik’s back up, no?”

“It sure did.” She shook her head. “You knew what you were doing to him, didn’t you?”

“Aw, I don’t know, Tiki. Maybe just having a little fun.”

“I’m glad you two will part friends.”

“Well, he
did
save your life…”

Gabrielle came out of the clinic, and looked over at them on the swing. “Look at dis. Two peas in de pod.” She took out her keys. “You goin’ back in, Tiki? I can lock up for now.”

“Nah, leave it, Paca. Erik will be home soon.”

José hopped up, offering his hand to Gabrielle and she took it, then he looked back at Katrin. “Well, I guess this is good-bye…”

Katrin stood up, looking at her friends. “I’ll miss you two.”

She opened her arms and embraced them as a couple. “Text me when you get there, okay?”

Gabrielle took Katrin’s face in her hands and shook her head. “Be happy, Katrin, my sister, my friend.”

Katrin resumed her seat on the swing, waving to them as they walked down the street together, back to José’s apartment where they probably had some packing left to do before they started for Texas in the morning. As she watched them go, Erik’s car turned onto the street, pulling into the driveway at 73 Hoyt. Kat leapt up.

He caught her around the waist on the top step and kissed her hello.

“Hello, girlfriend.”

“Hello,
Minste
. Good day?”

“Not half bad. Did I just miss José and Paca?”

“You did. But, we can stop by their place later so you can say good-bye.”

“Give me a few minutes to change?”

“Absolutely. Hey…where are these places we’re looking at? Can I see the listings while you’re changing?”

“Hmm. Don’t know where I put them. Just have the address. Give me five minutes and we’ll go, okay?”

He kissed her again, then headed inside and she sat back down on the swing to wait for him. She gave herself a good push, tucking her feet beneath her, buttoning her cardigan against the increasing chilliness of the evening.

Katrin had lived with Wade, of course, but it would be ridiculous to compare Wade to Erik. Katrin had come to realize and cherish the deeply satisfying, emotionally visceral, physically mind-blowing relationship that was possible between two mature adults. Living with Erik wouldn’t be
playing
at being grown-ups, it would be, simply, grown-ups living together, and—she hoped—another step toward a permanent future together.

She tried not to put unnecessary pressure on their relationship, but she knew, beyond any shadow of doubt, that she wanted to be with Erik forever. She didn’t need a fancy wedding or expensive reception, but more and more she longed to make their status official. She wanted to be his wife.

Sometimes she worried that Erik’s original apprehensions might somehow affect what type of commitment he was able to make even now. He had committed to being her boyfriend…but, would there come a time that he could commit to being her fiancé? Her husband? The father of her children?

She told herself to be patient, and grateful for what she had. He was a tender and exciting lover, her best friend, her favorite playmate, and he loved her with a passion and intensity she had yet to see equaled in the solid relationships that surrounded them. But, deep inside, she was still circumspect, proper Katrin Svenson who wished she had a ring on her finger before sharing a bed or signing a lease.

She took a deep breath and forced these thoughts from her head.
You had a ring once, silly, and look where that got you
. Now, she had
Erik
, which was more important than any ring, and they were going to make a home together.

Truly—really and truly—her heart was full.

***

“This seems like a long way out of town,” Katrin said, looking out the window as Erik drove north out of Skidoo Bay, past Blue Bay, toward the little town on Sunset Bay. “Trying to find somewhere a little closer to Kalispell?”

“There wasn’t much in downtown Skidoo, Kat. There was José’s place, but that’s a month-by-month building and I thought we’d want a year lease, at least.”

She glanced at him, agreeing. “At least.”

Just south of Bigfork, he turned off the main highway, and after a short ride, turned again into a private subdivision with large sign reading “Ridgefield Hills.”

“Are there apartments back in here?” Katrin admitted she felt a little confused. She assumed he had found one or two suitable places in Skidoo, they’d choose one without a lot of fuss, and then go out to dinner. Driving twenty minutes north toward Kalispell to Bigfork wasn’t exactly what Katrin expected.

“Trust me?”

“You know I do. Just…”

He turned again then pulled over to the side of the road.

“Come on.” He opened his car door, and she did the same, meeting him at the front of the car.

She looked around but couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on. They were on a freshly paved dead end road in the middle of nowhere with four distinct lots. Ahead of them, there were two cleared lots, and on either side of them, two wooded lots.

She turned to Erik. “Are we buying a tent? Living in the woods? Back to nature?”

He chuckled and took her hand, walking toward the cleared lots up ahead. “This is Ridgefield Hills. It’s a brand new subdivision.”

“Mmm. It’ll probably be nice one day.”

“It will. It’s 35 minutes from Kalispell and 25 minutes from Skidoo Bay. It’s already piped underground for plumbing, sewage and electricity. Just waiting for construction.” He gestured to the two wooded lots they were passing on the right and left. “These lots haven’t been cleared yet. But those two up there have.”

He pulled her up a slight incline toward the cleared lots. As they got closer, something caught Katrin’s eye. The lot on the left had a white picket fence encircling the property. That’s it. No house. No driveway. Nothing but a neat, perfect white picket fence in a neat, perfect square around the perimeter of the empty lot with a little gate set in the middle front.

