He turned and headed back upstairs, shaking his head as he went. Admittedly Rachel had never done any DIY before but he didn't know that. She might turn out to be a brilliant decorator and it was just a stock room after all.
The builders’ merchants was fairly easy to find but Rachel found it slightly less easy to find what she needed once she got there. Not knowing what Polyfilla was presented a bit of a problem but as usual, the impeccable English-speaking Icelanders easily bridged the gap between her very limited knowledge of what she needed and her ability to explain it to them. The temptation to choose some paint other than white was immense with her instinct telling her to choose mustard to go with the dull grey concrete floor paint but she thought that Nick would think that was a step too far and she’d never seen a stockroom painted anything but white so maybe there was a good reason for that.
As Rachel was signing the paperwork to get it charged to the Snug account, she heard a familiar voice. Jonas was talking to another member of staff on the opposite side of the counter. He had his back to her so she assumed he hadn’t seen her and she could easily have left without having to encounter him at all but now that a few days had passed since the snowstorm, she wanted to see him.
She loaded up her various cans and decorating paraphernalia onto her trolley and then with her heart pounding, she called over to him.
“Hey, Jonas!”
He turned around and smiled when he saw her, said something in Icelandic to the guy he was talking to, they shook hands and he came over and kissed her on the cheek, looking pleased to see her. Rachel had turned into a grinning idiot, equally pleased to see him and finding the combination of the kiss and his sparkly eyes mesmerising.
“Rachel! It is good to see you. I hope you’re not decorating that shop on your own,” he joked.
“Just the stockroom, we haven’t got time to have it done properly so I thought I’d have a go. What are you doing here?”
He didn't have any shopping and Rachel thought he probably spent too much time outdoors to be bothered about home improvements anyway.
“I came to see Gunnar, he does some guide work for me sometimes. He leads that glacier walk which we went on.”
“Oh, cool.”
Rachel longed to be back on that walk, just at the moment Jonas took her in his arms as he saved her from the sheer drop…although she was romanticising now because she knew at the time she had been a nervous wreck and only had a fleeting memory of Jonas grabbing her.
“Can I help you take that back to the shop?”
She didn’t need any help but she didn’t want him to go either.
“If you could give me hand to get it in the van that would be great, thanks.”
He took the trolley from her and pushed it out to the car park. It was lucky he had helped because there was a lot of compacted snow which required quite a lot of heaving to manoeuvre the trolley over, even for Jonas. They put the shopping in the back of the van and stood with the trolley between them.
“It was really nice to see you,” said Rachel, hoping that Jonas would tell by her eyes how much she meant it.
“It was nice to see you too,” he said gently. Then he looked up to the sky and exhaled, puffing his cheeks out. “I like you, Rachel.” He paused to look at her before carrying on. “I think you like me too and I know it’s complicated but I had to tell you.”
“I feel the same way,” Rachel blurted out before she could think better of it. “But yes, it is complicated and I…”
“It’s okay,” said Jonas gently as he took her hand and squeezed it. “I know you can’t…I know. But I can’t stop thinking about you and I had to tell you in case there was any chance.”
He looked so serious. No-one had ever laid their out their feelings to her so openly before and she took it as a sign.
There is a chance, she wanted to say but with her life feeling like it was in limbo, it was wrong to give him hope. “I do feel the same, Jonas. It’s just so…complicated.” That was the only word she could think of to sum up how she was feeling.
“Well, you know where to find me. I would love to see you again.” He pulled her towards him into a brief embrace before he kissed her quickly on the lips and walked away without looking back.
All the way back to the shop Rachel was thinking about what Jonas had said. It had opened up an almost overwhelming feeling inside her. She wanted to throw herself into his arms and have him hold her and kiss her. Properly. Now she knew he felt the same way as her, that the chemistry between them, he felt too, it had helped her make her mind up. She had to speak to Adam. She’d Skype him which was at least slightly better than a phone call.
Rachel cracked open the paint and began painting, working from the top down which was about the only decorating rule she knew about. There was no refinement in her technique at all, she was just slapping the paint on to get the job done as quickly as she could.
At lunchtime, she popped to the bakery across the road and picked up some sandwiches and cakes for the team. It was cold, though thankfully the heating system in the shop had been commissioned and was working just fine. Nick and Rachel sat perched on the counter and surveyed the store, pointing things out to each other between mouthfuls. It was snagging time, which meant looking around the store picking up small bits and pieces that needed sorting out before it would be finished. Rachel had a couple of issues with the placement of some of the shelving and wanted to move it around which meant she needed to speak to Luisa so that she was aware of the changes. Nick wanted to change the positioning of the counter unit because it was proving difficult to wire the data connection for the till where they had decided to place it. None of the snagging items were major issues but they needed to make sure everything was picked up over the next two or three days.
Luisa picked up the Skype call as soon as Rachel had launched it and it wasn’t until she saw herself in the camera that she realised she had paint splattered in her hair.
“I hope the store is looking tidier than you, Rachel.”
Rachel tousled her fringe as if that would instantly improve her appearance but in fact, it just made her hair stick out at all angles instead.
“Hi, Luisa! Yes, it is. I’ve just been slapping some paint on the stockroom walls.”
