‘Aw, he picked you. That’s what cats do.’
‘Personally, I think he was so much trouble the staff was eager to get rid of him. He can be a pain in the neck.’
‘No, he’s not. He’s adorable.’ Holly frowned. ‘Is he home alone now?’
‘He’s roaming the island, killing small critters, and probably having a smoke,’ Tor said.
‘I hope he gets along with the other island cats,’ Holly said, smiling at the exaggeration.
‘He’s spayed, so there’s no danger of him making little Frøys, and as you know, he’s the most mellow cat there is.’
‘It’s kind of sad, isn’t it? No baby Frøys?’
‘We have enough feral cats in this country, I’m afraid. There’s nothing sad about making sure there’s not more cats than there already are.’
Holly turned her head. ‘I know. But still, no fluffy baby Frøys is sad.’
‘There’s nothing romantic about feral cats,’ Tor said.
Holly patted his arm. ‘Right.’
Her stomach felt as if it had settled, finally. She drew a careful, deep breath, filled with cold sea air. ‘Oh.’
‘You feel better, yes?’ Tor frowned.
‘Possibly. At least the world isn’t moving so wildly anymore.’
‘That’s because we are about to dock. See?’ Tor pointed forward.
Holly lit up at the sight of the island’s harbour. They could see the big sea house where Jack’s restaurant would be someday.
‘Oh, thank goodness. I am never taking this ferry again.’
‘So, how are you going to get back to shore?’ Tor was laughing at her now.
‘I’ll swim or hire a helicopter.’ Holly liked the way he laughed. His whole demeanour changed.
‘Seems like you’re planning to stay here forever. Are you?’
The question took Holly by surprise. ‘No, of course not. I’m going back to London. That’s where my life is.’
‘I know you’re a doctor because you said so. Where do you work?’
Holly looked away. ‘I’m supposed start as a Junior Fellow in oncology at Kings,’ she said.
‘What’s Kings? I’ve never heard that before.’
‘It’s a hospital in London. King’s College Hospital.’
Tor thought about it. ‘You were supposed to, but you’re not?’
‘I’m not sure yet.’ Holly bit her lower lip. She really didn’t want to tell him about what had happened. It was too sore, too embarrassing, and she could still barely think about what had happened without feeling sick.
‘That’s why you’re unsure about the phone,’ Tor said.
‘Yes, it’s so important to me, and if I lose it, I could potentially be out of a career I’ve worked for since… since as long as I can remember,’ Holly said.
‘That’s hard. Are you really scared you could lose it?’
‘Yes, of course.’ Holly turned away from him. ‘They’ll probably get back to me after Christmas or New Year’s but I hate waiting.’
‘And so you decided to come to the island for a holiday?’ Tor smiled.
‘My brother came to the island last year and decided to stay. He’s asked me to come several times, and I haven’t had time to visit until now.’
‘When he’s not here?’ Tor smiled again.
‘He’ll turn up before Christmas. They’re in Spain visiting Ninni’s mum,’ Holly said, shrugging her shoulders.
Tor fell silent. He didn’t seem to mind that they didn’t talk. It’s nice, she thought. Very nice.
The ferry suddenly made a lot of scraping noises and Holly gasped. ‘What’s happening? Did we hit something?’
Tor pointed. ‘Not at all. They’re backing up so that they can safely dock. Just hang on for second, then we can go downstairs.’
‘And be on firm ground again.’ Holly couldn’t hide her delight.
Tor grinned. ‘You are such a landkrabbe.’
‘A what now?’ Holly grabbed the rail when the ferry seemed to make a little jump, followed by scraping noises.
‘I think in English it’s called a “landlubber”?’
‘I’ll put it on my resume. Can we leave now?’
Tor went down the staircase and Holly followed. The damn thing was so steep, she got a flash of herself falling down, dragging poor Tor with her.
Chapter Twelve
Tor turned at the end of the stairs and looked up at her. Holly could see the other passengers in the lounge were collecting their belongings and starting to walk towards them.