She felt him squeeze her hand as they got closer, and her heart started beating faster, as if her mind was trying to put puzzle pieces together blindly without having a picture of the puzzle first.

Erik stopped in front of the cleared lot on the left and pulled her from the street up onto the turned-over earth, stopping in front of the gate at the middle of the freshly painted white picket fence. He unlatched it and swung it open, and once she walked inside, he followed her and latched it closed.

When she turned to face him, he was already down on one knee, and she gasped in understanding and happiness. Tears started spilling out of her eyes as she stood before him, biting her lower lip to keep from sobbing.

“Katrin.
Älskling.
This is
our
land. It belongs to
us
.
Us.
” He swallowed putting out his hand to her. She grasped it, trembling, as he continued. “I already arranged it. We can stay in José’s apartment for the next few months while we build our own house here. I want it to be
our
home.”

He smiled at her, then reached into his jacket pocket with his other hand and took out a small box. He dropped her hand just for a moment to snap open the top, where an unusual gold ring lay nestled on a velvet pillow. Katrin leaned forward and realized that it was actually a double gold band encircled with tiny gold pickets. A picket fence. A circle. Infinity.

He smiled at her. “Katrin Svenson, you’re the love of my life. There is no one for me, but you. There will never be anyone for me, but you.”

His smile wavered as he stared at her, and his eyes looked panicky for just a moment, kneeling there in the dirt staring at up her. With one hand he held hers. The other held the little box, palm up. Katrin knew she had to be patient and believe in him. She knew he had one more thing to ask before they crossed the threshold into forever.

“
Älskling,
will you marry me?”

She nodded frantically through her tears as he took the little ring out of the box, standing up.

He had tears in his eyes too, as he took her left hand and slipped the ring onto her fourth finger. “I had it engraved.”

She slipped it off for a moment just to look inside, and found it.

Two simple letters: Us.

“Us,” she whispered, like a miracle, a prayer.

“Us,” he whispered back, putting the ring back on her finger, and lacing his fingers through hers.

“Jag älskar dig, Erik.”

I love you, Erik.

“Jag älskar dig, också, Katrin.”

I love you, too, Katrin.

“
För alltid, Kärlek.”

Forever, love.

“Yes. Forever,
Älskling.
”

Then he smiled at her, wrapping his arms around her, lowering his head and marrying his lips to hers.

***

Every June, as Katrin plaited their long, blond hair and wove flowers through the braids, their twin daughters would ask again how they met. Erik would smile at his wife—at his
beloved
wife, Katrin Svenson Lindstrom—over the twin heads of their beautiful daughters, and listen as she retold the same simple story year after year:

It happened right around
Midsommardagen
.

Your father slipped and called me
Älskling,

His Midsummer Sweetheart.

EPILOGUE

One year later

Lars Lindstrom woke up with a start, fumbling with the pull-cord on the lamp beside him to brighten the dark room. He jerked himself into a sitting position, taking a deep breath, rubbing his eyes. He twisted his wrist to look at the time: 4:45 a.m. Early.

“That was some dream,” he muttered to himself, shaking his head and swinging his legs over the side of the bed in his brother, Erik’s, guest room. His feet touched the floor and he rose out of bed, completely naked, and padded to the en suite bathroom. Erik had insisted on bathrooms in every bedroom at Paradise Two, his new house south of Kalispell. Lars had given him a hard time about it initially, but he had to admit, privacy had it benefits.

He relieved himself, then started the shower, running his hands through his blond hair as he slipped into the warm water, turning his thoughts back to the dream that work him up.

He’d been in the park with a girl. She had shoulder-length, brown curly hair, though he’d never seen her face in the dream. She’d been walking in front of him, in the misty morning, wearing a pink poodle skirt, like from the 1950s. He’d reached out to take her arm, and moss-green eyes—the only clear feature in an otherwise blurry face—had captured his as he pulled her close for a kiss. In the distance, ethereally, he’d heard the soft sound of the Beach Boys singing “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” as he lowered his mouth to hers. She’d sighed, parting her lips as she ran her hands through his hair, and he’d swept his tongue into her mouth, the wet heat of it making him as hard as a rock.

Even now, the effects of the dream were holding on to his body. Rampantly.

He braced his hands against the shower wall, letting the water slide down his back. He never had dreams that clear, that visceral. It felt real. Really real. What did it mean?

“Probably just need some company,” he said, rinsing the shampoo from his hair.

Lars was never short on female company. “Park girls,” female tourists who breezed through Gardiner en route to Yellowstone, were plentiful. And before Erik had met Katrin Svenson and married her last fall, he’d been Lars’s favorite wingman. Those days were over, he thought, finishing his shower and drying off. And coming up to Bigfork for visits wasn’t really the same. Especially since the twins had arrived last month. Still, he’d been glad to spend Friday night with his exhausted brother and sister-in-law, and meeting Dagmar and Heidi, his tiny nieces, had been a treat.