‘You okay?’ Tor touched her arm.
‘Do I look that bad?’ Holly grinned at him.
He frowned. ‘No, you look fine, a little green around the eyes, but fine.’
‘A compliment. Wow, I’m flattered.’
He got that expression on his face where he wasn’t sure what she meant.
Holly shook her head. ‘Don’t worry. Are we there now?’
Tor opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the ferry making one of those awful screechy noises again.
‘Why does it do that?’ Holly could see none of the other passengers batting an eye, so that probably meant everything was shipshape.
‘We’re landing, so to speak, and the side of the boat scrapes along the pier. You need to take this ferry a lot more often so you don’t get so spooked,’ Tor said, laughing now.
‘Easy for you to say,’ Holly muttered.
A last pull from the ship almost had her toppling over, and she swore, catching her balance. Tor grabbed her arm. ‘Better be careful until the doors open.’
‘You seem to be saving me from falling over edges all the time,’ she joked, feeling flustered and embarrassed.
‘Good thing too,’ he said, smiling at her.
They stood in line for the gangplank. People looked at them, some smiled while others looked away the moment she met their eyes. It struck her that both she and Tor were strangers.
She smiled at Tor. ‘Are you going straight home to Frøy?’
‘I… yes, except there he is.’ Tor pointed at the black cat sitting by the Christmas tree. It was getting dark and the fairy lights were on, but he didn’t seem to be interested in them at all.
‘Oh, how sweet! He’s waiting for you.’ Holly touched his arm. ‘I guess he’s not mad at you anymore.’
‘Guess not.’ He seemed to like that.
When they were back on firm ground again, Tor walked over to the cat. That’s so cute, Holly thought. It must be so nice to have a cat or a dog.
Frøy ran past Tor without a glance at him, and settled at Holly’s feet. Holly tried to keep a straight face as she bent down to pet the cat.
‘Clearly I’m still not forgiven.’ Tor looked at the cat with a bemused smile.
Holly struggled, but she couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. ‘He doesn’t mean it,’ she said.
‘Oh, but he does. I have bought his favourite treats, but that’s not good enough.’ Tor shook his head.
Holly sat, almost falling over in the slush, and stroked the cat over his silky ears. He headbutted her hand.
‘You have to be patient, don’t you?’ she said, looking at the cat.
‘Stupid cat,’ Tor said in a gentle voice, before following her lead and sitting down to stroke the cat. Frøy allowed it to happen. ‘I think you’re a good influence on him,’ Tor said.
Their hands touched and Holly sensed something different. She couldn’t look at Tor. He would see right through her.
When they stood straight again, Holly felt clumsy and awkward, not sure what to say. Tor kept his eyes on the cat.
‘Are you going into the shop?’ she said to break the silence.
‘No, I have everything I need, I bought wrapping paper for the gifts earlier,’ he said. ‘Are you going? In the shop, I mean?’
Holly shook her head. ‘No, I’m heading back to the house. I have a bowl of cold pasta waiting for me.’
He frowned. ‘Isn’t your brothe
r a chef?’
‘Yes, he is, but unfortunately it’s not genetic. I am, however, brilliant with the microwave,’ she said.
‘Me too, I’m good at pot noodles and burgers,’ Tor said, smiling again.
‘And soup. Don’t forget soup.’ Holly smiled back at him.
‘Yes, about that, it was mostly from a can, except for the fish and the bread, of course.’
‘And here I was, thinking you cooked it from scratch, baked the bread, and made the cheese. I’m shocked,’ she said.
Tor grinned. ‘But you did like it, didn’t you?’
‘Very much so.’
They walked slowly, the cat running a few feet ahead. Holly looked up. She could see a few stars, but they were mostly obscured by clouds drifting across over their heads.
‘It’s so dark out here.’ Holly pointed at the sky. ‘I always pictured stars when I thought about the island.’
‘Most of the time it’s quite cloudy out here. But sometimes it’s so clear you can see everything. It’s unbelievable.’
Tor suddenly stopped and Holly realised they were at the fork in the road. ‘Right. Well, thank you for your help today,’ he said, a bit stiffly.
Holly nodded. ‘Listen, I have more than enough pasta for both of us. Would you like to eat with me?’
He paled. She had no other word for it. I hope he’s not going to run away screaming, she thought, preparing herself.
‘Uhm, that’s… that’s really nice, but I have so much work waiting. I… I have deadlines,’ he said.
Holly nodded. ‘I see. I only wanted to reciprocate because you shared the soup. Not that my pasta would taste anywhere near as good, but still.’
Tor smiled, looking really nervous. ‘Can we have a… a… something with rain,’ he finally said.
‘You mean a rain check?’
‘Yes, that’s the one. Another time, yes?’
Holly nodded and turned towards the house, but then changed her mind. Tor was already a few steps away.
‘Don’t forget that you promised to take me on a fishing trip,’ she called after him.
When he didn’t respond at once, she turned around. God, he’s annoying, she thought.
‘Holly?’ He called her name with a soft lilt that it made her stomach almost flipflop.
She turned around and he was smiling at her. ‘Would you like to go fishing with me the day after tomorrow?’
Holly was so surprised for a second she was speechless. Then she nodded. ‘I would love to,’ she said.
‘Good. I’ll come and get you at eight. Dress warm. It’s cold out there that early.’
Holly nodded and waited for him to say something else, but he was done. He disappeared up the slope.
What am I doing? she thought, shaking her head. Unless the fish is in a frozen box from Iceland or Tesco, I have no idea what to do with it.
Tor muttered as he walked up the pathway. He didn’t turn around. How on earth could he have been so stupid? He should have turned away when he spotted her in the street.
Now he had to take her out on the boat, and stay there for hours. What if she got bored? Or worse, what if he got bored? It was a huge risk and he berated himself for taking it. But he had invited her and he couldn’t back out of it now. That would really be stupid.
He came to the turn in the path, and discovered Frøy sitting on the gatepost, his tail draped around him like a fluffy scarf.
‘You’re no help.’
Tor passed him and headed over to the house. He opened the door and the cat slinked in before him.
Inside, Frøy ran towards the kitchen and sat next to the refrigerator. Tor half expected him to point to his mouth, making mewing sounds.
He didn’t, but he certainly had that judging cat face down pat.
‘I have tuna for you and that sausage you like.’
Tor kept talking to the cat while he filled the food and water bowl. ‘I shouldn’t have done it, Frøy. I mean, she’s a nice woman and obviously attractive and also funny, which is, you know, nice and all. But I’m not looking for anyone. I prefer to be on my own for now. You know how it was after Linn and I broke up. I thought I was over it, that that whole thing was laid to rest, and then she called me, you know? And I couldn’t deal with it.’
Frøy ignored him the moment the food bowl was filled up.
Tor looked at him for a second. I really should have gone with a dog, he thought.
‘A dog would have showed some kind of sympathy, you know,’ he said to the cat.
Food, he thought. I need to eat something. He explored the fridge and pulled out a few different pålegg to put on a sandwich. While he was buttering the bread and slathering the sandwich with jam, his mind went back to Holly.
She probably doesn’t eat open sandwiches, he thought.
After filling up the plate with sandwiches and the last few coconut macaroons, he brought it upstairs. When he decided to work from home – from the island, really – he had made rules for himself. No eating or drinking at the desk, shave every day, no drinks during weekdays; all sorts of rules that quickly became pointless.
As a result, he had to clear away three cups with dregs of coffee at the bottom, quite a few beer bottles and a plate from the night before.
He turned on the computer and immediately got pinged by Henrik. Or that was his first thought, until Kari waved at him from the screen.
‘Just checking in to see how you’re doing,’ she said, with an almost angelic look on her face.
‘No, you’re not. You’re curious. I can feel your gossip radar probing me from here,’ he said, taking a bite of the jam sandwich.
‘Sure, that too. But it’s obvious that you haven’t made much headway, have you now? You still have that god awful beard. It makes you look like one of those mucky fishermen from old paintings. Please, please, please shave it off.’
Tor stroked the offending hair. ‘No, I won’t. I like it. It keeps my face warm when I go outside.’
Kari rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, please. You’re on an island in the wettest part of the country. They practically invented rain. If anything, it must be a nuisance to keep that beard dry.’
That made him laugh. ‘I’ll think about it. I bought gifts for the girls today.’
She lit up. ‘Can I see?’
‘They’re in the lounge, and I can’t be bothered to go downstairs.’ He explained what he had bought. ‘I’ll send them tomorrow, so they should be there in time for Christmas Eve.’
‘They better be. What did you buy for me?’
Tor laughed again. ‘I’m not telling you, am I? I’m also not telling you what I bought for Henrik.’
‘You always buy him the same thing. A fly for the fishing thingy.’
‘He’ll love it,’ Henrik said.
Kari shook her head slightly. ‘Yes, he probably will.’
‘Yes, he will and I had good help today, too.’ Tor closed his eyes in dismay. Whatever had possessed him to say that? He was incapable of keeping his mouth shut today.
Kari bit the hook at once. ‘Who helped you?’
So, he had to tell her how he had run into Holly in town.
‘And she helped you?’
‘Yes, she did. We had coffee and some cake, and then… then she helped me,’ he said, ending the sentence lamely.
Kari tilted her head and leaned closer to the screen.
‘You had coffee with her? Did she invite you or did you invite her?’
‘Does it matter?’ Tor nibbled on another sandwich.
‘Of course. If she invited you, you probably said yes because you were surprised and didn’t know what to say. If you invited her, now that’s a whole new thing, isn’t it? As far as I know, you haven’t been with anyone since… well, before everything with Linn happened,’ she said.
‘I might have a whole harem thing going on out here, for all you know,’ Tor said, doing his best to act mellow.
‘There are what, about a hundred people living out there? And
most of them are older than you. I doubt if you can get together enough females to even call it a harem, at least not one that’s in the same age group as yourself. And you’re not really an orgy kind of man, are you?’ Kari was teasing him now.
‘I can have orgies if I want to,’ he said.
‘Please do. Maybe it will make you feel better. Don’t interrupt me, please,’ she said, seeing he was about to.
Tor popped a macaroon in his mouth as she went on about how awful it was that he was still alone, and that he should get out more often. Why is it that friends and family always think they know what’s best for you, he thought. And then tell you about it in detail.
He zoned out, wondering what Holly was doing.
Frøy chose that moment to jump up on his desk and give the screen a sniff before sloping across the keyboard.
Tor stroked his fur and smiled.
‘Are you listening to me, Tor?’
‘Not really. I don’t need you to worry about me. I have my mother for that. I’m doing well out here, Kari. Right now, it’s where I need to be.’
Kari rolled her eyes. ‘I can see that. It would be easier if you—’
Tor interrupted her. ‘If I get rid of the beard. Yes, I think someone mentioned that not too long ago.’
‘Don’t be a smartass.’ He could see Kari taking a breath and he braced himself, knowing what was coming. ‘Have you talked to Linn? About the… you know.’ Kari’s voice trailed.
Tor shook his head. ‘Not since I talked to her in November.’
‘Are you going to talk to her again? Like, to congratulate her? I know you hung up on her.’
‘No. And I didn’t hang up on her, I just didn’t say goodbye. I have no intention of congratulating her because it’s over. Linn has her new life, and I have mine. Everything is fine, and I thought we agreed to let the whole Linn drama be.’ He didn’t manage to keep the anger from his voice and he regretted it instantly.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m done with it. So, please. Let it go.’
Kari nodded. ‘I’m sorry too. I won’t bring it up again.’
‘Thank you. Now, can we talk about something else?’ Tor smiled.
‘Are you ready for Christmas?’
Christmas Island Page 10